Calor’s customer audience is largely made up of homes and businesses located in rural areas off the mains gas network, or with a portable gas requirement, meaning it is one of the biggest suppliers of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in the UK.
Challenge
The rural energy market has changed. Consumers are making more sophisticated purchasing decisions as energy prices rise and renewables technologies become more affordable and available. Householders are more likely to shop around for the best deals and look to renewables as potential alternatives to gas or oil.
Calor understood that they had to be recognised as more than just an LPG supplier. They wanted to provide their rural customers with engaging and trusted home energy efficiency advice in order to support their corporate social responsibility activity.
Calor needed an effective customer engagement plan as well as a sound business system to underpin the sales process both now and in the future.
Solution
Energy Saving Trust’s technical know-how and experience of engaging householders made us the natural partner for Calor.
We developed a bespoke online home energy assessment tool, powered by our market-leading energy calculation engine. The software provides customers with impartial, trusted and accurate energy saving advice and it also allows Calor to promote their products and services.
Energy Saving Trust also supports Calor to ensure that their field and telesales team are expert energy advisors. We provide training content which is delivered by Calor’s in-house trainers during their induction and then we assess each team member to ensure that they meet our market-leading ‘standard for energy advice’. This means that Calor customers can be assured that the energy saving advice they receive, when they speak to a sales person at their home, is the best in the industry.
“We are really proud of our partnership with Energy Saving Trust.”
Holly Sims, corporate affairs manager, Calor Gas
Outcome
The Home Energy Check is widely promoted and Calor are happy with the functionality, design and performance of the tool. It fulfils its purpose as positioning them as a responsible energy supplier, keen to help customers and all rural residents understand and manage their energy consumption more effectively.
Calor are very pleased with the software’s role within their wider corporate social responsibility activity, and their next focus is to further promote its functionality and utilise its potential for capturing sales leads.
Furthermore, there are currently 30 field sales and 19 telesales agents endorsed by Energy Saving Trust to provide energy saving advice. The value of these interactions is key to ensuring that Calor maintains its loyal customer base and continues to succeed in a rapidly changing industry.