#293: Reducing Churn in the Home Energy Sector with Genesis New Zealand

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Hello and welcome to episode 293 of Let’s Talk Loyalty, discussing some superb results, creating loyalty in a very challenging consumer category, the energy sector.

Andrew Francis leads the team that manages the portfolio of residential customers for an energy company called Genesis in New Zealand. Genesis launched their loyalty program called Power Shout in 2018. And it’s proving to be a highly effective tool in driving customer loyalty, reducing churn, and even serving as a compelling reason that new customers mention when choosing Genesis for their energy needs. I’m sure you’ll agree there has probably never been a more important time for energy companies to connect with our customers.

So I really hope you enjoy listening to Andrew Francis and learning all about the Powershot program from Genesis.

Paula: So, Andrew Francis, welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty.

Andrew: Hey, thank you so much for having me, Paula. It’s really great to be here.

Paula: Wonderful. Which part of the world are you sitting in today, Andrew?

Andrew: Uh, I’m here in New Zealand, um, and I’m in Auckland, New Zealand, so based, based here with my family and, uh, finding it a great place to live.

Paula: Fantastic. Fantastic. Yes. I think I said to you, Andrew, that I always think of New Zealand very fondly, even though I’ve never been there, but because it’s very similar to Ireland in terms of population, I think in all the greenery and stuff. So, um, it’s lovely to be chatting with you. So listen, I am really thrilled to be talking today about your loyalty program.

Um, I do have some background in the energy sector, uh, but actually you’re the only, the second interview we’ve done, we’ve done one previously with the UK with British Gas Rewards. But I really love what you’re doing in Genesis in terms of your overall approach to loyalty. And again, I know it’s getting incredible results, so, really an action packed conversation today. So let’s get started with our usual opening question and tell us what is your personal favorite loyalty program?

Andrew: Yeah, so I’m, I’m pretty, pretty biased staunch Kiwi. And, uh, the program that I love the most is actually, uh, Air New Zealand’s loyalty program. So the Air New Zealand AIRPOINTS dollars.

Mm-hmm. . Uh, and, and the piece I love about the program is that, they’ve, they’ve started off by making it really simple. So they’ve, uh, a lot of, I think a lot of airlines talk about points and it’s really quite an intangible, uh, Yeah. Uh, figure and, and piece for customers to get their head around. And one of the things that New Zealand’s done very successfully is they’ve talked about AIRPOINTS dollars.

And a dollar is the same as. Uh, a New Zealand dollar. Um, so if I’m spending my dollar with, with the airline, I can really understand exactly what I’m getting. But they’ve also extended the program out really successfully, um, into an Airpoint store so I can earn, um, while I’m not flying with, through, through their partners, um, uh, uh, through that are not airline based.

So here in New Zealand, if I’m buying through different stores and other things, I can earn Airpoints dollars and then I can buy different products and other things. Through the Airpoints store that I might need. So yeah, we as a family bought some, uh, some bedroom furniture, ironically, for our, for our toddler

Um, so, you know, uh, through that. And, um, so it’s, it’s a great program that has you engaged, uh, even for customers who are maybe not flying as often. It’s a really strong program that buys a lot of, a lot of engagement. So, uh, that’s what I love about it.

Paula: Wow. I honestly, you know, the airlines really seem to, you know, top the charts every time, Andrew, in terms of understanding what really matters to us, I guess as consumers, obviously they’ve got the brand value and the trust, but, um, I’ve certainly heard that Air New Zealand has done extraordinary work for many years.

So that partnership piece sounds, uh, very relevant. So, um, definitely one, again, we’ll have to try and get on the show. Um, but listen, we’re here to talk mainly now about Genesis, and again, most of us won’t be familiar with the energy market in New Zealand. So would we just maybe start, Andrew, would you mind just explaining, uh, Genesis as an energy provider, um, in the context of the New Zealand consumer market?

Andrew: Yeah, so Genesis has got, um, two core parts to its business. It’s both a, um, energy generator, like it, it creates electricity and provides that to the wholesale market in New Zealand and sells that on the wholesale market. Mm-hmm. . Um, but it’s also a retailer, which is the part of the business that I. I work in mm-hmm.

and, uh, and, and sells that energy onto retail and provides electricity and, and gas and LPG, uh, to, to customers around the country. Uh, we we’re about 20% market share. Okay. Um, and, uh, and have sort of one of the largest customer bases in the country. So, um, super, a very com. Competitive market in New Zealand.

