Accessibility and relevance. Something extra from British Gas Business

The challenge

In a difficult energy market, providers such as British Gas Business are under pressure to distinguish themselves from competitors through their service, rather than cutting margins.

British Gas Business undertook research to find out precisely what corporate customers wanted in terms of service and then worked to deliver it.

Our goal was to find a way of keeping British Gas Business customers informed and updated on the ever-changing state of the energy market, in turn making the working lives of their customers that much easier to manage.

The solution

Support Stream evolved from a strategic planning process between Base One and British Gas Business. Base One presented Support Stream as a new flow of information between customers and British Gas Business.

Support Stream has been received particularly well by British Gas Business's customers because of its accessibility and relevance. Prior to Support Stream, the delivery of this information was complicated as it could require customers to search a variety of different sources in very different formats.

With Support Stream we are able to amalgamate our information delivery via an RSS feed, producing it in a central location and in a format that is in line with British Gas Business's brand values. The RSS feed also means that the information is timely and relevant with shorter news stories being added every couple of days and more in-depth articles on a week-by-week basis.

Tailored info delivery is aided further by the design and implementation of a supporting desktop application which enables customers to select those areas of the energy industry that are of interest. These are then populated within the desktop application, where they are broken down into important reporting areas, such as pricing, policy, regulation etc. Weekly and monthly reviews are also published.

Result:

In the trial launch of the website we were able to obtain an impressive hit rate of 20% through an email broadcast, with 25% of those landing on the home page taking the opportunity to sign in.

If this response rate continues as the service is rolled out to all customers, British Gas Business will have established meaningful dialogue and brand presence with over 800 corporate decision-makers and influencers controlling purchasing power of over £25m.

With further broadcasts forthcoming and a wider release to our customer base, we are looking forward to strengthening our relationships with our key customers. We are also using this as an internal tool to enhance the knowledge of our people with British Gas Business. Providing all the information in an easy-to-read and engaging format will help us to increase the knowledge base of our account managers and in return enhance and build upon our existing customer relationships, strengthening our image as experts in the energy industry.