Inaccurate billing most common complaint against Energy Suppliers

A survey carried out by Populus questioned 2,000 people online and 1,000 over the phone between November 13-17 asking them what their biggest issues with energy suppliers were. Inaccurate billing made up 60% of all energy-related issues with the poor handling of complaints coming in second with 17%. Long call waiting times came in third with 12%.

“Every energy supply company should be able to provide its customers with an accurate bill. It’s the very least people should expect. The inability of some suppliers to get this right causes a great deal of unnecessary stress for customers. We’d like to see Ofgem making basic customer service such as accurate billing a top priority, and step in sooner when energy companies don’t meet decent standards of customer service.” Said Citizens Advice chief executive Gillian Guy.

Billing errors remain the most common issue among there of the five worst ranked energy suppliers.

Jodi Hamilton, relationships director at the Energy Ombudsman , said: “Billing is the number one source of complaints that we deal with, accounting for 60% of the cases that we’ve handled across the energy sector so far this year. At a time when consumers are savvier and more price-sensitive than ever, accurate and timely billing is a vital foundation for any energy supplier looking to build and maintain trust with its customers.”

We’ve previously written about the benefits of smart meters for energy supply customers, but the main advantage of using them is that they will no longer have to manually submit meter readings as they are sent by the smart meter, in real time to the supplier. This removes the possibility of customer error and as a result, customers will no longer be given estimated readings, which can be inaccurate and end up costing the customer more.

Energy suppliers can deliver more accurate billing by using Dyball’s CRM which incorporates an energy billing system for domestic and SME portfolios. Utilise scheduled and ad hoc bill production to your bespoke branded template to ensure customers are billed accurately and on time. Dyball’s CRM even integrates with your chosen Direct Debit provider and automates your collection processes.

Dyball’s Energy CRM System manages customer billing by exception, with bill runs fully automated through the system, and errors and exceptions quarantined to be resolved by your billing team. The energy billing solution also integrates with our Customer Self Service Portal and Acquisition Portal to deliver end to end customer satisfaction. To experience our Energy CRM and Billing System via a demo please contact us today.

CRM Utility Billing Features include:

• Automated bill production
• Bespoke bill design
• Email, PDF, electronic or fulfilment house bill generation integration
• Increase billing accuracy and reduce complaints
• Manage bill warnings and validation issues
• View unbilled and manage revenue protection
• Reduce account administration
• Integrate with chosen Direct Debit partner
• Integrate with chosen sales ledger partner
• flexible and scalable to business needs

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