npower Case Study - Collaborative Efforts for Change

With vulnerable customers building up debts they simply couldn’t afford to pay back, npower was struggling to find a sustainable way to support their customers.

Debt was a significant driver of cost within npower, and a number of customers had debts that npower was unable to collect. Week on week the situation became repeatedly worse as customers continued to not pay for current energy charges. As a socially responsible supplier npower felt unable to disconnect these customers, or to install a prepayment meter, but a solution was needed to protect the customers and the business’s interests.

npower historically had, a specialist team who would support these customers through writing off debt, but this merely acted as a ‘sticking plaster’ and did not address the longer-term social problem. The cost of operationally delivering this service was also prohibitive. npower needed a partner to help them ensure the right people got the right support.

Charis, as a strategic partner of npower, developed a new model by which it would support these customers with a more holistic service, and provide commercial benefit.

Rather than an npower team supporting these customers, Charis developed an out-sourced innovative scheme to address complex customer needs. A specialist team at Charis assessed customers on their individual needs and circumstances but also if they were able to demonstrate a number of behavioural changes centred around being able to sustainably manage their energy charges moving forwards. Only then would the Charis team write off historic debt.

This changed the relationship with the customer, incentivising them to be proactive and seek out additional skills, as well as encouraging them to take support from local advice agencies to meet the requirements of the provisional scheme.

The scheme was a runaway success and has been cited as best practice since it allowed a different, and more constructive dialogue, with customers. A true partnership between customers in financial difficulty, npower, and Charis. This model is now used by other utilities and continues to drive great value, both for npower and its customers.

With 75% of customers remaining debt free after two years, the figures speak for themselves. Furthermore, this provided firm foundations from which npower and Charis could build a robust, longer-term strategic partnership.

The scheme’s success came from creating a true partnership between customers in financial difficulty, npower, and Charis.

The scheme's success came from creating a true partnership between customers in financial difficulty, npower, and Charis.

75%

of customers still debt free after two years

10 years

years of delivering WHD to npower customers

£50m +

to hundreds of thousands of our customers

I’ve been working with Charis on a range of schemes to support our most vulnerable customers for the last 10 years. During that time their expertise has helped us deliver support in excess of £50m to hundreds of thousands of our customers. They have always worked collaboratively with us to continuously develop the way support is provided to get the best outcomes for our customers and npower.

Paul Dear, Head of Social and WHD Programme

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