I think it’s one of the, Yeah. Highest, um, switching markets in the O E C D. So it’s a, it’s a great, it’s a great challenging place industry to work in, actually, um, to try and drive the loyalty space.

Paula: Yeah, and I’ve heard before as well, Andrew, that it has some of the highest loyalty penetration. So what it seems to be is that Kiwi customers really believe.

That there are ways to, I suppose, to be recognized for their loyalty, um, and they’re willing to embrace it when it’s done well. So does that resonate with you, do you think?

Andrew: Yeah, look, when we, when what we are finding is the propositions that we are bringing to market, which our loyalty program Power Shout is really resonating for customers.

So, uh, and it’s for us really creating a shift in our underlying sort of performance and the loyalty that we’re seeing. Yeah. Um, so I think we, we are seeing our customer churn come down dramatically. I think we’re, we’re down at, um, about 11%, which for, uh, our business and in this market, that’s, that’s really quite strong levels.

Um, and that’s, that’s come down about three or 4% over the last couple of years. So, um, we, we are really proud of what’s playing through in terms of the proposition and, and, and how it’s playing from a customer point of view.

Paula: Yeah. And I have to say that’s actually remarkable, Andrew, You know, just from the, um, I suppose first of all as a category to me, uh, you know, of course it is something that we all need, um, but not something that we all necessarily love as in terms of our, our household spend.

So, you know, it’s definitely the grudge purchase. I know you’ve acknowledge that . Yeah. And, and, and clearly the global situation is not helping in terms of affordability. You know, there’s so much outside of your control. I think that you have to deal with this as a sector.

Andrew: Yeah, I mean, I think the, the global, the global energy market is, is going crazy at the moment in a number of different, in different spaces.

And, uh, New Zealand is seeing really, really record high prices as well of, of electricity. So there’s some real, real challenges there. Yeah. But for us it’s about how do you build that deeper relationship. Yeah. Um, so that it that goes beyond. Yeah. And I think one of the, one of the key things for us is that it is one of those sit and forget categories. So how do you drive engagement in a category where people want to just, uh, sit it up and disengage, forget about it. Right. Unless their, unless their bill gets too big, right? And then they, then they are really gonna be talking to you. But it’s for all the wrong reasons, so.

Paula: Oh, totally, totally. So with that context, with that mindset, you know, and you know, with a product that itself, I suppose by definition, is impossible to differentiate. Like your electricity is actually the same as somebody else’s electricity clearly. So tell us about Power Shout, Andrew, it really looks like, uh, a quite incredible in terms of its effectiveness as a program.

So tell us a bit about the loyalty proposition, first of all, exactly what you offer and then maybe we’ll look at where he came from, because I always like to get a bit about the insights as well, cuz it’s not easy to build something as compelling as this. I would say.

Andrew: Yeah, so, um, Power Shout our loyalty platform that gives our residential customers, I guess, the freedom to enjoy power, free power, however, and whenever they like.

Um, so it’s a currency based system where customers can bank free hours of power and then book them, when it’s flexible and, and appropriate for them and their lifestyle and when they might need it. So, so some people, um, they use a lot of power at seven o’clock at night and that’s when they’re cooking dinner and the families just come home and they’re heating the house again.

Yes. Uh, and that’s when they want to use it. Others, it might be seven o’clock in the morning on a Saturday, and that’s when they want to use a whole bunch of power. Um, so what PowerShow does is it enables us to reward customers in different ways with free hours of power for them to bank that up, and, uh, and book it when it suits them.

Mm-hmm. . Um, and it, it’s, uh, it’s done, it’s done for us through, um, our apps. So we, we require the customers to go online and, and, and book it through the app. So it’s a self-service platform, obviously. Yeah. Um, but what that’s doing for us is driving, uh, ongoing digital engagement. So I mentioned before about the sector being a really low engagement and for a lot of customers and a lot of people listening, they’ll be thinking, When was the last time I actually thought about or engaged with my energy provider, in a positive way. In a positive way, right? Um, that wasn’t about a bill. Um, yeah. And so what, what Power Shout does to us is it creates that moment to engage Yeah. Um, through a couple of different ways. So when we, when we’re giving Power Shout, we, we, we ask customers to proactively go on and accept them.

