How to Keep Energy Customers For Life

Most businesses will spend significantly more on attracting new customers than they do on retaining those they already have. The energy industry is no different.

Imagine how much your startup energy supply company spends on advertising, social media, SEO work and more, in a bid to drive customers to your business. In the majority of cases this is going to be far less than it does on keeping those customers it’s already secured.

Once a customer is with your business, doesn’t it make sense to try and keep them for as long as possible? Even better is the notion that it’s far cheaper to retain an existing customer than it is to attract a new one – as much as five times less according to Forbes.

As such, we thought we’d put together a few top tips for keeping your energy customers longer, and hopefully for life. After all, if we can build our customer acquisitions at the top while simultaneously retaining those at the bottom, as a business, we can successfully grow.

Technology is great. It saves time, money and manpower, reducing our overheads and creating self-sustaining businesses that function without too much human input. However, consider the fact that every technological interaction reduces contact with a real human being. For some, this is not a good thing.

Some demographics will prefer self-service, expedited interactions with their energy supplier, but others would prefer to deal with a real person. By giving great service and offering choices in the way it’s received, we can avoid alienating those who prefer a more traditional approach.

Who is the most important person in your organisation? Your CEO? Financial director? Marketing guru? Although these people are certainly instrumental in getting you where you want to go, how often do they really interact with your customers? Chances are, close to never.

As such, don’t lose sight of the most important people in the customer journey – your front line operatives. Those people who answer the phone or reply to emails may be paid three, four or five times less than senior management, but they are the face and the voice of your company to your customers. For that reason, it's crucial to recruit and retain customer service superstars on your front line, and to adequately reward them for presenting a perfect image to every customer.

You provide a valuable service to your customers, but is there any need for that to be all you do? After all, your expertise extends far beyond simply pumping electricity and gas to their homes and issuing bills.

Being a proactive resource for your customers will help you stand out from the crowd. Look for ways to add value to the service you provide, perhaps by suggesting better tariffs or offering assistance in budgeting, energy efficiency or advice.

All businesses need policies in order to run efficiently. However, when those policies get in the way of doing your best for that customer, they become a barrier to retention of business. As such, it’s important to have the flexibility to make changes when they are clearly required.

Cultural values in your organisation need to point to going above and beyond the customer expectation rather than clinging to arbitrary rules. If a customer needs a balance refunded right now, you should be going out of your way to make that happen, regardless of your 2 to 3 day policy or whatever. Empower your people to do what’s right in a situation, rather than having to refer to a manager on every nuance they come up against.

Adopting new technologies, techniques, services and products before anyone else can put you ahead of the game. Octopus and E.On launched export tariffs ahead of the launch of the Smart Export Guarantee (SEG), and Tonik Energy have begun a partnership with Tesla to install the Powerwall in more homes. their customers are getting ‘added value’, because they have access to products and services that others don’t.

There have been multiple examples of this type of proactivity over the years, as companies have sought to do more than the bare minimum. If you can see a way you can do better for your customers, why not just do it, instead of waiting for OFGEM to tell you that you have to?

For your customers, it’s as important to see where you spend your money as it is to know how much money you make. Customers will align themselves with brands that represent what they care about most, even if it means paying a little more for the privilege.

An example of this is Good Energy , who have bucked the trend of struggling suppliers by posting record profits even in tough times. They are rarely at the bottom of the price comparison tables, surviving instead of having a solid mission as a company. Their customers know that the money they pay the supplier will be funnelled back into projects that mean the most for them. Ask yourself, what can your energy supply company do to give back?

Surviving as an energy supply business is not enough; you should be thriving. By focusing as much, if not more, effort on retaining existing customers as on attracting new ones, energy suppliers can enjoy sustained growth and a healthy outlook going forward.