The Global Smart Energy Elites 2015 BILLING AND CUSTOMER ... · its smart meter customers is...

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PROJECT The Brish Gas smart programme is unique in that it focuses on delivering the best customer experience, sasfacon and engagement. Brish Gas has deployed almost 1.7 million smart meters to homes across Great Britain, more than any other Brish energy supplier. The addional data driven by the rollout means the company could be analysing up to 48 data points per customer per day. This smart metering deployment, incorporang the Trilliant Communicaons Hub and UnitySuite, has resulted in a number of benefits for customers, including reduced operaonal costs and carbon emissions. Through smart energy modernisaon efforts, Brish Gas has also been able to significantly improve customer sasfacon and over 100,000 of its customers have been interviewed to hone the offering. In fact, its net promoter score amongst its smart meter customers is consistently 40% higher than standard meter customers. Looking to the future, Brish Gas has plans to expand its smart metering efforts to include more innovave smart energy programmes such as prepayment meters. Brish Gas is trialling Smart Pay As You Go with over 9,000 customers giving them greater control of their energy and the convenience of topping up online, over the phone, by smartphone App or at a local shop. In the future, smart meters will enable access to exclusive me-of- use tariffs, which will allow customers to pay different amounts for electricity depending on the me of day or week, which Brish Gas has been trialling with over 4,000 customers. All for the singular purpose of delivering a beer customer experience that engages customers and increases their sasfacon. Brish Gas has run many studies that show that customers are able to save on their energy bills by around 2% equang to £21. Brish Gas conducted a study that shows customers were using 6% less gas, and 7% less electricity than similar homes without smart meters, simply by being more aware of their energy use. “If this energy-efficient behaviour connues for a year, these customers will save an average of £66 off their annual energy bill,” the ulity adds. Brish Gas is also innovave in its approach to the smart programme in that it truly leverages the high-quality, high-frequency data it gets from its smart plaorm to perform advanced big data analycs that turn informaon into insights into acons. With big data analycs, Brish Gas is able to offer highly personalised aconable insights to its customers. 74% of customers using the interacve online tool believe that it has helped them to beer understand their household’s energy consumpon. “Just think how significant this would be, by the me smart meters are fied in every home. The energy industry has an important responsibility to use this data to deliver real customer benefits,” Peter Kennedy, Director of Growth at Brish Gas Residenal Energy said. He connues: “At Brish Gas, we have a dedicated team working on this BILLING AND CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT British Gas drives unique customer experience Submied by: Sonita Lontoh, head of global markeng, Trilliant Project manager: Peter Kennedy, Director of Growth, Brish Gas Residenal Energy 20 The Global Smart Energy Elites 2015

Transcript of The Global Smart Energy Elites 2015 BILLING AND CUSTOMER ... · its smart meter customers is...

Page 1: The Global Smart Energy Elites 2015 BILLING AND CUSTOMER ... · its smart meter customers is consistently 40% higher than standard meter customers. Looking to the future, Briti sh

PROJECT

The Briti sh Gas smart programme is unique in that it focuses on delivering the best customer experience, sati sfacti on and engagement. Briti sh Gas has deployed almost 1.7 million smart meters to homes across Great Britain, more than any other Briti sh energy supplier. The additi onal data driven by the rollout means the company could be analysing up to 48 data points per customer per day.

This smart metering deployment, incorporati ng the Trilliant Communicati ons Hub and UnitySuite, has resulted in a number of benefi ts for customers, including reduced operati onal costs and carbon emissions. Through smart energy modernisati on eff orts, Briti sh Gas has also been able to signifi cantly improve customer sati sfacti on and over 100,000 of its customers have been interviewed to hone the off ering.

In fact, its net promoter score amongst its smart meter customers is consistently 40% higher than standard meter customers. Looking to the future, Briti sh Gas has plans to expand its smart metering eff orts to include more innovati ve smart energy programmes such as prepayment meters. Briti sh Gas is trialling Smart Pay As You Go with over 9,000 customers giving them greater control of their energy and the convenience of topping up online, over the phone, by smartphone App or at a local shop. In the future, smart meters will enable access to exclusive ti me-of-use tariff s, which will allow customers to pay diff erent amounts for electricity depending on the ti me of day or week, which Briti sh Gas has been trialling with over 4,000 customers. All for the singular

purpose of delivering a bett er customer experience that engages customers and increases their sati sfacti on.

