Transforming field sales at SSE Airtricity

“PSI is the real deal. For us, they have been instrumental in improving our sales system and processes. Whenever someone comes to us with a problem we know we our team has the tools needed to deliver a solution and do it on time. When we started our journey with PSI we had a lot of things that we wanted to improve. They have been instrumental in our improvements and helping us to become a real leader in our industry.”

Overview

SSE Airtricity is a leading green energy company which supplies 100% green electricity, natural gas and essential services to customers across the island of Ireland. The company employees around 1000 people and is proud to be a Living Wage employer and certified as a Business Working Responsibly. The company has a longstanding commitment to doing the right thing, and this is also clear in how they have transformed their door-to-door sales function.

We spoke with Ernest Asensio, Retail Efficiency & Systems Manager and Eoghan Ward, Sales System Manager to learn more and discover how PSI helped empower this transformation.

The Problem

  • Manual processes and disconnected systems created a myriad of inefficiencies & problems
  • Frequent internal & external audits meant the paper-based approach used by sales reps were unsustainable

Before SSE started working with PSI 12 years ago, there was massive expansion in the company and a technology solution was needed for the door to door selling. At the time, reps were writing sales into books and this paper based approach led to all sorts of complications and problems. Poor handwriting, incomplete forms, broken sales… the problems were mounting up. With frequent internal and external audits in this highly regulated market, their field sales processes were unsustainable and it was a huge problem for the company to sort out.

“When we initially went on the doors, the business was potentially exposed by no traceability on how the field agents were selling, we needed to put a rigid structure and processes in place to mitigate this risk,” Ernest says.

The challenges faced were not confined to door to door selling, other parts of the business connected with Sales were impacted by manual processes and system issues which needed improvement – from an efficiency perspective all the way to mitigating the risk of errors.

This included the contact centre where engagements were not scripted, and the manual approach led to errors, and broken sales. A long term digitally transformative solution was needed.

Solution

Working closely with SSE Airtricity, PSI made an immediate impact on the company’s sales. Using PSI Fusion, sales now had end to end traceability and if a complaint was made regarding a sale, PSI Fusion enabled SSE to investigate any issues and clearly see what happened and how it could be rectified in real time and provide future learning opportunities which would become part of their sales training.

“PSI made a huge difference immediately, from simple things like not having to decipher bad handwriting to less broken sales, with limited risk of mis-selling. Once the PSI system was in place, it created very robust processes that were very easily auditable – who did what, when, where, what the customer agreed to, why they signed up.” Ernest says.

“This is a huge benefit for internal oversight, especially as we are a regulated business. We have internal and external audits that happen frequently, due to the PSI system, everything they need to see is there and easily accessible. We can have all our audit information ready to go in a couple of hours, helping to make us one of the most efficient parts of the business and allowing us to really concentrate on the quality of the data we’re providing.” Eoghan added.

“Communication is key for us, making sure the solution is able to get the right information to the right people at the right time. It’s important for the customer so they know what they are signing up for, the terms and conditions, and so on. It’s also important as a backup for the business so we can prove that we have delivered the right information to the customer in case of any challenges or queries that arise.”

Internal relationships boosted

The success of the partnership with PSI, led to other parts of the business looking for similar solutions. “When other departments start their sales force automation journeys they see our team as the experts – which enables us to build strong internal relationships and embed our team in the strategic direction of the business,” Ernest says.

During the pandemic, SSE Airtricity, had to respond quickly to changing situations and approached PSI to collaborate on how they could enable the business to deliver more with their current resource level and in the right way for their customers. “Time is a major factor in this, we needed to respond to changing requirements both initially from dialling up web functionality for business units, but also recurring as these business units would have a lot of frequent product changes. While we could deliver and develop it in-house, it would require our digital team to build a new platform and adapt our API. The main reason is the product set as it changes frequently, and PSI Touchstone enables us to respond quicker and easier to save resources across multiple departments.”

Outcomes

  • Backend automation improved sales efficiencies, and have been incorporated across other arms of the business.
  • Quality of sales processes, data captured, and rep behaviour in the fields notably improved.
  • 2-3 week lead time for audits reduced to a couple of hours.

As the business saw the impact PSI has had on the domestic field, tele and web sales, they have now expanded across the other arms of the business such as Business Energy and SSE Airtricity Gas Northern Ireland. The tech solution includes back end automation and checks to improve the quality of our sales process, the data captured and how agents interact with customers.

“Compliance is always a top priority, it’s part of our DNA and very important from a reputation point of view. When it comes to sales we really believe there is never a wrong time to do the right thing, and for us the right thing is ensuring our customers are happy with the product and service they are signing up to as well as knowing about their terms and conditions and how to contact us if they need after-sales help,” Eoghan says.

“The PSI team is very easy to work with. Our ways of working are done using an agile, transparent and non-bureaucratic approach. Whilst this provides a fast connection between both teams it still provides robust & consistent checks and balances. If we have a question, we will have an answer in 20 minutes, because we can just pick up the phone and speak with Rachel.”