Add your feedback on energy supplier Green Star Energy

Complaint about your on boarding process
I’d like you to share this message with the managers responsible for your UX design and for customer on-boarding.

I’ve spent about 40 minutes this morning to provide you with my opening readings, and my first impressions of your customer service and organisation are bad already. I’ve spent another 10+ writing this email as a result. Your on boarding process is the problem.

I’m impressed how quickly you arranged the handover (I would have preferred to have my handover on 31st May when my fixed rate ends, but no-one seems to offer that yet).

a. Your ‘Transfer Date Letter’ asks for opening meter readings, and says the easiest way is to use your website. I went there and couldn’t log in, it turned out that I didn’t have an account, but you failed to explain that I had to create one separately. Why did you not create an account for me, or at least mention in the email that/what I would need to do that? You’ve not made it easy for me to get onboard, instead you’ve set a puzzle for me to solve. I searched my email for details of an account invitation, attempted to renew my password, to be told that my email address wasn’t recognised (even though you have it and use it - I understand these will be on separate systems, but come on guys, join up your processes!).

b. I use a password manager (as many do) to avoid remembering the complex passwords I use to keep my account (and by extension your system) safe, yet you limit my password to 8 chars. Why limit your security if your customers are willing to use complex passwords? As a standard I use 24 random chars with all char types. Equally, on registration you prevent pasting values into the password confirmation field, which was inconvenient.

c. When I had finally created my account, I went to submit a meter reading, but your site said that I could not because you didn’t have my meter numbers (they’re in the photos attached to this email, btw). Why suggest that online submission is simple, when it’s a protracted process, and can eventually turn out to be impossible?

d. Next I tried calling the number you provided, it offered me the option to provide meter readings to an automated system before it offered me a person to talk to, so I took the automated option. I entered my account number as requested, and the system told me that it could not accept a meter reading because my account was not yet active. If your phone system is designed in a way to direct customers to an automated service that won’t work for new customers (where you should be making good impressions), why not put in a separate number that will work, and share that number in your ‘Transfer Date Letter’? Suggesting new customers give opening readings by phone will result in them taking the first option you give them to do so, and I expect they will all have the same experience as me.

Two attempts, two failures, at this point I’m getting seriously frustrated. You’ve given me two bad directions, and I’m just trying to give you two numbers as you’ve asked which shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.

e. So next I tried calling your call team, who shouldn’t be burdened with this information, especially if you’re experiencing a step up in your new customer intake thanks to a deal that your company made with Money Saving Expert. I’ll bet it’s been manic there, and testing your call centre staff’s patience, which would probably do nothing for your staff turnover. I waited for 10 minutes before hanging up. The automated recordings kept telling me I could use the automated services to submit meter readings - if I hadn’t already tried it I would have at this point because I’m sick of hearing the recording go around and around and around. The way your system is working here is setting you up for failure and complaint, customers choosing to use their right of withdrawal, and increasing your call volume because they will end up hanging up, failing to make the automated system work, and calling again, giving your staff a hard time - it is your poorly designed on boarding process doing this.

f. Finally I’ve chosen to send you an email and sort it out in your own time. I was able to give EDF a meter reading in 2 minutes using their app (by sending them photos of my meters). I am not going to waste my time installing and setting up your app because I do not have confidence that it will do what I want it to, because of my experience outlined above. I suspect it’s a wrapper for your web interface, rather than an actual app, in which case my bad experience would be compounded.

So your staff will have to deal with an enquiry that your automated systems could have handled, which has instead resulted in several calls and a lot more man-hours than is neccessary. And now you’ve got this complaint to deal with too.

Hopefully this account of my experience will help you find the glitches in your system and smooth them out.