Customer orientation and satisfaction

For the customers and all other stakeholders of Energie AG, the values of continuity, reliability, safety, sustainability and transparency are at the heart of Energie AG’s corporate strategy. In light of unpredictable crisis events, these values have gained enormous importance.

The further intensification of the stakeholder dialogue, incl. by directly involving customers in strategy and development processes, is intended to contribute to products and services that are even more in line with the interests and requirements of the different target groups.

Customer satisfaction is also increased by an open and transparent communication, initiatives for clean and “affordable energy for everyone”, the further streamlining of administrative processes, the comfortable access to digital services, and uncomplicated and rapid fault repair services.

The customer forum introduced three years ago serves to actively involve Energie AG’s customers in the area of product design and collects valuable feedback on the Group’s offers and services. The intense customer dialogue assists in understanding their perspective, bringing the “outside perspective” into the company, and adding a whole new facet to the notion of customer proximity.

A new platform for the customers of Vertrieb GmbH was launched in fiscal year 2020/2021 when Energie AG introduced the customer club “My Bonus”. The members-only area gives customers online access to special services and products, some of them available exclusively on the platform. The customer club is being revised on an ongoing basis – including in a dialogue with the stakeholders – and adjusted to meet the preferences and needs of the customers.

Energie AG’s portfolio of digital services was complemented with additional innovative applications that assist customers in making economical use of energy and gaining access to electricity from renewable sources. This includes the development of a WiFi reader unit for smartphones that can detect energy-wasting household appliances.

For many years, the Energy Saving Trade Fair has been an important leading trade fair for Energy AG in Austria. After the event’s cancelation in fiscal year 2020/2021, the most recently held event saw the Energie AG booth giving advice to around 2,100 interested parties. In the previous year, the physical trade fair was substituted with online advisory days that served around 1,000 customers.

Energie AG responds to the increasing consumer demand for online services by expanding the fibre-optic network in urban and rural areas. 16,723 customers were already actively using the high-speed internet service offered by Energie AG as of 30 September 2022 (previous year: 13,166).

Energie AG’s customer service was honoured to be chosen once again as the recipient of the ÖGVS award from the Austrian Society for Consumer Studies in fiscal year 2021/2022. The annual “Industry Monitor” of the ÖGVS is the dominant Austrian ranking in the areas of customer satisfaction, customer service and price/value ratio and has collected more than 250,000 reviews on a total of 1,824 companies. Energie AG was distinguished as “Industry Champion 2022” in the customer service category and received one ÖGVS award each for “TOP customer service electricity utility” and “TOP customer service gas utility”. A high level of service quality together with individual and competent customer care have always been important keys to success for Energie AG.

Ongoing monitoring and permanent professional improvement initiatives help to ensure high-quality customer relationship management, whether over the phone, in person, or online.

Netz OÖ GmbH has responded to the strong increase in the demand of residential customers who, as a result of higher energy prices, wish to sell the PV electricity produced on their roofs by introducing fundamental changes to the handling process in the spring months of 2022. This delivered noticeably shorter waiting times for customer applications. In the summer of 2022, a comprehensive review of the Netz OÖ GmbH’s online presence made it significantly easier for interested parties to access important information on the topic of photovoltaic systems.

Digitalisation: a powerful asset

Energie AG places a focus on the digitalisation of services, processes and customer interaction along the entire value chain. One of the objectives of the digitalisation measures is to offer customers flexible, individual, and straight-forward options to get in contact with Energie AG and to offer self-services such as switching plans, registering as a new customer, the Energy Manager, consumption alerts, invoice download etc.

The use of technologies such as “Artificial Intelligence” (AI) and “Machine Learning Algorithms” enable – when applied in consideration of the framework under data protection law – better and more cost-efficient customer services in the area of data analytics as well as more rapid and efficient service and decision making processes. The merging of customer data from the Electricity, Gas, Heat and Telecom areas and a corresponding system harmonisation allow for the best possible service “from a single source”.

