Development of customer experience is based on understanding the customers’ needs
At Vantaa Energy, the development of customer experience plays a crucial role. In fact, to such a degree that investment in customer accounts and customer-specific service development is one of the focus areas in Vantaa Energy’s strategy.
At Vantaa Energy, all work related to the development of customer experience stems from understanding the objectives of property owners. Efforts are made to deepen customer understanding through active customer work, customer satisfaction surveys and the monitoring of the market situation.
– With customer meetings, we deepen our understanding of the objectives and needs of our customers. As rapid and high-quality customer service is important, last year we increased the number of employees working at the customer interface, says Matti Wallin, Vantaa Energy’s Business Director, Energy Service Business.
Feedback from the customers is collected actively. After every customer encounter, we send the customer a survey in which the customer can assess how the meeting went from their point of view and give open feedback. In addition, continuous feedback is gathered, for example, in connection with joining the heating network, when feedback is received on the ease of the joining process.
Development by responding to the customers’ demands
Expectations towards energy companies have changed over the past few years. In addition to the traditional reliability and effortlessness, responsibility has become an important factor in customer satisfaction. These days, customers are more enthusiastic to act in accordance with the principles of sustainable development.
– Vantaa Energy is an active champion of climate-friendly energy production, and therefore our operations meet the needs of customers that support sustainable development. We will move completely to fossil-free fuels by 2026 and we will be a carbon-negative company by 2030. The projects are already well under way and we are constantly moving them forward. When a customer acquires heating from Vantaa Energy, they are making a sustainable choice, Wallin sums up.
In addition to responsible operations, customers appreciate the effortlessness of services, a competitive price level, and price stability. In order to meet the needs even better, in August 2021 we launched the service package Energy Lane that includes three services for different needs of the customers.
– We want to make energy use as effortless for customers as possible, and we develop climate-friendly services that meet the customers’ needs. Our customers appreciate the fact that our district heat prices are stable and competitive as a result of using fossil-free fuels. The service development is currently continued as part of the development of customer experience to ensure that energy issues will be even more effortless for our customers in the future.
Annual customer satisfaction survey helps in the development
Once a year, Vantaa Energy carries out a wider customer satisfaction survey among its customers not only to learn about the satisfaction of customers, but also to identify areas that are most important to our customers. The survey is carried out among the company’s client base, and the respondents are selected with random sampling. An outside partner is used in the implementation of the more extensive customer satisfaction survey.
– Based on the responses, we identify areas in which we can invest in order to improve customer experience. The results are used for analysing, e.g. which matters carry the most weight to impact the customer experience, and then we will aim to development them further, Wallin comments.
The results of the 2021 customer satisfaction survey were excellent. The heat customers of Vantaa Energy gave the company top marks in the EPSI Rating customer satisfaction survey, which was completed in November 2021.
– In the survey, Vantaa Energy was outstanding especially in relation to its image and meeting customers’ expectations. The customers also find that the company is reliable and familiar.