Enhancing the productivity and effectiveness of a smart metering roll-out programme

As part of its drive towards decarbonisation, the UK government has asked all the country’s energy suppliers to offer smart energy meters to every household and business consumer.

After winning smart metering contracts from several energy providers, a major infrastructure services company in the UK commissioned Enzen to provide consultancy services to increase the effectiveness of its roll-out programmes.

Enzen's challenge was to enhance the productivity and efficiency of the installations, raise standards of quality and improve engagement with end consumers.

The Enzen team began with a complete comprehensive review of all aspects of the programme. This included customer engagement campaigns, call centre operations, customer relationship management systems, scheduling and installation support technology.

By spending time with each relevant department in our customer’s organisation, Enzen developed a 360-degree understanding of the process and customer journey. From there, we identified ways to increase the speed, volume, quality and effectiveness of both the meter installations and the end consumer’s experience.

Solutions included reducing the time it took to get operatives out of training and into the field, reinventing the scheduling system as an automated process and developing a consistent way of managing installations across all the customer’s contracts.

Steps were also taken to improve ‘jeopardy management’. This made sure consumers were better informed about appointments, and that they in turn were available when field operatives arrived to complete installations.

Through a combination of streamlined processes, superior reporting capabilities, new software, systems and processes, Enzen delivered the following positive outcomes for its customer:

• improved productivity, with more meters being installed than ever.
• more efficient working patterns, matching the volume and location of installations and engineers.
• ensured scheduling based on confirmed customer appointments to reduce wasted trips
• streamlined customer journey using automation and improved documentation within CRM
• reduced headcount in the back office, creating more capacity for the customer elsewhere.
• less wastage thanks to standardised, leaner systems.
• a more robust performance culture to incentivise quality.
• more accurate reporting systems to inform planning, resourcing and decision-making.