The customer portals of Netz OÖ GmbH were merged and harmonised in terms of their functions in fiscal year 2020/2021. The new and revised customer portal now allows grid customers to review and administer the data of their electricity and gas connections. Responding to a run for decentralised generation units, the customer portal at https://eservice.netzooe.at now features an information tool that enables customers to track the current status of their “PV application” (extension of the grid access agreement). The process is adjusted on a regular basis and thereby improved continuously.

The digitalisation in the Waste Management Segment launched Austria’s first waste management online shop back in 2012 (containerdienst24.at). This internet portal enables users across Austria to order containers for clearing out bulky refuse, gardening waste or construction rubble. A regional contact person is available for specific questions and clarifications. In 2016, this service was extended to key account customers, who can now access waste management services, invoices, weighing and freight notices, and check on the status of their orders. Individually configurable authorisation settings can be used by key account customers to allocate page- and location-specific permissions for employees. The customer portal enables a sustainable improvement of the waste management processes and simplifies the daily cooperation within the Waste Management Segment.

Customer Phone Service

A fundamental criterion for customer satisfaction is the rapid processing of enquiries received over the phone, which Energie AG handles with the help of service staff that has received extensive training and boasts strong communication skills. They are supported by artificial intelligence deployed for the automated processing of simple enquiries. An additional intelligent “peak management” allows for calls to be rescheduled to less busy times of the day. This increases the availability for the customers and in turn also their satisfaction with the Company. The ongoing energy crisis is causing a massive amount of customer inquiries that are handled in the best possible way with the help of the instruments outlined above.

In the event of failures, which cause a substantial increase in calls from those affected within a very short period of time, calls need to be answered and processed with rapid turnaround. A flexible on-call service model for the customer service employees and a suitable infrastructure (remote work) enable an improved handling of unexpected or high call volumes.

Introduction and Use of New Technologies

Energie AG is actively committed to introducing and using new technologies, but always keeps the focus on the customer. Netz OÖ GmbH is among Europe’s leaders in large-scale smart metering. The intelligent electricity meters allow customers to precisely analyse and manage their energy consumption. A currently ongoing upgrade project aims at upgrading the smart meters with additional useful and pioneering functions. The proven system AMIS features several smart-grid functions that support grid operations and assist in achieving a high quality supply with electricity. The AMIS system is proving successful in real-world applications, regularly delivering availability figures in excess of 99%.

Energie AG uses the new smart meter technology for developing new business models. The Company views smart electricity meters as the key component for turning a house into a “smart home”. Interaction between electricity meters and home automation systems facilitate a perfect use of energy, which users will be able to generate, purchase or store. This delivers cost savings, lower consumption and greater comfort for the customer. Smart meters are also a prerequisite for the new market models and market roles introduced with the Renewable Energy Expansion Act package. Their benefits include, inter alia, consumption billing within the renewable energy communities, and they can also serve as the foundation for the peer-to-peer trading app “E-Fairteiler”.

The Czech water investments have been using smart digital water meters for several years at this point. The digitalisation projects focus on smart metering in Beroun and smart metering and grid digitalisation in Kolin. Other studies on the digitalisation of control centres and operations as well as the development of a “digital twin” for a sewage treatment plant are ongoing. “Digital twins” are models that e.g. virtually simulate the operation of a sewage treatment plant in order to probe the effects of different measures taken within the simulation before they are implemented in live operations.

Customer satisfaction surveys

Contact with customers and partners enables Energie AG to learn about their needs, concerns and ideas and to use these insights for the development of solutions for specific problems and the optimisation of processes. Complaint management is a key mechanism in this area. Together with Customer Service, the Group analyses the communications on a quarterly basis, evaluating the subject areas and using these as a basis to establish options for action. This includes the cooperation with social services for debt prevention and mitigation of debt-related problems by means of the energy solidarity budget and providing advice on how to reduce energy costs.

The continuous evaluation of the needs of existing and potential new customers has shown that prices are the issue closest to their heart. The focus is increasingly shifting to aspects like the security of supply as well as confidence in the energy supplier and its reputation. With the long-standing price guarantee, product bundles at special conditions and numerous additional offers, Energie AG presents itself as a reliable partner.

