Utility Week

32 | DECEMBER 2021 | UTILITY WEEK Customers Analysis Nailing the feedback loop As the smart meter rollout has gathered pace, inevitably so has the number of customer complaints. But this comes with the potential for improved operations and engagement. A new Utility Week report produced in association with Localz explores how. S ince 2016, the national smart meter rollout programme has dramatically changed the landscape of the energy sector for companies and customers alike. As of 30 June 2021, 25.2 million smart meters had been installed across the country in homes and small businesses, 46% of the overall meter total, according to the Depart- ment for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. In the last regulatory year alone the GB smart meter network more than doubled to almost seven million meters connected and 20,000 smart meters were being installed each working day by the autumn. An inevitable consequence of such high levels of installations are customer complaints – both about the installation process and complications with the new technology itself. In Ofgem and Citizens Advice's most recent consumer perceptions survey for Q2 2021, 23% of complaints related to a problem with a smart meter. This was slightly down from the 29% for the previous two quarters but had almost doubled between Q3 and Q4 2020 (from 15%) and is historically higher than the figures seen previously. Against this backdrop, Utility Week partnered with "last-mile" communications specialist Localz to produce a report examining what energy suppliers are doing to learn from the complaints they are receiving, to rectify customer dissatisfaction as quickly as possible, and to stem the occurrence of future complaints on similar issues in order to create an improved consumer experience. Smart meter complaints have evolved in line with the rollout programme. Starting in 2016, suppliers took on the complex operational challenge of installing millions of meters every year. During the first four years of the rollout programme, energy suppliers installed their own smart meter communication technology (known as SMETS 1), which would automati- cally send the consumer's energy usage data direct to that supplier. Very o›en, however, when the consumer switched supplier, the new energy company wouldn't receive energy readings due to incompatibility issues with their own com- munication system. "For the customer, this meant their smart meter started acting like their old analogue meter," explains Smart Energy GB director of communications Robert Cheesewright, lead- ing to consumer disappointment. From 2018, energy suppliers began to install second generation meters (SMETS 2), which send a customer's energy usage infor- mation to their supplier via a nationwide smart meter network, run by the Data Com- munications Company (DCC). At the same time, the older SMETS 1 meters also began to be integrated into the DCC network. With the DCC acting as an intermediary to direct information to the correct supplier, the switching problem was resolved, but issues around connectivity to the network have posed additional challenges, such as meters going quiet for a few days due to intermittent communication. A lot of customer complaints refer to issues post installation says Cheesewright. "It's really hard to get a reliable telecommu- nication connection all the time going from the meter via the national infrastructure to your energy supplier." Housing with thick walls or flats where the meters are far away from the property, in particular, may suffer connectivity problems. Connectivity issues result in estimated bills, in-home displays working intermit- tently, and customers being asked to submit manual readings. This shortfall in meeting customer expec- tations is echoed by Utility Warehouse's head of energy programmes, Simon Finne- gan, as a potential driver for complaints. However, the company's qualitative and quantitative data shows a broadly positive customer smart meter experience. It could also lead to discrepancies on cus- tomer's bills, as Utilita Energy's head of con- tact centre, Martin Filler, says, particularly when customers switch between single-rate and multi-rate meters. Proactive engagement For energy suppliers and wider industry stakeholders alike, a move towards proactive customer engagement as well as an improved reactive response to complaints has been key to improving customer perception, though this has not been without its challenges. Metering and billing agent Insite Energy, which works with heat providers and property owners that have heat networks installed in their buildings, has moved to proactively engaging with consumers to bet- ter inform them about complex matters relat- ing to bill discrepancies. "If you've got a reading device that con- nects to a meter that's somewhere else in the property or outside the property, they don't necessarily always give the exact same totals read out," says Insite Energy's managing director, Anthony Coates-Smith. "We've had a number of residents phone us saying, 'my bill doesn't match what's on my smart meter, you've got my bill wrong." "But quite o›en that's not the case, it's that their smart meter is giving live informa- tion about their consumption and what their bill will roughly be, but because of time lags or because the totals on the display don't match the meter, they don't trust the num- bers. So, for us there was a level of explana- tion needed to consumers who went into the finer detail." Coates-Smith explains that a proactive approach to providing transparent, upfront information saw them create clearer cus- tomer information packs around their smart meters. However, a›er realising the limitations of this approach, the business instead increased the number of people in the call centre, extended opening hours, and imple-

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