AWARDS FINALIST: Contact Energy – retailer category
Contact has not been resting on its laurels since winning the Energy Retailer of the Year award in 2022.
The company says the win set a benchmark for it to “further evolve, innovate and always look to improve customer service further.”
For 2022-23 that meant focusing on balancing customer empathy and value against profit to realise outcomes that would set it apart from the competition.
Products
With cost of living solutioning in mind, Contact has added a new, low-cost broadband product – Wireless Broadband – to its value bundled fibre broadband options.
Building on the success of its Good Nights plan, it has added a new time-of-use plan – Dream Charge – targeted at EV users.
The plan encourages off-peak energy use, helping customers and the planet, Contact says. Peak energy consumption drives reliance on fossil fuel generation, so the more non-urgent energy use – such as dishwashers, washing machines and EV charging – that can be shifted to later at night, the faster Aotearoa can meet its climate change commitments, it says.
It is committed to net zero for energy generation by 2035.
Fourth Trimester
Offered again in February, Contact’s Fourth Trimester plan gives three months of free energy to 1000 Kiwi families with new-born babies.
“We can’t help the sleepless nights, but we can give parents one less thing to worry about by picking up the power and gas bill for the first 12 weeks of baby’s life,” it says.
Over the past two years it has given away four million hours of free energy to families.
Wellbeing
Contact’s wellbeing programme recognises the efforts made by its people to “make this work happen”.
The programme includes: Growing your Whānau, a trail-blazing parental leave policy; a Flexible Mahi guide; an annual Good to be home payment of $400; access to Clearhead – free counselling for its people and their whānau; and free skin checks.
The initiative saw it become the first NZ business to be awarded the Wellbeing Tick. It was also re-accredited with the Rainbow Tick.
Customer services
Contact has continued its focus on digitisation to enable easier service for customers, and has delivered a range of new functions and initiatives in the past year:
- daily usage details for broadband and energy
- emails advising customers when they are going to have a larger bill
- a frequent callers outreach campaign
- improved web, app, authentication experiences
It has also kept its price increases below inflation.
Customer satisfaction
Contact says it constantly monitors its progress and has seen significant improvements in its net promoter score. Its customer NPS now sits at +43, while its employee NPS is +60.
It has built brand trust and reduced customer complaints to 1 per cent of market, against a market share of 20 per cent.
Improved customer loyalty means its annual churn is lower than competitor averages. Its bundling of products enabled it to lead the broadband market as the fastest growing broadband provider at the end of FY22 – and it is seeing continued growth in FY23.
The Energy Retailer of the Year Award category is sponsored by EDMI