Blog Post

How can Energy Suppliers reduce Energy Billing Errors?

Richard Simmonds • Sep 28, 2020

Energy billing errors made by energy suppliers are not just a pain for consumers but also the wider energy supply industry as a whole. We look at the ways an energy supplier can reduce energy billing errors and ultimately save everyone money in the long run.

The damage caused by energy billing errors

Erroneous energy bills not only create stress and anger from consumers but also create wider implications for the sector in the form of increased regulatory intervention and in the way energy supply companies are run.

Public perception is harmed by incorrect energy bills. The sector is often labelled as a money grabbing one and trust in energy companies is typically low.

Overcharging, unannounced bills and poor customer service when it comes to dealing with them leads to the perception that energy suppliers are out to exploit the consumers.

Billing errors are also damaging in the fact that politicians often use energy as a political weapon in an attempt to win votes. They use billing errors as a way to justify changing the market, for example in 2019 Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn pushed for the nationalisation and used the customers have been “ripped off” angle to push it.

Also read: Energy Billing: How does it work?

The impacts on energy suppliers

Energy billing errors impact energy suppliers in several ways and in an ever increasingly competitive market those who maintain a good reputation among consumers and the regulator will have a distinct advantage.

Energy billing errors threaten a companies revenues, potential investment (after all, who’d want to invest in a business that can’t get the billing process right and all the consumer and regulator ire that brings) and reduce the chances and opportunities for the business to develop.

Negative attention

Energy billing errors are also a favourite of the mainstream media who regularly attack energy suppliers and love to run headlines highlighting the worst energy billing mistakes.

These headlines not only increase distrust among consumers but also paint the wider energy supply market in a bad light. The repercussions of incorrect energy bills can also go far beyond just customer annoyance. In some cases, lives have been ruined and it's up to energy suppliers to take responsibility for their energy billing mistakes.

What causes incorrect energy bills?

The most common cause of erroneous energy bills is the use of old or the introduction of new IT systems.

Faulty metering and poor policy and planning when it comes to billing rules also play a major part.

People too are a big cause of problems. Energy supply companies can and do miscalculate invoices and place customers onto the wrong tariffs. Poor training is often to blame as is poor communication with customers.

To error is to be human but often energy suppliers do themselves no favours by often making a bad situation worse. A lack of transparency in the way they handle complaints only adds to the distrust in them.

A refund should be made within a day, a customer issue should be dealt with immediately. The software and expertise are out there to enable this, yet many energy suppliers drag their feet.

The issue of credit refunds recently made the headlines after data from Ofgem revealed that the vast majority of energy suppliers failed to reimburse credit within the allotted timeframe.

Energy Billing software can reduce the errors

Reducing billing errors can be achieved via the use of energy billing software.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software reduces the chances of energy billing errors being made as they give an energy supplier a full view and greater control over the billing process.

Dyball Associates CRM software for example gives an energy supplier full control of a customer’s profile and all customer related activities ensuring that their bills can be kept accurate and up to date.

Other benefits of our CRM for energy bills include –

Easy energy bill management and issuance of bills and statements
Easily change dates and other customer relevant information including changes of tenancy
Easy integration of Direct Debit payments and sales ledger information
Custom energy bill designs using Ofgem approved templates
Automatically creates warnings when billing errors are detected allowing for easy reviews and changes