So we don’t just put them in the bank account. So, so it enable, we’re requiring them to actually do something proactively to take it. Okay. And that, that does create a, a small group of customers who won’t take that up. Yeah. Um, but what we do get is this really engaged base who then are use a lot, utilizing it.

Um, and then they are coming in and they’re booking those hours at a time that works for them, which is really fantastic.

Paula: Yeah. And I, and I wanted to explore that a bit, Andrew, because, you know that there’s so much that we talk about, you know, maybe from a retail perspective or just I suppose in general about this idea of removing friction and, you know, making life easy for our customers as much as possible.

So, In some ways, to me it’s counterintuitive that you have two manual steps. Even if they are, you know, and I suppose especially they are self-service, you would never do it any other way. But there’s two manual steps as you’ve said. First of all, accept the, the gift of the, the power hours, and secondly, then choose when to use them.

So both of that, that really strikes me as as powerful, um, but counterintuitive. So did you struggle with that, do you think? Or did the business struggle with that at the beginning? I don’t think you were there necessarily when that decision was made, but tell us about the thinking. Yeah.

Andrew: So, so I joined after, um, the original foundation of Power Shout was corrected and it was before, it was, what we have now is, uh, Power Shout Hours.

It was just straight Power Shout. So it was similar to what you would think intuitively of we’ll just figure out some set hours for you. Yeah, and we will book them in, and, uh, we’ll just give them to you as a customer and you don’t have to do anything in this in three hours of power. Yeah. And, uh, and customers, customers loved it.

There was really positive enga uh, engagement, uh, uh, sort of in, uh, feedback from customers around that. Okay. Um, but we were looking for more, I guess, from it. So, and that was the piece that, um, I guess we, we knew that we needed to crack from, uh, an engagement point of view and to drive that ongoing, uh, interaction.

Um, and in particular an interaction with our Energy IQ app. So one of the, one of the functionalities we have as a, as a, as a business is we provide a bunch of insights through our, in our Energy IQ app. And we know that customers that are engaged with that are, are actually more loyal with us because they’re understanding their engineer needs.

They’re leveraging some of the tips and insights that are there for them to understand. So it was this real opportunity of how do we bring, those pieces together a little bit and actually engage customers a bit more with the platform that we have there for them, um, but also put control in their hands.

So, you know, the customer research really highlighted that, you know, um, they could choose between morning, afternoon, and evening, but those are quite, those are quite broad times and often necessary didn’t work for customers. Mm-hmm. , Um, and it was very blanket. It was, uh, everyone and in, uh, in the exact same way, got the exact same mm of hours.

Mm. And so by moving to Power Shout Hours, what I enable us to do was, one, we could target a bit more into customer groups. Um, so we could give certain customer groups, their own specific set of hours. Mm-hmm. , but two enabled customers themselves to choose when and was the right time for them to book them. So for some customers that’s, they wanna bank them all the way through summer and they’ll use them only in winter when their bills are high.

Um, other customers are happy just to use them, all the way through the year or on different times of day. So it puts that control back in the customer’s hands, which is a really powerful thing, I think.

Paula: Okay. Okay. So yeah, so instead of positioning it as oh, and you have to do it, you know, um, so it’s, it’s not an obligation or an issue.

It’s actually positioned as the benefit of, you get to do it on your terms in a way that you feel is of most value to your family or your household.

Andrew: Yeah. And so we have competitors in market who, who offer free power hour offer options to customers. Okay. Um, and, but, but the feedback we are hearing from customers is that’s the point of difference for us.

Nice. And that’s something that moves it from just a product or, or, or some form of credit back from the, from the provider to an actual loyalty program. Totally. Where I’m banking and I’m building up that loyalty.

Paula: Yeah. Yeah. And I guess it does move it from something passive to something as you said, that’s engaging and that’s active.

And again, once it’s in the, the digital form, it’s on the mobile phone. And it sounds like you have other content. Did you mention tips as well there, Andrew, in terms of within the Energy IQ, it sounds like you’ve got some other kind of content there for your customers.

Andrew: Yeah, so we, so one of the things we found is, uh, energy management is, I think, something that customers are really wanting to understand.

