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TSG Building Services

27 August 2024

So Energy

With many global factors to navigate around, So Energy needed a dynamic mail service provider to deliver excellent service to their customers - as well as bring postage costs down.

The Benefits

Circa 25,000 outbound letters processed and distributed per month

Fast, efficient mailing service facilitates a better quality customer experience

Regular communication allows So Energy to have full cost visibility

We partnered with Apogee because our values aligned, we were impressed with the solution, and we were able to better our customer experience – which we have plans to take further.

Being able to rely on Apogee’s team has taken so much pressure off of mine.
– Karl Ford-Lissenden, Head of IT, So Energy

The Background

With the war in Ukraine creating significant disruption throughout Europe, UK energy companies like So Energy have had to find effective, ethical suppliers outside of Russia. However, with supplier prices skyrocketing and strict price caps for customers in place, breaking even has become increasingly difficult throughout the industry in the last few years.

Though a merger with ESB Group in 2021 has allowed So Energy to re-stabilise, there is still a fine tightrope line to walk. This is due to the fact that, as an Irish-based energy company, ESB Group are not subject to the same policies as in the UK - therefore, So Energy must continually find ways to achieve compliance in both countries in order to cater to their wider audience.

However, there are bigger challenges for So Energy on the horizon: chief among them being the UK’s objectives to be completely independent of Russian gas by 2025, and to be Net Zero by 2040. If they are to meet these targets and remain competitive as an organisation, So Energy must find appropriate technology solutions to make their operations as streamlined, efficient, and sustainable as possible.

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The Challenge

Considering the importance of the services they provide, energy companies are subject to highly strict policies when it comes to customer complaints. For example, So Energy currently supplies more than 300,000 customers – but if even a relatively small proportion of complaints have been active for too long, heavy penalties are sure to follow.

This was a particular problem, especially considering that there is still a considerable number of So Energy’s customer base who prefer physical mail to digital communication. However, So Energy’s previous mailing supplier was consistently ineffective. Mail correspondence was often incorrect, sent to the wrong address, or sent late – sometimes so late that customers had already moved out before it had arrived – and return post could take over a month to address, let alone resolve.

In order to meet this shortfall, it was quickly clear that So Energy would need a new mail service supplier – but one that could help keep costs down, while enhancing their ability to deliver effective customer service.

The Solution

Apogee’s Hybrid Mail service, AutoMail, has allowed So Energy to reduce their postage costs significantly – replacing the inefficient in-house handling process, so the digital documents are instead produced in Apogee’s 24/7 print facility and distributed directly to their customers..

Because turnaround times for mail are now very tight, So Energy’s customers can be notified of updates to their service in a timely, convenient manner – enhancing the customer experience by ensuring everyone is on the same page.

As well as giving So Energy the ability to check progress of individual jobs upon request, the Hybrid Mail service also includes daily output reports – allowing them to have full visibility of their post budget, while making sure all mail is accounted for in real-time.

The Outcome

Thanks to the AutoMail service, So Energy’s customer experience has seen a complete transformation; with customer communication now both reactive and effective. As well as keeping support SLAs at low and easily manageable levels, this change has also positively impacted morale among the Customer Operations Team.

So Energy plan to expand their services with Apogee to maintain this upward trend, with a Digital Mailroom service the next port of call. This will route all So Energy’s return post to a secure facility, where it will be digitised and uploaded to a client server – allowing their Customer Operations Team to action and address complaints faster than ever before; and fostering a strong reputation for service excellence in the process.

Also on their digital transformation roadmap is Document Management – which, when combined with So Energy’s existing CRM system, will allow Customer Operations employees to easily update customer records across the entire organisation. With everyone in the team reading from the same standardised database, the customer experience will only continue to improve.

As each of these services are introduced, So Energy’s reliance on paper-based processes will be heavily diminished in favour of more sustainable digital alternatives. Furthermore, with all their outgoing physical mail being produced through Apogee’s ODS facility, transportation-related carbon emissions will be minimised – contributing toward So Energy’s Net Zero goals.

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