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UTILITY WEEK | 26TH MAY - 1ST JUNE 2015 | 25 Sponsored report Q&A Chris Lloyd, senior vice president, energy and utilities, UK and Europe, WNS P oor customer service cou- pled with the perception of ever increasing energy bills and growing company profits have eaten away at trust in the sector, according to WNS senior vice president, energy and utilities, UK and Europe, Chris Lloyd. Speaking to Utility Week, he says all parts of the industry need to work together to get the basics right and engage more with consumers to rebuild faith in the sector. Q: Why is there a lack of trust? A: One of the main problems is the perceived levels of profit. A lot of energy users see large fig- ures being bandied around the profits companies are making, and this comes as consumers are seeing their bills rise. That harms trust levels. On top of this there is the poor level of customer service. There is the feeling that the whole market is broken and nothing is working. Q: What can suppliers do to rebuild trust? It's all to do with communica- tion and providing a consist- ently good service. It doesn't have to be outstanding or excel- lent, as that costs a lot of money to provide and that's not what people want. They just want a consistent service that works. The suppliers also need to offer clear and simple tariffs, which can be compared between companies, because being una- ble to compare deals leads to confusion, and ultimately a lack of trust. On top of this, more communication with consum- ers would help bust some of the myths about energy providers and increase levels of trust. Q: What can the regulator do to increase trust? A: The more a regulator can engage with uninformed customers, or drive the energy companies to do so, the more it will rebuild trust. The energy companies know the regula- tor but the consumers don't so much. The regulator needs to step up, to promote things that are happening for consumers in the market – and they've got an opportunity to do so with smart meters. The uninformed are those with most distrust, and the regulator can assist with that. Q: How has the political debate around energy affected trust? A: With an election coming up, the energy sector was always going to get a kicking as the par- ties try to win votes. However, the promises of price caps or wider intervention will have a huge impact on the way the sector is run, and drive energy companies to reduce their cost to serve. This could lead to more distrust as energy companies take their eye off rebuilding trust and have it on reducing their cost to serve. Politicians should be supportive of measures to gain trust instead of using the energy sector as a political foot- ball to gain votes. Q: Why is WNS getting involved with the Customer Trust Council, and what do you hope it will achieve? A: As a sector, utilities are look- ing to gain trust and improve customer service. WNS has wide experience in other sec- tors and in the utilities space globally and feel we can use our experience as part of the Council to help achieve this. We would like the Council to help the sector to get away from the bottom of the customer service satisfaction table, and for net promotor scores across the sec- tor to increase. These are good indications of things improving and that stability, and trust in the sector, is growing. relative changes and is detected through the smart meter data, an alert is sent out. The experience to date of those customers who have had smart meters installed reflects the sector's optimism. Despite some functionality problems, such as SSE's issues with its in-home dis- play showing customers consumption of up to £44,000 per day (affected customers were quickly notified and billed correctly) and some switching issues, trust levels and customer service experience for smart meter customers have increased. Research carried out by YouGov shows these positive experiences are improving customer perceptions of their energy suppli- ers, with the proportion of consumers that considered energy suppliers to be "reliable" increasing from 26 to 29 per cent, coincid- ing with the proportion of homes with smart meters growing from 8 per cent to 16 per cent. All that being said, the rollout is not with- out complications. With trust levels as low as they are across the sector, there are fears that the public could refuse to engage – which would be a fatal blow, because individual customers must agree to having a smart meter installed. So far five million of the first generation smart meters (SMETS1) have been rolled out. There have been relatively few issues getting into properties, but that could be because the meters have largely gone to "early adopters" who are enthusiastic about the technology. Only now, warns Peter Haigh, chief exec- utive of Bristol Energy, could there be issues of meter installers being refused access to properties. "It's beholden on the supplier to sell the benefits to their customers and they need to be convinced, otherwise they will decide it's not for them." A further challenge the rollout has cre- ated for retailers is that of multiple visits. The government predicted that 5 per cent of properties would require more than one visit to get a smart meter installed. However, an exclusive study undertaken by Harris Interactive for Utility Week revealed that 13 per cent of properties have needed multiple visits to date. This not only slows down the rollout but also tarnishes the experience for the customer. Nevertheless, the industry remains opti- mistic about the smart meter rollout's poten- tial to improve customer relationships. And once smart meters are in place, a whole host of other options open up, such as demand- side response and time-of-use tariffs. This could create a conversation with custom- ers that is much more constructive and nuanced than today's talk of price caps. Smart meters will al- low suppliers to end estimated billing and offer a host of value- added services. 1. TIMETABLE The roll- out is scheduled to be completed in 2020. 2. SCOPE All 26 million households in the UK should have a smart meter for electricity and another for gas, if connected to the mains network. 3. MULTIPLE VISITS The rollout has factored in that 5% of homes may need to be visited more than once, although early evidence on the ground suggests the true figure may be nearer 11%. 4. COVERAGE House- holders have the right to refuse a smart meter, although there are no numbers yet to sug- gest what percentage this will be. The smart meter rollout Produced in association with: