Today we’re launching our Treating Customers Fairly statement. This is a new requirement by Ofgem for energy suppliers to show how they are meeting new Standards of Conduct being introduced as part of the Retail Market Review reforms, which kick in this week. In practice, it means we’re outlining how we will go about treating customers fairly and work in a transparent, honest and professional way.
On first sight of this document, you could be forgiven for thinking that the standards are obvious and are the kind of simple and straightforward principles any business worth its salt should live by. I couldn’t agree with you more.
Statements like ‘working in a fair, honest, transparent and appropriate way’, that ‘information should be clear and in plain language’, and ‘providing the products that are most appropriate for you’ are all things that you should expect from your energy supplier.
However, what’s important about these Standards is that they are bound by law. They are legal, enforceable requirements ensuring that all suppliers meet the standards or face investigation and a possible fine.
It’s true that SSE and the industry overall hasn’t always been perfect in the past, but these new standards are a key tool to help restore trust in the entire industry. And for SSE it also gives us an opportunity to demonstrate again the steps we have taken over the past two years, leading the industry by delivering on things that really matter to customers.
It’s not enough to say that we will treat customers fairly. In our Statement we have put clear, tangible commitments in place. We set out clearly how we are, and will continue to, meet and even exceed the standards expected of us.
Our commitments are encapsulated in our Customer Charter. We’ve also introduced the industry’s only Customer Service Guarantee, outlining the minimum service levels customers should expect from us. If we don’t meet any of the five commitments in the Customer Service Guarantee, such as calling you back when we say we will, we’ll take £20 off a customer’s energy bill. It’s simple, tangible and we’re putting our money where our mouth is.
Our simplified and clearer tariffs and bills, our online energy price checker, our Annual Energy Reviews that help customers save money and our Sales Guarantee, which gives customers peace of mind when they buy from us, are also ways in which we are doing more for our customers.
But it’s important to highlight that change is an ongoing process. Just last week we were the first major energy supplier to stop cold calling, which has been warmly welcomed by our customers and consumer groups. And we don’t want to stop there. So we’ll continue to listen to our customers and engage with them through our customer forums, for example, to keep making improvements. The Standards of Conduct now give us a clear framework for the further improvements we’ll look to make in the future and I welcome any ideas our customers have to help in that process.
Ofgem’s Standards of Conduct are good news for customers, good news for us and good news for the industry overall. We look forward to making even more improvements in areas that really matter to customers.