[Indyk_EONNext]

What's happening? 😊

We’re continuing on our journey to switch our customers to paperless, with a further 130,000 Customers switching. This means they’ll receive their bills and any communications, digitally from 14 August.

Why are we doing this?

First and foremost, we’re digital first! Here’s a few reasons why:

Customer experience:

• Our customer journeys are designed to be digital - letting customers manage their accounts online. You can make payments, view statements and adjust your DD
• The post can be slower to arrive and might not give the customer as long to act, if it was something that needed a response.
• 12 paper bills a year can cause a lot of clutter and will need to be disposed of.
• With online account management customers have all their info in one place and can access it on the move via phone or tablet.
  

Environmental benefits🌳

Reduced paper consumption:

• Our customer journeys are designed to be digital - letting customers do things like, give meter readings or make payments online.
• Going paperless significantly reduces the need for paper, contributing to decreased deforestation and conservation of resources. Contributing to a smaller carbon footprint, supporting the UK's journey to net zero - click to read more about the different ways we’re contributing to that target.

Lower carbon footprint:

• By reducing the production, transportation and disposal of paper, we can lower our carbon emissions and our energy consumption. ☁
• By striving to go paperless, an average organisation can save around 48 trees a year 🌳

Less waste:

• Going paperless minimises waste from printing and paper disposal, helping companies contribute to a cleaner environment 🌸

Financial benefits 💰

Cost savings:

• We can save on printing, paper, storage and mailing costs. Leading to significant financial benefits over time
• It costs us 56p per paper communication. This is per customer
• If we switched 280k customers to digital billing, that would save us £3.1 Million and have significant impacts on everything mentioned above.

Customer experience benefits 😊

Faster service:

• Going Paperless allows for quicker response times. The quicker we can communicate with our customers, the quicker they can get in touch with us, If they need to.
• Customers won’t need to wait for their bill in the post, they’ll be able to see their bills at the touch of a button, Super quick without having to call in.
• They’ll also be able to view all of their previous bills in one place. This is handy if you need to go back and check something, comparing usage over a specific period of time.
• If a customer wants to save their bills to their computer, they can do this really easily. It’s then stored on their computer and protected in their drive. Their computer will likely be password protected too, meaning there’s more security than storing their bills in paper format.

Who's already paperless and how are you finding it? 👀 We'd love to hear from you

[meldrewreborn]

@Indyk_EONNext

will the financial benefits be shared with customers, especially in relation to setting prices under the OFGEM maxima?

[geoffers]

Originally Posted by meldrewreborn

@Indyk_EONNext

will the financial benefits be shared with customers, especially in relation to setting prices under the OFGEM maxima?

Why should they be? EOn is a profit-making company, so I have no problem with them saving money internally themselves. It also saves waste/saves the planet 👍

Hopefully any savings they make will help in improving their service etc.

If you're concerned it just gets fed back to their shareholders/increases their share-price, then invest in some EOn shares : win-win 😁

[Mailman]

@Indyk_EONNext

Whilst I am happy to receive all 'paperwork' online there are of course many households who do not have internet access (seemingly about 1.5 million). Even those who might have internet access won't necessarily have the digital skills to be able to access online accounts, send an email etc. I am thinking particularly about my in-laws (one in their 80's and the other in 90's) - although they have internet access (via a BT social tariff) they only use it to watch the iPlayer (and that is a challenge in itself). They don't trust it (who can blame them?) and still prefer to deal in the cash society.

A couple of years ago they wanted to buy something off Amazon and came round to the house to check and view said items online on our computer. Unknown to us they had taken a bus to the local town and withdrew money (with their debit card) and stopped off at our house. When it came to payment time MIL opened up the purse and proceeded to count out the money (more than £100 as I recall). Of course it was pointed out that payment could have been made securely by SSL using the same debit card and that we would then have to toddle up to the bank to deposit the money back in the same branch they had withdrawn the dosh out....🙄 After that we had a good chat about the safety aspect of carrying large amounts of cash around etc and it never happened again. 😁

So is Eon Next taking away the option of paper bills entirely for all customers whether they want it or not?

[meldrewreborn]

@geoffers

Because otherwise the eco justifications are just empty words.
If we were in true competitive mode I’d agree with you, but we’re not, maximum prices are set by OFGEM for the vast majority of customers and Eon Next are forcing this onto customers, whether they like it or not, adding a little to customer work and costs.

[HelenaP_EONNext]

Great discussion!

@Mailman As with any changes, we would look at customers and their individual circumstances and certainly listen to any reasons the change may not be suitable for them!

From what I have seen around switching to paperless, I do not believe any customers without an email address attached to the account and any customers on the PSR would automatically be switched to paperless.

If a customer is unhappy with switching to paperless, they can contact our customer service team to discuss this further for us to check the reasons for their decision.

@meldrewreborn In regards to the financial benefits and savings from switching to paperless, leave this one with me to find out a bit of extra information on 🙂

[Mailman]

Originally Posted by HelenaP_EONNext

If a customer is unhappy with switching to paperless, they can contact our customer service team to discuss this further for us to check the reasons for their decision.

Can you sign up for an energy account without an email these days? Don't know the answer to that one.

Why must a customer clog up the system to contact Eon Next so as to continue paper billing? If they just prefer paper billing surely Eon Next is not mean enough to say 'not a good enough reason'

I would venture to say that many OAPs would baulk at the dreadful process of contacting any organisation (not just Eon Next), going through the 'select a number' to speak about .....' having to answer security questions that they might have forgotten. having trouble hearing, having trouble understanding etc etc. This is the generation that has a larger proportion that prefers to use the checkouts rather than the 'scan-as-you-go' or 'self-service' options.

I daresay some/many energy accounts are created using email addresses of a close relative (my wife uses her email for her mother's account). By all means make it a policy that customers (with a valid email) have the option to opt in online to continue receive paper billing (even if there is a nominal extra charge for it).

[retrotecchie]

@Mailman

They said when the computer became ubiquitous, we'd have 'paperless offices'. The amount of paper floating around since computers became mainstream has gone through the roof.

Is it just me? I print off my bills every month and file them in a ring binder. 🤣

I've programmed, used, built and maintained computers all my life. But when the power goes off or the internet goes walkabout (as happens regularly in the boonies), there's nothing like having access to hard copy.

But do I want 'em actually posting a physical bill? Well, the envelopes are always useful for lighting the fire, but apart from that...not really!

[meldrewreborn]

@Mailman

my mother used to go into her bank and present her bank card to withdraw money. The staff always advised her to use the ATMs but she felt safer doing it her way. This was late in the previous millennium when she was around 80. While I’m chronologically gifted, I first used computers at work in the 1980’s and have grown old with them. Not all people have the same knowledge and experience as you say.

and utility bills are sometimes requested as part of ID checks - I doubt one from one’s own printer would qualify - even if people have printer.

[Andy65]

In general, I don't have a problem with receiving any bills and/or communications digitally myself, but I agree with the comments made by @Mailman and @meldrewreborn.

I think that it would have been helpful to state in the original post what the plan was for those customers who don't have internet access or prefer to have paper billing and communications, and of course how you plan to notify them as those without internet access won't obviously be reading this thread.

I'm a bit cynical and see the green arguments as nothing more than PR. I would have thought that a £3m saving is nothing compared to what it cost to develop and maintain, secure online systems and an app. Then there's the customer dissatisfaction that the app is buggy, the usage isn't of much use etc, customers get annoyed when they can't log in..... It's being done for cost saving reasons and there's nothing wrong with that, it's a business. Is it a saving though, considering the infrastructure, maintenance, power etc that's needed for it?