Professional delivery management for the energy and utilities industry. Whistl can help your business to communicate with your customers with reliable mail and postal delivery. 

The UK energy and utility sector is constantly innovating and transforming. With your company supplying a vital infrastructure of water, gas, electricity or renewable energy to your customers, you have a duty to keep them updated and informed. 

Now a quarter of a decade on from privatisation, the UK market has seen significant improvements in productivity and also new entrants to the industry, making it a very competitive environment for businesses to succeed. 

UK consumers have more options available to improve their energy efficiencies from the nationwide smart meter roll out giving households more information on the energy they use, to improved energy ratings on household appliances and even more energy-efficient lighting options. All of these advancements give your customers more ways to take control of their financial outgoings and support the ecosystem. 

Forecasted Smart Home Devices Shipments (millions)

Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Smart Home Device Tracker, March 29, 2019

With the ability to benchmark current supplier rates and review pricing models easily with comparison sites and online cost calculators, we as consumers, are now more than accustom to try and find the best annual deal, for our homes, household spend and our consumption levels.   

The UK energy market is one of the most advanced deregulated markets, globally and the switching nature of engaged consumers is here to stay. In 2018 KPMG defined four key consumer personas for the engaged market: 

• In control: data-driven and interested in optimising energy usage (e.g. home energy management). 
• Price sensitive: cost-driven and fears an unexpected or high bill.
• Always on: need to be connected at all times, without having to think about their power. 
• Green conscious: will make purchasing and usage decisions based on a socially conscious values.

To ensure the retention of customers and look to create sustainable growth, savvy utility suppliers will look at the available market of engaged consumers and look to segment and define them into an obtainable target market. By creating specific marketing strategies for the segments around their company ethos, pricing and offers, the defined target audience is more likely to connect with their messaging. 

Changes in energy consumption behaviour and habits

With addressed mail, your customers and prospects can benefit from the value of receiving account information, service update and even promotional or marketing-led messages. 

In recent years the UK has seen a number of new entrants come into the market, with independents accounting for 18% market share, in 2018. This change in buying behaviour has disrupted the historically dominant position of some of the larger suppliers. KPMG research states that there are three primary drivers influencing consumer switching behaviour:

1. Lower price
2. Better customer service 
3. Differentiated products 

There has been strong research and understanding of the engaged market and the reasons behind switching behaviour, there is almost 60% of consumers that remain disengaged from the retail energy market. With the right marketing messages and targeted communications, some energy companies may start to connect with this ‘disengaged’ audience and improve their market share, against the growing number of competitors.
 

We can collect all your mail at a time that suits your campaign or communication needs and manage the full process through to delivery. Your items are in trusted hands as Whistl already manage and sort over 50% of the UK’s bulk business letter volume (before handing over to Royal Mail for final delivery).

Digital Communications provide flexibility to communicate with your customers, with no limitations. 

With Whistl, your energy/utlities organisation has full access to a suite of digital communication platforms, along with the more traditional physical mail options. With consumers expecting a seamless experience from companies, throughout their journey, Whistl can help you to manage all of their exchanges with these digital platforms. So your business can accurately capture all of their interactions, to inform subsequent communication needs. 

Whistl offers everything you need for your business’s digital communications, from online document storage solutions along with PDF creative and delivery solutions. These services create true flexibility to communicate with your customers, with no limitations. You can now deliver critical documents via secure portals with login credentials, personalised on-demand print solutions or full document and brand control across all your business locations. 

So whether you need to communicate to your customers via the traditional form of printed mail items, or contact them online, by email, text or social media message, we have solutions to deliver your telecommunications message to your audience anytime, anywhere.
 

Partially Addressed Mail

Whistl also offers a fully GDPR compliant option for our customers with partially addressed mail. Partially addressed mail or PAM offers the chance for energy and utility companies to connect with their customers or potential prospects, influencing service selection and spending behaviour.

Campaign effectiveness is increased when audience profiling and insights are used to identify the right homes, that your leisure communication is to be sent too. PAM is an advertising mail option that is as compliant to GDPR rules, as an unaddressed door drop campaign.

How we have helped our customers