#BetterTogether – sharing better practice to amplify the voice of customers at board level

The voices of customers are set to be further amplified at a board level following the release of a better practice resource for company directors. Developed as part of the Energy Charter #BetterTogether initiative Customer Voice @ Board, in collaboration with the Australian Institute for Company Directors (AICD) the resource provides better practice examples and a checklist to prompt discussion by board members.

This resource was developedby Boards Chairs and Directors from Powerlink Queensland, CleanCo, Horizon Power and Stanwell in response to insights from The Energy Charter Independent Accountability Panel (IAP) about the benefits from the customer voice influencing the strategic direction of energy businesses.

“This is an important resource.  We know there is no one ‘best way’ to amplify the customer voice, so it needs to be flexible to allow boards to take a fit-for-purpose approach.” Gerard Reilly, General Manager Communications Powerlink Queensland

“Many of the Energy Charter signatories are already driving better practice in this areas, so it is a great opportunity for businesses to learn from each other and encourage continuous improvement across the sector,” Gerard said.

The resource includes practical insights that support the energy sector to embrace the customer voice at a board level, including:

  1. Board composition and training – consider including directors with customer experience who have insights into customer touchpoints, issues, and value propositions
  2. Board meetings – ensure structure and facilitation of board meetings enable appropriate discussions about customer expectations, risks and opportunities
  3. Decision-making – consider the needs of customer within the decision-making process
  4. Customer engagement – gain customer insights by ensuring appropriate engagement with customers and their representatives
  5. Risk and assurance – consider the role of the customer voice through a risk lens to ensure that appropriate governance, metrics and measures are in place
  6. Customer advocacy structures – advocate for customer perspectives within senior leadership levels to influence strategic decision-making

A number of Energy Charter signatories have already road tested the Customer Voice @ Board Resource with their Boards. This has encouraged an authentic discussion on opportunities to get the customer voice greater magnification at a Board level, together with practical commitments.

#BetterTogether initiatives leverage high impact areas for meaningful change using the architecture of the Energy Charter to deliver better outcomes for customers. Learn more 

The Energy Charter July News Update

Message from the Chair of the CEO Council – Frank Tudor MD at Jemena, Customer Voice @ Board Resource Released, Customer Voice –  Heather Saunders at Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand, #BetterTothether WE (Water + Energy) Collaborate MOU and COVID-19 Customer Research CEO Insights Panel Wave 3, Quarter 2. Read More 

#BetterTogether – WE (Water + Energy) Collaborate

WE (water and energy) play a vital role in everyone’s lives, and we share the same customers and communities. It is critical that we collectively meet their needs now and into the future. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced that there are many areas of “better practice” that WE can share and operationalise across both sectors by working #bettertogether. During the last 18 months the sectors have worked closely together on issues such as getting concessions to the right people, support for vulnerable customers and innovation opportunities.

In May 2021, The Energy Charter and Water Services Association of Australia (WSAA) entered a landmark WE Collaborate MoU through their respect CEO Council and Board. The MoU aims to deliver better outcomes to our customers through collaboration and organisational efficiencies and increasing trust. It is a high-level commitment to:

So, what does this really mean?

Eve Rodrigues, Manager of Customer and Community at WSAA explains “While our relationship with the energy sector may have grown from our common purpose of supporting customers during the COVID19 pandemic, it has opened up so many potential opportunities in customer engagement and circular economy (to name just a few). The water sector has realised huge benefits from collaborating with each other – the next obvious step for us is working with the energy sector to deliver better outcomes to our customers and communities”.

“Collaboration across and between sectors is vital to address many of the burning platform issues for our customers and communities, particularly the most vulnerable. This landmark MoU solidifies the commitment of two essential service sectors to work #bettertogether. The trust being built across the sectors has already led to deep insights sharing and exploration of customer innovations” said Sabiene Heindl, Executive Director of the Energy Charter.

Stay tuned for updates on this unique collaboration between WSAA and the Energy Charter.

#BetterTogether – COVID-19 Customer Vulnerability Insights – Wave 3, Q2, 2021

Energy Charter signatories Jemena, ActewAGL, Energy Queensland and Powershop, together with Simply Energy, are collaborating #bettertogether with Deloitte to research the impacts of COVID-19 on our customers and communities. 