So, uh, and it’s not every customer and, and so this isn’t needed for every customer. Some customers are set and forget people and that’s okay. Yeah. But there is a group of customers who do wanna understand where their energy, is being spent. And you know, we’re in a space where globally at the moment, I think the cost of living is going up really high.

Yeah. Um, and people are, there are people who are, um, you know, that extra 10 or $20 is actually meaningful for them about what they do with their money. So helping customers understand, uh, what. Where their energy use is coming from, both from a time of day. And so there’s some insights there. Um, but we also talk about what we have as data desegregation, where we actually provide insights based on your home profile, uh, the number of people that live there, the bedrooms, the type of heating that you have, that sort of thing.

Insights about where your actual energy consumption is coming from. So is it, are you, are you, how does your house compare in its consumption to other houses like yours? Um, and then therefore, what are some of the tips and ideas that you could look at to save money on your bill? So actually making it meaningful for a customer to about a make a shift in both their energy consumption and, and maybe where it’s hitting them in the, in the pocket.

Paula: Yeah, for sure. And just on an operational detail, Andrew, because again, I’m gonna be making sure to share this with friends of mine in the sector, um, I would love to just understand the dependencies because I know there are, I suppose, just logistical requirements for customers to be able to actually enjoy the, the power she program.

So would you just talk a little bit about how it, how it works, Operationaly.

Andrew: Yeah, so we, we’ve got a couple of things that we require. So one, we have what we call a smart meter in New Zealand. So, and, and most countries will have them, um, a smart meter effectively enables us to do, uh, to see our, our half hourly or, or, or to the minute. Uh, reads of your electricity consumption. Mm-hmm. , So, um, most houses in New Zealand sort of have one of those, but there is maybe about 20% our houses that don’t. Okay. So that, that’s a, that’s the first hurdle. And if customers don’t have one of those, we can arrange to have one of those installed. So, um, we, we are really keen to get customers into that, um, that approach, cuz it saves them having someone knocking on their door to come into a meter read at a, at a later date.

Um, So that’s the first hurdle. The second is we, we wanna engage with them via email. So, so we need an email address from you, which for the majority of people is, is not a, it’s not a, not a piece. Um, yeah. Yeah. And, and that’s, and that’s the, those are the two, those are the two main ones. Um, Wow. And we need you to log in through our E I Q platform as I talked about before, so, Okay.

Um. And have a, have an account with us through our online platform, um, and that, because that’s where we administer and provide them to. So yeah, uh, those, those three, tick those three boxes and, and you’re off and running.

Paula: Lovely, lovely. And I do like the contactability piece, Andrew, because, you know, probably not anymore, but certainly I think in, you know, when I started in loyalty, it was probably something that, you know, once they gave us, you know, their, their core kind of data in terms of maybe tracking behaviors or whatever, we didn’t always necessarily insist on, uh, being able to contact them, um, in certain ways. So I do think that’s probably the, the single most important thing actually now for loyalty professionals, just to make sure that you can build that relationship. Because without the contactability, I guess there’s just, there’s no point, you know, And you certainly can’t deliver a proposition like this.

Andrew: Yeah. And, and you know, I’d definitely call out that there are, you know, if you, if you’re looking at those sort of criteria for your programs, um, and, and you are gonna get feedback from customers that don’t wanna meet that criteria.

Totally. And you’ve, you’ve gotta make those decisions as a business about is, is this what is important for us and how, what’s the important for the customer base that we are looking to serve? Yeah. Cause if you try and do everything for everyone, you’ll do nothing very well . Um, And so for us it’s, it’s been, it’s been tough and we’ve definitely had, you know, um, older customers, for example, who maybe are not as tech savvy, um, are, are a definite part of our customer base.

And, and they, there is definite noise from that group around, well how, how, where, where is it for me? So we try and find other things for them, um, to drive more loyalty, but try to keep true to the heart of what we’re wanting to do with Power Shout.

Paula: Yeah, Yeah. And I do know there is always that, as you said, maybe social pressure or moral pressure perhaps that Yeah. You know, maybe vulnerable groups, for example, um, different demographics, mightn’t have access, access to email. You know, when I think about my father, for example, back in Ireland, you know, he still resists pretty much everything in the digital world. Um, so yes, of course as his family, we, we’ll make sure that he gets what he needs.