Briti sh Gas has run many studies that show that customers are able to save on their energy bills by around 2% equati ng to £21.

Briti sh Gas conducted a study that shows customers were using 6% less gas, and 7% less electricity than similar homes without smart meters, simply by being more aware of their energy use.

“If this energy-effi cient behaviour conti nues for a year, these customers will save an average of £66 off their annual energy bill,” the uti lity adds.

Briti sh Gas is also innovati ve in its approach to the smart programme in that it truly leverages the high-quality, high-frequency data it gets from its smart platf orm to perform advanced big data analyti cs that turn informati on into insights into acti ons.

With big data analyti cs, Briti sh Gas is able to off er highly personalised acti onable insights to its customers. 74% of customers using the interacti ve online tool believe that it has helped them to bett er understand their household’s energy consumpti on.

“Just think how signifi cant this would be, by the ti me smart meters are fi tt ed in every home. The energy industry has an important responsibility to use this data to deliver real customer benefi ts,” Peter Kennedy, Director of Growth at Briti sh Gas Residenti al Energy said. He conti nues: “At Briti sh Gas, we have a dedicated team working on this

BILLING AND CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT

British Gas drivesunique customer experience

Submitt ed by: Sonita Lontoh, head of global marketi ng, TrilliantProject manager: Peter Kennedy, Director of Growth, Briti sh Gas Residenti al Energy

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BILLING AND CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT

The Global Smart Energy Elites 2015

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data to ensure the consumer realises the benefi ts. This isn’t necessarily a straightf orward job, and having a team who have the right skill set and can apply the appropriate analysis is vital. We have built specialist platf orms and tools to help us evaluate this data using the latest open source soft ware.

“We have a hand-picked team who have been selected by att racti ng talent from a wide variety of industries and companies, including Sky, O2, Nasa, Netf lix, PayPal and Zoopla, as well as PhD students from leading UK universiti es. This team is essenti al for us to turn all of the data into meaningful insight.”

Smart meters capture readings up to every half hour, meaning an incredibly detailed picture of how people are using energy can be built up.

“We can build a true picture of daily energy usage by day, week, month and year by looking at informati on that is available from the types of appliances which are used the most (seen by peaks in gas or electricity use), and how our energy use patt erns diff er across the country.

“However, it goes without saying that this informati on is immensely benefi cial to suppliers and the electricity grid when it comes to managing peak demand ti mes, though where it gets parti cularly interesti ng is how it is uti lised to benefi t the customer.”

Briti sh Gas sees personalisati on as a key opportunity to engage the customer with their energy consumpti on. As Kennedy puts it: “We’re already seeing how improved visibility around seeing day-to-

day energy use is transformati ve – our challenge now is to take this data and use it to create truly tailored insights for our customers”

Our interacti ve online tool gives Briti sh Gas customers the ability to view a personalised breakdown of their energy use. This provides access to itemising daily, weekly, monthly and annual energy use. It breaks down likely spend into items like hot water, heati ng, lighti ng and appliances; and therefore off ers insights which customers can use to make savings.

Comparisons with similar homes in the area are also provided, which highlights if a customer compares favourably with others and maps their energy usage with their peers.

Kennedy conti nues: “Our customers review the interacti ve online tool for an average of fi ve minutes each visit – we have already doubled the typical amount of ti me customers spend on their energy use over a year.”

Kennedy believes that the only way to build customer trust in the energy industry is by increasing transparency. He believes this is possible by providing customers with the insight they need to make changes and reduce energy usage to save money on energy bills.

“I am confi dent that the smart meter rollout, and in turn the harnessing of smart meter data has a criti cal role to play in doing this. It is up to the industry to invest the experti se, ti me and money into becoming truly smart with how we apply big data,” he concludes.

We have a hand-picked team who have been selected by att racti ng talent from a wide

variety of industries and companies, including O2, Sky, Nasa, Netf lix, PayPal and Zoopla, as well as PhD students from leading UK

universiti es. This team is essenti al for us to turn all of the data into meaningful insight”

The Global Smart Energy Elites 2015