Regular market studies and customer surveys are conducted among various target groups as a due diligence measure to ensure their satisfaction. Valuable information for the ascertainment of the most important key performance indicators and their development over time was once again collected through basic surveys conducted in fiscal year 2021/2022.

The majority of customers of Vertrieb GmbH were found to exhibit a high loyalty: 95.6% of them, for example, are very satisfied or rather satisfied with the sales unit (previous year: 95.9%). Continually measuring loyalty levels in defined categories (e.g. product range, price communication, provision of information, regional commitment etc.) provides specific focal points that allow the company to improve services on an ongoing basis.

The customer satisfaction survey conducted by Netz OÖ GmbH regarding gas grid operators in autumn of 2021 once again delivered a very good result. The highest level of satisfaction was expressed for the availability of the gas supply, followed by the satisfaction with the technical expertise, keeping with agreed dates, and the performance of works and meter readings. Using a 1 to 5 scale based on Austria’s school grades system, Netz OÖ GmbH’s customers rated their distribution grid operator’s reliability (grade 1.42, previous year: grade 1.15), safety (grade 1.48, previous year: grade 1.24) and quality (grade 1.54, previous year: grade 1.28).

Annual customer satisfaction surveys are also carried out at all the Waste Management Segment’s sites. These include a school marking-style assessment system, in which the segment received a 1.42 (previous year: 1.36) during the reporting period 2021/2022.

Online communication

Energie AG makes target group-specific information available via a number of different channels. This includes the traditional website of the Group www.energieag.at, the press portal news.energieag.at, the project websites www.wir-denken-an-morgen.at for children and adolescents, www.sportfamilie.at for sport enthusiasts, the blog pages (blog.energieag.at and hochspannungsblog.at), the Facebook page Energie AG – Wir denken an Morgen, the Instagram account energie.ag and the Instagram (energieagsportfamilie) and Facebook (Energie AG-Sportfamilie) accounts of the sports family. These services are complemented by additional websites for specific Energie AG products.

Responding to the customers’ needs and preferences, Energie AG offers functional self-service portals, mainly in the mass market areas. These enable customers to independently deal with a number of tasks and issues relating to supply contracts with Energie AG at any time of day.

Social responsibility during hefty turbulences on the energy markets and the COVID-19 pandemic

Energie AG Group seeks to position itself as a strong and reliable partner for its stakeholders at all times and especially in exceptional situations. The company has proven its reliability not only during the COVID-19 crisis, but also with concrete activities in fiscal year 2021/2022, which was dominated by the war between Russia and Ukraine and hefty turbulences on the energy markets that emphasised its resolve to stability, security, commitment to social concerns and regional value creation, in line with the campaign motto “100% for Upper Austria”.

While competitors were responding to dramatic increases in the price of energy by terminating their customers’ contracts, Energie AG extended the price guarantee for its existing customers until 1 January 2023. This guarantee of contractually agreed prices was also made available to new customers. In the spring months of 2022, commercial and industrial customers were offered noticeable relief in the form of special conditions under a business tariff that was introduced for this particular purpose on short notice.

Energie AG also showed solidarity with Ukrainian families faced with the fallout of the war between Russia and their own country: In an internal fundraiser in the spring months of 2022, the Group’s workforce collected EUR 56,000 for the “SOS Kinderdorf Ukraine Nothilfe” orphanage, with the company more than doubling that amount to a total of EUR 120,000.

In order to further fulfil its supply and waste management mandate and at the same time protect the health of its customers and employees, the internal task force with experienced members of the crisis management team was permanently monitoring the further development of the COVID-19 pandemic in order to prepare any necessary measures and coordinate their implementation across the whole Group in clearly organised processes. Once normal operations had been resumed and staff members returned to their workplaces, a particular emphasis was placed on aspects related to cultural education. The education and training measures were adapted to the respective pandemic situation.

Austrian customers who were facing difficulties due to the pandemic were supported with special arrangements, e.g. a moratorium on electricity disconnections and the option to defer due payments.