But, um, but it is a challenge, as you said, from a business perspective and with a proposition that’s as, um, as detailed and I suppose behind the scenes, I’m guessing quite complex, even though it’s super simple, of course, customer facing, those kind of things actually are probably make or break decisions in terms of being a requirment.

Andrew: Yeah, I mean, we got a lot of requests for, you know, can I phone the contacts center to book my hours? You know, and we, we were a bit soft on that upfront, and I’ll be honest, we, we and, and we felt the pain. Um, yeah, because, because there are customers who will, um, take the easy path. Yeah. Uh, and, and they don’t have to take that path, but they’ll choose it and it, and it costs you as a business.

Um, and, and you have to at some point pass that customer cost back on to other people. Totally. And so for the other loyal customers, that’s not fair.

Paula: Totally. Yeah. Yeah. No, I agree. So just how do they actually earn the power hours then? Um, Andrew is, what’s the, what’s the methodology or the thinking behind the earn side.

Andrew: Yeah. So one of the things we did look at was whether or not we wanted like an always on earned mm-hmm. . Um, and we actively decided against that. So we, what we wanted to look at, uh, what we did decide to look at was, um, particular moments in customer journeys where it mattered most. Mm-hmm. , um, or so particularly, uh, a join journey when a customer’s joining.

Um, how can we reward them with a bunch of hours? So a customer might get 50 or a hundred hours of free power when they sign up with us. Um, another critical journey customer journey for us is when customers move house, it’s often a point in time where customers will switch. Um, we see that as the highest switching trigger in the market from an industry point of view in New Zealand.

Yes. And so trying to reward customers, um, When they’re going into that journey, and then customers who stay with us in that journey has been really exciting. So, yeah. Um, we’ve started to, to look more strategically some of the data that we use, um, to understand when customers might be going into one of those journeys.

So often it’s available in most markets when a house is going on, on the market, right? You, you actually can see maybe when your customer’s house is listed and we can engage with them at that point in time before they’ve moved. Wow. Um, to reward them with some hours, which they can then take with them. So, Wow. Um, just getting really smart about how we are thinking about those critical moments of truth. Um, the, the other areas in which we, um, offer, um, Power Shouts are really around, um, giving us frontline staff who are servicing customers from time to time, the ability to offer what we call, uh, magic moments. So, um, they might be encountering a staff member who, a customer, sorry, who is, uh, struggling a bit.

It’s just maybe they’re having a bad week or it’s been a loyal customer who, um, has been with us for a long time. Um, but we just empower our frontline customer facing team to be able to give away the odd Power Shout, um, to customers, um, Nice and just, um, give that like surprise and delight moment. Um, uh, and then of course the traditional ways of online competitions that you do, social media campaigns, uh, engagement with the brand, um, is some other ways in which we, we look to give away, um, hours. So just building, building up in both from a brand point of view, but also in those key moments on customer journeys is where we’d found is, preferable over the top of it. Always on earn.

Paula: Gotcha, gotcha. And I would say that went down particularly well with your contact center, being able to, I suppose, feel like that they have a certain amount of autonomy to gift to your, to your customers when they feel they need to.

Andrew: Yeah. Look, I, I, it did, it went really well. Um, we, we had to, um, put some boundaries in place after a little bit because some people got really excited and really got into the moment of that surprise and delight. Um, totally. But that’s always good, right? That’s what you want. You want your people to engage with it and and to engage with the customer.

Yeah. Um, so yeah, that empowerment piece is really, is really important.

Paula: Yeah. Yeah. And, and, and with all of this said, um, we will talk about your gifting as well, Andrew, but I’m still, I suppose, most blown away by the, um, the customer churn that you mentioned. Um, I did look at your annual results announcement overall.

I mean, it’s just exceptional to see customer churn going down, you know, 3% in a year. Um, and, and you, you mentioned to me that you’ve been able to now get some data that, you know, Power Hour, um, and Power Shout specifically, is spec is actually directly driving that.

Andrew: Yeah. So what, what we’re, what we, we’ve been doing waiting for the research to sort of land around and have enough tenure to ensure that we’re, we’re, we are believing the data that’s there, but, um, but it actually came pretty hot off the press to me today actually, which is great. Wow. Um, and we’re actually seeing, some, uh, some clear stats where we are seeing a 40% reduction in customers who are engaging with the program in churn. Wow. So, um, you know, we are really finding for, for a low engagement category when we can drive that engagement through Power Shout and recognize and reward loyal customers, um, it does play its way out.

