Avance

British Gas

The Challenge

One of the most critical points in the customer experience of an energy provider is the acquisition phase, when customers are generally still within a statutory cooling-off period and can choose to drop a new service before it has even begun. British Gas handles over 10,000 new customer contracts per month.

A need was identified by British Gas to streamline its contract validation process, to enhance the customer experience by providing additional protection of consumer rights under government regulations, and confirming the legal compliance of every new customer acquisition.

The Solution

Avance worked with British Gas to design a high-performance contract validation process that would protect consumers’ rights. A tailored CRM solution was designed, which turned the previously paper-heavy contract process into a paperless solution. Avance not only processes all data collection and storage, but also acts as an independent adviser to ensure full regulatory compliance.

The Result

Avance’s solution has reduced the length of time it takes to validate a new contract from the industry standard of six weeks, to just six minutes, with complaint levels reduced by 66 per cent. Avance’s independent adviser is able to guarantee the compliance of each transaction, protecting the integrity of the British Gas brand among consumers. The need for paper contracts has also been eliminated, achieving significant cost savings for the company as well as reducing the impact of the business on the environment