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26 | 8TH - 14TH MAY 2015 | UTILITY WEEK Customers Market view T he latest Institute of Customer Service survey results for customer satisfaction by sector has once again placed utili- ties at the foot of the table, with energy sup- pliers among some of the worst performers. The energy industry's poor reputation for customer service has languished for a long time and to some extent it is understandable: it is hard to delight customers by the nature of the products and services provided. The utilities sector is not alone: insur- ance, the public sector and telecommunica- tions share the distinction, so it has to be considered that the problem could be more structural and caused by the way the indus- try works. Some scrutiny of Ofgem's data, which tracks recorded reasons for complaints, is revealing (see box). Over three-quarters of all complaints relate to issues that could be con- sidered to have structural causes: accuracy of bills, estimates or readings; the suitability of direct debits; and the effectiveness of the transfer process. In fact, we can go further and say that each of these has the data that flows around the industry's structures as the common thread. In Ofgem's data, the quality of customer interaction is a very minor concern in com- parison to the main drivers of dissatisfaction, which all have data-driven issues at their root. In late 2014, Ensek commissioned in- depth research with directors and senior managers from 14 energy suppliers, includ- ing all of the big six and eight smaller suppli- ers, to explore in more detail the relationship between customer service and data quality. The overwhelming consensus from this research corroborates the theory that data quality is at the root of the vast majority of complaints and dissatisfaction. It found that inaccurate data is the biggest barrier to deliv- ering consistently good customer service: suppliers confirmed that service issues were fuelled primarily by the complexity of data flowing round the industry, the sheer volume of workflows passing through suppliers' sys- tems and the quality of data in the industry. Despite such consensus, and the strong themes of Ofgem's own statistics, the indus- try regulator tends to focus on other areas. Its primary performance measures relate to aspects such as customer debt levels, dis- connections, switching performance, guar- anteed standards payments and, of course, complaint numbers. These are all important measures, but none really addressing the root causes of dis- satisfaction and the poor quality data that flows around the industry. As a result, sup- pliers, too, can be guilty of reacting to what is measured and fixing symptoms rather than the cause, with focus (and investment) prioritised typically in the quality of cus- tomer interaction or billing systems. Great strides have been made to improve aspects such as the overall quality of cus- tomer engagement, but with little impact on the real causes of dissatisfaction and complaints such as sudden jumps in bill amounts, erroneously high direct debits, refunds not materialising or meter readings not being used. It is time for the industry to dig deeper and look at the fundamentals of the data that drives its processes. So, what did the industry tell us through Ensek's research? Suppliers interviewed for the research pinned the blame on incorrect data in the billing system, creating errors and driv- ing customer complaints that cannot be answered immediately. This leads to another driver for complaints: an inability to solve customer queries at the first point of con- tact. A managing director at one supplier explained that this not only frustrated cus- tomers, it also cost more because extra head- count was required to investigate and resolve such exceptions. The devil's in the data Missing and inaccurate data is the bane of incumbent energy suppliers, says Rob Stait, and the smart meter rollout does not offer an easy fix – in fact, in could make matters worse. Source, Ofgem 2014 Data: a barrier to customer service Ensek's research asked participants to rank a list of issues that they perceived to be potential barriers to delivering the best possible service to customers Nature of customer complaints with energy suppliers Billing 38% Prices 27% Meter 21% Transfer 15% Customer service 15% Sales 6% Prepayment meters 6% Debt 6% Tariff 4% Other 27% Big six Challenger Legacy systems Systems integration Insufficient customer data Inaccurate data Lack of customer information No single customer view 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0