And obviously that, um, that feeds straight into the bottom line of a business, um, which is really important.

Paula: For sure, and I know it’s often quite hard to prove, so, you know, one of the, the challenges I think we have as loyalty professionals is sometimes there is a correlation, but being able to prove that, you know, in terms of the actual causation, um, it sounds like you’ve been actually able to say that Power Shout is driving churn reduction, categorically, you’ve been able to measure it, yeah?

Andrew: Yeah, no, definitely. And, and you know what, uh, the other thing that really surprised us that came through our research was, um, it’s actually playing into our acquisition space as well. Ooh. So, um, which, which is a different thing. So, um, 23% of customers, uh, who would join us say that Power Shout is one of the reasons they were joining.

Um, which is, which is pretty, pretty phenomenal for us. It means that we’re getting traction in the market with, um, with what we are, what we are doing, and, and that others are, other customers are seeing that, um, from competitors and going, actually I’d like a piece of a piece of that too. So, um, I think it’s when these propositions can land like this, um, their reach and influence, uh, can be, can be fantastic.

Paula: Yeah. And it sounds like that’s actual advocates then. That, that are actually referring, I guess, friends and family, because to me it’s definitely the kind of thing, we all know that from time to time the budgets might be available to talk, you know, above the line, for example, about something like Power Shout.

But I’ve often said on this program, Andrew, that unless, your customers and your members tell their friends and family, you’re kind of doomed like, like that’s the only way that we can afford to market our businesses is to leverage the power, obviously, of our members. So it does sound like that that’s coming through for you guys with Power Shout.

Andrew: Yeah, we definitely, we definitely seeing that, I think that word of mouth, that referral piece is playing its way out. Um, I think we’ve got some plans to build on that. We haven’t yet leveraged that as fully as we could, so I think there’s some opportunities in that space for us. Yeah. Um, to really leverage it further.

And, and that’s what I really love about the program is that it’s got flexibility in it to about it go after different, different territories and different opportunity areas. Um, to, to create more value.

Paula: For sure, for sure. And I know it’s one, it’s about five years running now at this point in time, isn’t it, Andrew? Since like 2018.

Andrew: Yeah, 2018. Yeah. Yeah. So, so since then, we’ve given away about 14 million hours, um, of, of free power, which is, which is, uh, Great. You know, customers, customers love that. Um, stunning. And, and we, we get about, um, about a third of our base engaging with a campaign each time we run one. So, um, that’s, that’s, that’s really fantastic.

Paula: Yeah. And tell us then about the, the gifting piece, which I know plays in the CSR space, um, which I think is one of your more recent propositions, which sounds lovely as well.

Andrew: Yeah, so we, we recently kicked off an opportunity because there are customers who, uh, receive Power Shouts, but may not feel they need it.

Um, or may feel like others might be more in need of that. And, and we are in a time, uh, in today’s society where there are people who are a bit more vulnerable and might need a bit of, a bit of a helping hand. Uh, and so we created an opportunity for customer. Um, to give some their free hours of power to, uh, a pool, a pool that could be then provided to vulnerable customers or customers facing financial hardship.

Yeah. Uh, and so we had over 130,000 hours given of free power, um, by our customers. Um, to, to assist, uh, assist some of those, um, vulnerable customers, which is great. So yeah, we’ve really been enjoying being able to give those away, um, yeah. To, to those customers. And as you can imagine, um, those that are receiving them are really just blown away by, yeah, by, that positive engagement by someone who they didn’t actually know, um, which is really nice.

Paula: Yeah, and again, I mean, again, an energy company like Genesis, I’m sure there was, you know, independent, let’s say, you know, propositions and CSR initiatives outside of loyalty. But I do love when they sit together in one place where, It, it to me then forms much more of a holistic part of the customer relationship.

Um, and I think what particularly impressed me about what you were sharing actually was, you know, so many of us, you know, have built charity propositions and not seen them really connect or land or be used because, I think what people say in research, um, consistently is, is much more, um, stronger, for example, in terms of expectations versus reality. Like when it comes to, you know, you know, I have this, you know, valuable currency now, so do I use it for myself and you know, when my, energy bill is probably going crazy. And what was, I think it was 23% you, you shared with us that actually do offer, you know, that, you know, gifted to a more vulnerable customer, which I just think is an extraordinary take up rate for a gifting or CSR proposition.

Andrew: Yeah. I, I mean, for, for us it’s, it’s how do you create that opportunity for people and then when you create that opportunity, um, you, you can be surprised, right? Totally. For people to do something different. Yeah.

Paula: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and I know you were matching it as well from a Genesis perspective, which I think was also a nice piece. Yeah.

Andrew: Yeah, so we matched it, um, hour for hour, which, um, you know, it’s our part to play in, in sort of helping, helping customers. I think, um, energy is a unique product and then it’s an essential service, you know? Yeah. Um, there’s the, you know, there’s not many, my hearts about society that our household can’t survive without electricity.

So we need to make sure that we are looking after all ins of, of, of society. And I think as a large generator, uh, retailer in the New Zealand, That’s part of our, uh, obligation is to look after, um, the market, not just target a small cis uh, segment of customers that we want to go after.

Paula: Yeah. Yeah. My goodness. Well, I think that’s all my questions actually, Andrew. As I said, I’m, I’m really just, you know, loving the work that you’re doing. Um, really an exceptional set of results, a proposition that’s very clear, very relevant, and again, I suppose the zeitgeist around everything from sustainability to, you know, all of these other values that the people really are looking for, seem to be coming through in terms of what Power Shout is delivering for your customers and it’s coming through in your bottom line in terms of reducing your churn in a way you can prove and be proud of. So huge congratulations from me. Um, so with that said, is there any other, I suppose, key points that I haven’t asked you about, do you think that you should mention for our listeners?

Andrew: Yeah, probably just one to touch on is probably, um, when we thought about the program, one of the things that we identified an opportunity to, to do was to really clo coalesce, uh, the, the loyalty program and what we’re trying to do with that, with the brand and what we’re trying to do with the brand from a proofpoint point of view.

So, uh, last year we had the opportunity to, um, with the loyalty program, Integrator into a brand marketing sponsorship campaign, we did. Um, so we had the privilege of sponsoring Emirate’s, Team New Zealand, uh, and the successful defense of the America’s Cup. Wow. Cool. And that was, that was awesome. So as, as part of that sponsorship, uh, we ran a campaign to get a bunch of loyal customers and kiwis and staff to wear, uh, some supporter shirts.

Mm-hmm. , um, and, uh, which tracked. Through some smarttech the amount of energy they were using while cheering on Team New Zealand. Oh cool. Um, and we then converted that energy into free hours of power, um, through a brand campaign and then gave that free hours of power out to, uh, 602 schools around the country.

So, um, it was a really way, great way to engage our broader customer base who, again, don’t, don’t normally do something with us, um, and something that was happening at a na, you know, it was a pretty big national event. The, um, yeah, the America’s Cup in New Zealand at the time. Um, and, uh, and so those customers, uh, and staff generated about 185,000 hours worth of power, which we gave out, uh, to those, uh, 612 schools, um, and that, wow, that’s about two weeks worth of free power for a school, my goodness. Um, so it was, it was a really great way to create that tangible demonstration of yeah, uh, where you leverage the capability that you’ve developed from a loyalty play, um, and bring it, bring to life a brand promise.

Paula: Totally. Totally. And I know then that also translates into things like your net promoter score and stuff. So you know, there are so many variables that just, you can feel the momentum and the build and the brand love. I guess that comes through when you’re able to do that, leveraging and harnessing across multiple divisions. That’s incredible. .

Andrew: Yeah. Yeah. So we are, um, we’re really excited about what’s playing through and it’s, um, you know, a shout out from me to the team that have actually been working on this. They’ve done a fantastic job. Yeah. Um, and, and credit to them.

Paula: Oh my goodness. Yeah. Well, I’m already looking forward to hopefully a second conversation with you, Andrew.

I kind of feel like, you know, this time, maybe next year for example, you guys will have built I’m sure so much more, cuz I know there’s a lot going on behind the scenes, uh, which is probably too early to discuss. Um, but listen, I just want to say again, a huge congratulations. I’m really impressed with everything that you’re doing.

So, Andrew Francis, Value Stream Owner for residential, for Genesis in New Zealand. Just wanna say huge thank you from Let’s Talk Loyalty.

Andrew: Thanks so much, Paula.

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