Research was conducted to understand the degree of customer vulnerability, as well as customers’ consumption and sentiment towards energy in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, via survey between April 28th to May 3rd 2021 which found:

  • 35% of people are optimistic about Australia’s economic direction
  • 45% of people agreed that COVID-19 had increased their stress levels
  • 56% of people on JobSeeker reported a decrease in household income
  • 31% of people indicated that that they are spending more on energy bills over the last 3 months
Key themes from the COVID-19 Customer Vulnerability Research include:
 
  • Respondents wellbeing continue to trend upwards across the entire sample population, suggesting a continued trajectory of recovery
  • Pandemic induced stress has improved as the COVID-19 situation becomes more manageable across the country, however figures remain high
  • Whilst JobSeekers have improved since Wave 2, the ending of income supplements may amplify their vulnerability over the coming months
  • The proportion of respondents needing hardship support has persisted since Wave 2.

The snapshot placemat and full report are now available on COVID-19 Consumer Research

#BetterTogether – Know your Customers and Communities initiative in action

#BetterTogether – Know your Customers and Communities is a key initiative of the Energy Charter focused on ensuring diverse customer and community voices are heard at all levels within businesses, and across the sector, to shape the expectations of the energy industry.

Delivering against Principle 1: We will put customers at the centre of our business and the energy system, the latest example of #BetterTogether – Know your Customers and Communities initiative in action is APA’s Stakeholder Advisory Panel. Similar to other industry-leading customer and stakeholder engagement groups from Energy Charter signatories such as Essential Energy and Aurora Energy, APA’s Stakeholder Advisory Panel is designed to share what they’re doing with stakeholders and the broader community, as well as gain insights from them about their interests, concerns and expectations.

“The panel will act as a sounding board to APA on policy matters, strategic programs and plans, as well as identifying additional matters that panel members consider of importance to their stakeholders. Listening to our stakeholders and responding to their needs is key to our purpose to strengthen communities through responsible energy.” – Nives Matosin, Chair of the #BetterTogether – Know your Customers and Communities and Manager Regulatory at APA Group

The inaugural panel comprises senior representatives from a range of high-profile and diverse Australian organisations:

  • Council of Small Business of Australia
  • St Vincent de Paul
  • Energy Consumers Australia
  • National Native Title Council
  • Australian Energy Council
  • Clean Energy Finance Corporation
  • Energy Users Association of Australia
  • Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia

The establishment of this panel is a significant milestone for APA and represents a step-change in how they engage with their customers, consumers, and the communities in which they work.

Reflecting their commitment to transparency and accountability, APA will make a summary of the panel’s discussions at each of their meetings available on their website. In addition, feedback from the panel will inform new Stakeholder Engagement Forums to be held at least twice a year.

The #BetterTogether – Know your Customers and Communities initiative is led by APA and Essential Energy together with Endeavour Energy, Energy Queensland, Jemena, Horizon Power, Powerlink Queensland and TransGrid consulting with National Consumer Roundtable. Since inception in 2019, they have delivered robust and fit-for-purpose customer, community and stakeholder engagement activities including a Better Practice Toolkit for customer engagement and a Shared Learning Customer Engagement Platform to highlight better examples of customer and stakeholder engagement across signatories. For more information visit #BetterTogether

The Energy Charter June News Update

Message from the Chair of the CEO Council – Frank Tudor MD at Jemena, Customer Voice, Doug Allen, Australian Red Cross Lifeblood, COVID-19 Customer Research CEO Insights Panel Wave 3, Quarter 2, Voices for Power, WE (water + energy) MoU. Read More 

#BetterTogether – Collaborating across the energy supply chain to improve the experience of customers connecting to gas in Victoria

New gas connection requirements have differed between each distribution business across Victoria making it complicated in some cases and not consistent for customers and others in the supply chain such as building developers. Through the architecture of the Energy Charter, energy distributors Australian Gas Networks (AGN), Multinet Gas Networks (MGN), and AusNet Services collaborated with retailers Origin Energy, AGL and EnergyAustralia to run a trial and now fully implement the single gas connection process with all retailers; making  it easier for customers to connect to gas in Victoria, irrespective of their postcode area, improving the customer experience.

“Having different processes for new gas connections across three energy distribution networks has been a long-standing issue in Victoria and was further highlighted in the results of each distribution business Customer Satisfaction Survey. We wanted to come together to agree on a single process to improve the experience of our customers and we’re making great progress.” Nadia Janevski – Manager, Customer & Support Services at APA Group (AGN Service Partner).

Collaboration began in 2019 where the three Victorian gas distribution networks, AGN, MGN, and AusNet Services, came together to co-create a site readiness document to standardise ‘site ready’ requirements and technical differences across the state. Site readiness, for example, means when the site is ready for a gas service to be constructed, ie no scaffolding, no building material, clean site and safe access etc… on the building site.

The site readiness document standards were then shared more broadly with builders to contribute to the feedback loop and improvement.  This was key in ensuring we were focussing on their problem and not what we thought was their problem.

