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UK Power Networks provides the energy infrastructure to 30% of the UK’s population, with the majority of customers in London, the South and South-East of England. With an ambitious goal of achieving net zero in its service delivery by 2050, UK Power Networks is working hard to help reduce the environmental impact of energy use across the region.
To support this ambitious goal, they worked with community energy group OVESCO to create a Home Action Plan document to help consumers to achieve three key aims: reduce their energy bills, keep warm, and help reduce their carbon emissions. Following insightful training from disability charity Scope, actions to develop more accessible and inclusive consumer resources was targeted, and a refresh of the Home Action Plan document was put in motion.
The challenge
UK Power Networks is one of the sector’s biggest energy distributors and will play a key role in helping the UK transition to Net Zero by 2050. Part of this role is making sure ‘no-one is left behind’ in this transition. That’s not easy, and it estimates that at least 19% of households are at risk of being excluded from the transition due to a range of factors such as opportunities to engage, accessibility of those opportunities, education levels or trust in the energy sector.
When creating the support service, UK Power Networks identified that there was a danger of consumers, particularly those in vulnerable situations, not being able to take advantage of the help on offer.
With millions of customers to reach, it needed a digital provider who was used to reaching consumers at scale, and one that would empower those consumers to take action. That’s why they reached out to Sopra Steria, whose expertise in the field of vulnerability and inclusion were employed to create a support service that was accessible to all.
Some people see Customer Inclusion as a ‘nice to have’ – something to do if you have time and budget left at the end of project. At Sopra Steria, we see it as a strategic imperative – a lever to enable organisations to achieve priorities effectively, efficiently, and equitably – and were therefore perfectly placed to work with UK Power Networks to achieve its goals.
Why is inclusion relevant to Net Zero?
As well as ensuring the lights stay on in its area, UK Power Networks has a responsibility to provide an electricity network which is ready for the Net Zero transition, and to not be a blocker for those who are looking to decarbonise. In areas where customers might face additional barriers to decarbonising, UK Power Networks is working to help level the playing field and give those customers every opportunity to participate.
Why could customers be left behind in the transition to Net Zero?
- 22% of London residents have English as a second language, which makes it even harder to engage with often jargon-heavy information about Net Zero home improvements.
Creating an inclusive, accessible tool
Our principles for solving this challenge were:
- Ensuring information is highly accessible and relevant to most customers – including above-average readability metrics and WCAG 2.2 AA.
- Harnessing the power of digital to maximise reach and relevance (through tailoring content).
- Ensuring non-digital content works hard to be engaging, easy to navigate and digest.
- Motivating and enabling customers to move from information to action.
- Using inclusive design to reduce barriers for those who might face particular barriers to engagement and make it beautifully simple for others.
- Using agile delivery, to build an MVP fast, gaining insight from customers and refining the tool.
Building on Sopra Steria’s experience of building consumer-facing tools to identify and support customers in a vulnerable situation within the financial services sector, the Green Home Support Service (GHSS) project sought to replicate the principles involved. We collaborated with UK Power Networks to design an omni-channel Net Zero support service for their customers. This included:
- A digital service capturing the consumer’s specific circumstances e.g. budget for home improvements, home ownership, current heat source, physical space for power generation options, and smart meter usage.
- Enabling the consumer to instantly build their own action plan, with up-to-date support information.
- A printable guide, designed to support non-digital customers and those supported by community energy groups.
- A contact centre framework and ‘train-the-trainer’ support to help colleagues provide relevant support to customers wanting to engage with the service, in their channel of preference.
Inclusive design of a Net Zero support service
We established an Inclusive Design Panel of UK Power Networks colleagues who have lived experiences of vulnerability. By involving them throughout the design process, we gained valuable insights on the barriers to engaging with this information. Their input influenced everything from the choice of imagery and user interface to the presentation of information and choice of words.
Most importantly, feedback from the panel and UK Power Networks' online customer panel helped us understand who might be put-off by the way the service is positioned, or the initial five questions used to filter options. We worked especially hard to make it inclusive for tenants and people on lower budgets, who are often made to feel they can’t participate in the transition to Net Zero.
The Green Home Support Service is now live
Successful continuous improvement
To help the future development of the tool and deliver the best return on investment, the Sopra Steria developed microsite is designed to deliver management information (MI) on the site’s usability and accessibility, so that further iterative improvements can be made based on real life usage.
We will monitor engagement and impact through multiple data sources.
A final thought on ‘leaving no-one behind’
There is an argument that it’s not just ineffective but unethical to knowingly leave people behind – someone’s affluence or circumstances shouldn’t dictate whether they can participate in the shift to Net Zero. For some, it’s a matter of social justice too: those who have the financial means and personal capacity to invest in green energy solutions will reap the benefits financially in lower energy bills. Those who haven’t the means or the agency to participate will pay the price as infrastructure costs and levies are shared amongst a shrinking population of fossil-fuel users. So, to us, Customer Inclusion doesn’t just make business sense. It’s the only way of ensuring equitable outcomes for customers and society.