What are the issues encountered by energy management energy suppliers?
The risk management is a major challenge for energy. The balance to be found between controlling financial risks, compliance with regulatory constraints and preservation of customer relations is essential to ensure their sustainability.
“ Energy is an essential service, specifies our client. We have a duty to provide electricity to everyone. There are a set of laws that protect households, especially the most vulnerable, which makes control and management of unpaid arrss than in the conventional sectors.”
High unpaid rate
Energy suppliers must deal with consumers who encounter difficulties in paying, whether they are economic precariousness, bad financial habits or deliberate non-payment behaviors.
Regulatory constraint
The subscription refusal is prohibited. However, suppliers can request guarantees to limit their exposure to risks. “ In this specific case, a security deposit is requested from the customer whose risk of not paying is high. "
Delicate customer relations management
It is a question of finding a balance between consumer protection and the financial stability of the company. This requires objective and transparent tools and the ability to explain the approach to customers and to listen to their possible feedback: " We must be impeccable, fair and reliable in our means of control."
How does the Meelo solution help prevent unpaids in the energy sector?
Meelo has developed a energy score adapted to the issues encountered by energeticians. Based on artificial intelligence and machine learning, this score makes it possible to quickly and effectively assess the risk of customers' unpaid during subscription.
What is the functioning of the Meelo energy score?
The Meelo score analyzes, in real time, a limited number of data, but sufficiently relevant and concrete (address, IBAN, etc.) to assess the financial risk from the stage of subscription of an energy contract.
Analysis of the energy score offers to simplify the decision -making process:
- If the score is satisfactory, the subscription is accepted without reservation;
- If the score indicates a high risk, guarantees are requested to secure membership of the contract: a deposit for example.
What is the advantage of the Meelo energy score?
The process complies with legal obligations while offering customers an opportunity to challenge the evaluation and justify their situation.
Use case: The Meelo score with the risk management management in the energy sector
Meelo has implemented his energy score for a few months in the customer journey of an energy recognized on the market. After a phase of co-construction and improvement of the solution, technical integration was fluid thanks to stable apis and an adapted architecture. “ With this energy company, the score is used for the conquest of private customers. It makes it possible to detect customers who would potentially have difficulties in paying. The efficiency measured during test periods has been considered fully satisfactory. "
Subsequently, the implementation was rapid and painless: “ The Meelo solution was positioned in the Recruitment Funnel on the web and with partners without any technical difficulty. ”
An implementation of the energy score upon subscription
"The Meelo solution is present at the time of the customer's registration. It is only used on the few elements collected in the customer file: address, IBAN ... Meelo runs its scoring using AI and goes up a risk score which allows you to be quite selective. From there, either it is possible to contract without reservation, or a guarantee deposit is requested from the customer to secure their subscription."
What are the results obtained?
☑️Significant reduction in unpaid
The score allowed a decrease in the order of 15 % of the unpaid rate .
“ The results are very significant obviously, especially since before, the controls were limited. ”
☑️Improving customer loyalty
Selected customers are more reliable, which increases their average lifespan within the portfolio (improved NPV). " The second interesting effect is that ultimately the subscribed customers are more faithful. As it is not necessary to relaunch them to pay their bills, the quality of the relationship is improved. Customers stay longer. And which says increased lifespan, says NPV higher. "
☑️The preserved user experience
The Meelo score is decision -making aid. This is not the final decision. Customers identified “at risk” always have the opportunity to discuss with customer service in compliance with their personal situation, guaranteeing them a transparent and fair approach. “ The only risk that had been identified is the relationship with consumers. You have to be able to explain very clearly to them how we will use the data to assess their solvency and leave them the possibility of contacting customer service to discuss the fact that the evaluation may seem questionable. The energy company has set up a process so that customers can obviously justify their situation when the score leads to asking for a warranty. indicator, he must be able to be discussed.
What did Meelo support consistent?
The Meelo teams worked closely with the energy supplier to refine the evaluation criteria and limit data exchange to the strict necessary, for the sake of compliance with the GDPR.
For the consultant, as for his energy client, this is a high added value support which is based on a common understanding of the objectives: “ Throughout the development process, we have had constructive and very good quality contacts whether to adapt the Meelo solution to measure its efficiency. The issues were immediately understood and the tools well presented and explained. ”
What has been particularly appreciated was taking into account data protection issues. “ We have discussed this problem a lot. In the end, we can make effective tools, but it is also necessary and above all that they are respectful of the laws and a certain business ethics. In this specific case, it was important to remain as measured as possible in the information transmitted and exchanged with Meelo .
After 9 months of use, the two parties are now tackling an optimization phase of the solution to expand the customer base while further reducing risks. “ We are working with the Meelo teams in a new phase of collaboration. We will further improve the existing scoring and provide additional possibilities in order to achieve more sales on one side and more customers served and satisfied on the other. A win-win model for everyone. "
The Meelo energy score allows energy suppliers to effectively respond to a structural problem while respecting regulatory obligations and maintaining a balanced customer relationship.
Meelo asserts himself as a strategic partner for players in the energy sector.
Do you want to know more about the Meelo energy score and its profits for your business?
