Customer Retention
How we helped Coop Energy retain customers through white-label collections and direct debit reassessment campaigns.
Overview
Sigma Connected had been the outsourcing partner for Coop Energy since 2016. During this time we established a team of 20 Full Time Employees (FTE) providing white-label collections and Direct Debit (DD) reassessment campaigns for them.
We replicated Coop Energy’s client culture and values and in order to ensure a seamless experience for the customer and, additionally, we used their own Customer Relationship Management systems which we access via VPN.
Initially, we took over 3,624 customer accounts as a trial over a 2-week period. These accounts had between 30 to 45 days until their current contracts expired. All these accounts were eligible to leave without an exit fee.
Three renewal reminders had already been sent by Coop Energy and some of the customers were already in the process of switching to new contracts and new providers.
The challenge
Coop Energy were facing challenges from price comparison sites, attracting short-term customers with limited Lifetime Value (LV).Their overall growth strategy was dependent on how good Sigma Connected were at retaining their existing customer base.
They were promoting contract renewal solely through outbound letters and emails. Inbound activity was reactive and managed by their customer services team who were not sales trained.
A high volume of customer contracts were due to end between December 2017 and March 2018 which posed significant risk to their growth. The limited resources available who lacked training for outbound sales retention and with no dialler system meant Coop Energy needed external support and they looked to Sigma Connected.
To achieve Coop Energy’s objectives, we needed to to fully mobilise both people and technology resources within two weeks.
The solution
We retrained 10 FTEs from Coop Energy’s existing team in outbound sales techniques including opening; questioning; framing benefits; objection handling; negotiation; and closing. Technical tariff information was delivered directly by the client.
Sigma also launched outbound calls from our own contact platform to drive efficiency and enabling us to find the best time of day to make contact for contract renewals.
Existing Sigma advisors also accessed the client’s CRM to set-up new contracts in real time. Meter readings were also taken and, where necessary, new bills were produced. Finally, DDs were also reviewed during conversations to ensure the customers payment schedule was in place.
The result
The campaign was fully mobilised within 2 weeks, resulting in renewed contracts and customer retention due to a more efficient and knowledgeable customer service team achieving Coop Energy’s key objectives.
