How we're making business energy fair for our customers
The energy crisis is presenting big challenges for businesses. The cost of energy may have peaked last year, but prices are still much higher and more volatile than before the crisis.
This constant change makes it hard for businesses to stay on top of what’s happening in the energy market. So, now more than ever, they need an energy supplier they can trust. One that’s easy to deal with, helps them understand their energy, and will support them through the crisis by keeping prices fair.
Here, we highlight some of the steps we’re taking to make business energy work for our customers.
We’re finding ways to give businesses better value
We know this is one of the main things our customers care about at the moment. So, we’re focusing on keeping our prices fair, our products useful and our tech innovative.
Doing so means we can charge our customers as close to the wholesale cost of energy as possible. For example, we’re always monitoring wholesale prices. When there are significant reductions, we review our tariffs to see if we can bring them down accordingly.
That's why we were able to lower our variable business tariff prices between January and April 2023, bringing them down by 40% in total. We think passing on savings as the wholesale market falls is the fairest approach to take.
We’ll keep on looking for opportunities like this to deliver good value.
Our businesses have access to award-winning customer service
We don’t just want to give our customers good value - we want them to feel valued too. That’s why we have a team of knowledgeable business energy specialists ready to give them the help they need.
We know that some energy suppliers can be hard to get hold of. It’s frustrating for businesses when they need help with their energy, but can’t pick up the phone to speak to anyone. That’s why our energy specialists are reachable for one-on-one support by phone or email.
As a company, we’ve won lots of customer service awards. And we’re Which?’s only recommended energy provider for 2023.
We’re proud that our business customers feel the benefits of the work we’ve put into creating an enthusiastic, expert team.
For us, this combination of fair pricing and excellent service is what good value business energy is all about.
We're helping our customers through the crisis in a way that suits them
It’s complicated for businesses to manage their energy spending during these hard times. So, we’re thinking about how we can make things a little easier.
For example, we feel our customers can benefit from a bit of flexibility at the moment. Here are a few ways we’re offering it to them:
🕰️ Shorter business contracts during the energy crisis 🕰️
New customers are only on a fixed rate for 12 months, after which they can either choose a new fixed contract or move onto a variable tariff.
🏝️ Payment plans and holidays 🏝️
Customers who can’t afford their regular payments can speak to us about reducing or pausing them for a little while.
🤝 Tailored advice 🤝
When we think a customer is having trouble paying, we reach out to them. Having a chat helps us to work out a more manageable payment arrangement.
🚪 Ways to leave fixed tariffs 🚪
We've created ways for customers with high fixed prices to move onto lower rates.
Our products reward businesses for being green
The way energy works in this country is outdated. Dirty energy from fossil fuels dictates prices. Businesses are often worst affected by the higher energy costs this brings.
But, we don’t like the idea of waiting around for someone else to fix this broken system. We prefer to take it into our own hands, using tech to demonstrate what changes are possible.
These products are helping businesses to save money using clean, green energy:
Saving Sessions
Saving Sessions rewarded business customers for using less energy at the busiest times of day.
Head to our Savings Sessions review blog to learn about how our customers tweaked their habits to save money on energy bills.
Panel Power
Panel Power is for small and medium-sized businesses with solar panels. We pay them 15p per unit of energy they export.
Pop over to our Panel Power page to find out how it works.
Electric Match
Our Electric Match tariff lets businesses that generate power share that energy with their other sites.
Check out the details on the Electric Match page.
We don’t work with energy brokers
We don't think the broker system is fair. That's why we've published a report on the issues with the system and how they can be fixed.
Around 2 in 3 small businesses use a broker to find their energy deals. Lots of them say they'll save you time and effort by finding the best tariff. Some also claim to offer better deals by bulk-buying tariffs from suppliers.
In reality, these brokers often offer inflated tariffs to customers. They get commission from suppliers when people take up higher offers, which makes energy more expensive and less transparent for businesses.
The bulk-buying doesn’t really reduce the cost either. Energy suppliers already use the fact that they supply lots of households and businesses to negotiate lower wholesale rates. In other words, our customers benefit from this collective negotiation anyway - so there’s no extra benefit to using a broker.
We’ve stopped working with price comparison websites too
Small businesses who use these can end up paying more than if they’d gone direct to the supplier - up to £150 more in some cases. This doesn’t fit with our goal of giving our businesses fair prices and not letting them get ripped off.
We’ve even spoken to the government about this issue. We hope we can be part of a bigger solution by championing more clarity in the market.
We’re listening to our customers
We want an energy system that’s green, tech-driven and designed for customers.
That’s why we’re always looking into new approaches that can drive us toward a better way of doing things.
Ultimately, the real experts here are the businesses whose energy we supply. They’re the ones who know what people really need to make their energy work for them.
So, we’re always speaking to customers about how we can keep making things fairer, clearer and more flexible.
Published on 17th July 2024 by:
Hey I'm Constantine, welcome to Octopus Energy!
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