How to Sell the Benefits of Smart Meters to Consumers

For small energy suppliers, the smart meter rollout has become a bit of a headache. From meters not functioning the way they should to a supply and demand imbalance, getting smart meters into consumers homes is a challenging prospect. To get it done by the end of next year can see like a mammoth task.

Not installing smart meters is not an option, as OFGEM are hot on penalising those suppliers who fail to comply. In April this year, OFGEM fined SSE £700,000 for failing to install enough smart meters in 2018, and npower received a massive £2.4m fine for missing a deadline in the business smart meter rollout. EDF Energy were also fined £350,000 for missing their target, and most recently Avro Energy have been barred from taking on new customers until they become a DCC user.

OFGEM have said that they are “closely monitoring suppliers’ approach to the roll-out of smart meters and will hold suppliers to account if they do not meet their obligations”. Due to this, being non-compliant is not a good place to be.

However, before energy suppliers can hope to become compliant, they need to get these devices into customers’ homes. While most are amenable to having a smart meter installed, there are a small proportion who are not convinced by the technology, and will attempt to block installations from happening.

Although compliance only requires that every household is ‘offered’ a meter, it’s far better for the future, and for your statistics, if you can get them installed. Let’s take a look at the benefits of smart meters for your customers, and how you can sell smart meters to reluctant households.

What is a smart meter?

A smart meter is a device which automatically sends the energy reading consumption to your supplier every half an hour. They look similar to standard gas and electricity meters, come in different shapes or sizes and allow you to navigate through different displays to track your consumption during a given time.

Switching from one type of service to another is always daunting for consumers, but it can be done well. Take the digital TV switchover, for instance. Most customers were amenable to the switch because they understood the benefits of it. By focusing on the benefits of smart meters, suppliers can help them understand that it will be good for them to have a new meter. Some of the main benefits of smart meters include:

Customers will no longer have a responsibility to submit meter readings, or to have a representative of the supply company call at their homes. Readings are sent automatically, in real time, to the supplier.

Your customers can say goodbye to estimated readings, and those who pay by direct debit will no longer run the risk of getting into credit or, worse still, a debt due to the payments being set too high or low.

By being able to see, in real time, how much energy is being used, customers can see how much different activities are costing them. This will help them get a grip on what appliances cost more to run, helping them to become more in control of their energy spend.

Customers who are striving to drive down their energy bills will be able to track how much they used last month, week, day or even an hour ago. This will help them make the connections between activities and cost, empowering them to make positive changes in their behaviour.

By having a smart meter, customers may be able to choose different tariffs to those who don’t have one yet. Some suppliers are already offering discounted tariffs to smart customers, as well as tariffs specific to things like EV charging , and more are sure to follow over time.

Although these are really yet to mature, ToU tariffs are something for the future which should be sold as a benefit of smart meters. With suppliers able to measure energy use in real time, switching customers to different rates when national consumption peaks and troughs will let households take advantage of lower pricing for energy intensive activities.

By having access to a smart meter, consumers will have a greater range of tariffs and suppliers to choose from. They could also benefit from near-instant switching and shorter contracts, although it’s important not to over-promise until these things have matured.

Research has shown that smart metering could help the UK to use more renewable energy. By having more insight into demand on the grid, networks can be better balanced to accommodate a more renewable focussed supply, helping us on the road to our climate change targets.

Most important when considering how best to sell the concept of smart meters to consumers is to focus on the benefits to them. While various aspects of smart metering hold big benefits for suppliers, the customer doesn’t care about that. They want to know what’s in it for them, so try to see the situation from their perspective to really sell those benefits to them.

If you take a moment to Google ‘the dangers of smart meters’, you’ll find all manner of propaganda claiming that these devices are dangerous to the health and wellbeing of the households. There are concerns about radiation, about data security, about surveillance. People worry they can be hacked, that they’ll cause headaches and seizures, or that they will lose their hearing. Oh, and they’ll probably blow up and set fire to the house too.

While many of these claims are immediately laughable, it’s important not to diminish them in the eyes of the consumer. As much as they might seem ludicrous to you, to the householder they are real fears, and genuine reasons for not wanting one in their home.

The best way to approach these types of objections is to do your homework. Understanding the fears people have around smart meters will enable you to handle their objections professionally and with confidence. There are plenty of sources of research out there which go some way to proving how safe smart meters are, so brush up on the facts and be prepared to explain things patiently.

Aside from the somewhat ‘out there’ concerns, there are a number of realistic concerns which you should also be prepared to address. Smart meters have regularly received bad press for ‘going dumb’ on a supplier switch, and there have been concerns about the realistic amount of savings to be made too.

Again, knowledge is your friend, so take the time to explain differences between SMETS1 and SMETS2, as well as the potential for savings. Customers need to know that the meter itself won’t save them any money, but that the additional insight they have into their energy use just might.

While the carrot approach is always preferred to the stick, it’s also important to point out the disadvantages of choosing to refuse smart meter installation.

The biggest one here is that not all tariffs will be available to those who don’t have a smart meter installed. This means that customers will inevitably miss out on the cheapest deals, and could end up paying more for their energy supply. They’ll forgo the ability to benefit from smart tariffs when they come around, and could be missing out on opportunities to save even more money.

They will also have to commit to continuing to have their meter read a couple of times a year. They’ll also still need to report in with their own meter readings on a regular basis to ensure that their payments are in line with their consumption.

Finally, those without smart meters still run the risk of getting into debt or even credit with their supplier instead of simply paying an accurate amount for the energy they use. Suppliers will be forced to work on the same basis they are now, where future energy use is estimated, and payments are unlikely to match consumption.

It is absolutely the customer’s prerogative to refuse a smart meter. As an energy supplier, if you’ve done all you can to sell the benefits of smart meters to that person and they still decline, then that’s their decision. Let them know that they can change their mind at any point in the future, and move on to the next one.