Npower are the retail arm of RWE npower, part of the RWE Group and a leading UK energy company. They are one of the largest UK energy suppliers, serving both residential and business customers.

Complaints calls received by Energywatch from business customers grew by 20% in 2003, accounting for 12-15% of all complaint calls received.

In response to this Energywatch established a Business Service Team, whose remit is on monitoring customer complaints, churn rates, and supplier prices.

Although undoubtedly important, this analysis is simplistic, ignoring several key issues – most critically it doesn't account for the general lack in awareness of the unit price being paid by, and the level of service which is received for this price. In response to this npower wanted to undertake a comprehensive survey to understand business customers’ attitudes and behavior within the energy market; and to ascertain the service levels these customers demand, in order to develop targeted products that offer real choice and value for money.

In order to establish a clear measure of how important different service elements are to business customers, Nunwood’s Market Analytics team set up an online adaptive conjoint, to test the relative importance of different service propositions.

To complement this, the Global Insight team utilised B2B CATI interviewing, to understand exactly how engaged business customers are in the energy market – how proactively they switch supplier and search for best deals, what experiences they’ve had, and how this affects their attitudes toward the market as a whole.

Armed with this research, npower are able to clearly identify the most important service factors that they should be offering to business customers; and also understand trade-offs that customers would be willing to make in order to receive the best service possible. Furthermore, by appreciating the way business customers view the energy market, npower strategy is focused not only on the right product, but how to deliver it to the market in the right manner.