“There were some challenges, but we all had a vision and were able to work together to standardise site readiness into one document and to improve the connection process for all our customers.” James Wong, Marketing & Stakeholder Engagement Manager at Australian Gas Infrastructure Group

The second stage of the collaboration focused on co-creating a ‘Vic New Connection 10 step process’ to ensure energy distributors could connect customers at the right time and meet their expectations. This primarily improves the experience of residential customers making up approximately 80% of new gas connections.

The ‘Vic New Connection 10 step process includes Builders Information I Multinet Gas and Applying for Your Gas Service I Australian Gas Networks.

Buy-in from energy retailers was easy as a streamlined process, and consistent clear communication, helps them deliver a better service to customers. Customer support teams in call centres can now follow one new gas connections process, rather than three. This will really improve the experience of customers who are connecting gas for the first time.

From here, the focus will be on developing a communication and engagement strategy to embed the process across Victoria. #BetterTogether champions are undertaking activities such as communicating to and educating builders and making the process available for download on distributor websites. They will also share the process through different channels to get the message out more broadly.

Nadia Janevski – Manager, Customer & Support Services at APA Group said “It’s a work in progress, changing behaviours takes time, but we’re getting there.”

#BetterTogether – Making progress with a first of its kind Energy Network Vulnerable Customer Assistance Program

Energy Charter signatories are making progress towards their commitment of supporting customers facing vulnerable circumstances – Principle 5 of the Energy Charter. Leading the way for energy networks is AGIG who has developed an organisation wide vulnerable customer strategy and will be designing and delivering a Vulnerable Customer Assistance Program (VCAP) starting in South Australia and Queensland in 2021.  

“As a network business there are opportunities for us to do more for those customers who are in need. Through our customer engagement, we understand our customers expect us to be there for those in the community that need us more, be it when we’re in the field, or taking a call. This program of activities positions us to identify and engage with customers at risk and provides tailored services to prevent them falling into hardship, so they can get back on track.”- Kristen Pellew, Head of Stakeholder Engagement at Australian Gas Infrastructure Group (AGIG)

Traditionally, the provision of assistance to vulnerable customers has been the domain of retailers, not-for-profit organisations and governments. Through our stakeholder engagement process, the development of the Energy Charter (which AGIG is a signatory to), and the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become clear that we have a larger role to play in supporting our vulnerable customers.

Here at AGIG, we are committed to delivering for all customers, including ensuring our services are accessible and safe for those who are most vulnerable in our community.  To bring this program to life, we prioritised the elements of the VCAP during a series of three co-design workshops with experts and stakeholders from the social and community services sector, as part of our AGN South Australian Access Arrangement. 

These workshops were focused on the topic: How might AGN better support vulnerable customers – now and in the future? Workshop participants were experts from the social and community services sector including financial hardship, disability, mental health, culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) people, and older Australians. Prioritised ideas were captured by KPMG and documented in a Final Report. From there we conducted further engagement with stakeholders to refine a proposal which was ultimately endorsed by the AER.

Looking forward, our next step will be to engage collaboratively with key stakeholders, partners organisations and staff to ensure AGIG continues to improve it’s understanding of customer vulnerability and capability to respond appropriately. From there we will to design and operationalise a fit for purpose program in order to deliver the required services in partnership with others.

New services as part of the VCAP for those who are in vulnerable circumstances may include:

  • Free gas safety appliance checks, for South Australian householders to keep them safe
  • Financial support for switching to more efficient gas appliances for customers to help manage their bills
  • During a planned or unplanned outage, AGIG will provide tailored support, such as temporary cooking, heating or washing needs.  
  • Vulnerable customers can access funding for emergency appliance repairs, keeping those in need connected
  • We will help engage, identify and refer vulnerable customers for support, as AGN field crews have face to face interactions with customers and the community.
  • Customers who are vulnerable will only tell us their story once and our call centre and field crews will provide a tailored service

AGN’s VCAP includes a dedicated vulnerable customer role, priority services register using an upgraded CRM system, gas appliance safety checks and emergency repair assistance and support to help access to more efficient appliances.

“We’ve reviewed the journey of a gas customer, and to make it work, we will be partnering with others in the supply chain, government & community organisations to implement innovative solutions that will improve outcomes for customers in vulnerable circumstances.” – Chris Fidler, Multinet Gas Head of Customer and Market Services 

The Energy Charter May News Update

Message from the Chair of the CEO Council – Frank Tudor MD at Jemena, Energy Charter call for new signatories, Customer Voice – Ash Salardini National Farmers’ Federation, COVID-19 Support and Communal Content Hub featured resource Read More