Energy and Climate Change CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by the Energy Saving Trust

The Energy Saving Advice Service

The Energy Saving Trust, with HGS UK, runs the Energy Saving Advice Service (ESAS) for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. This is a DECC-funded contract and the telephone service launched in April 2012. The Energy Saving Trust (EST) continues to deliver energy advice in Scotland also through the Energy Saving Scotland advice centres. EST has a long standing position as a national source of trusted advice on energy-efficiency and experience in providing consumers with energy efficiency advice.

ESAS Advisers provide advice on all energy-saving technologies and the funding options available for them. Information is given on all aspects of the Green Deal, for example how to find an Assessor. Information is also provided on the Energy Company Obligation including verifying customer eligibility for the Affordable Warmth scheme in conjunction with the Department for Work and Pensions (through an automated secure process), and all governments’ main energy-saving or renewable heat policies. Callers are referred or signposted to organisations that can help them to install the technologies.

We have been requested by the Committee to provide written evidence outlining ESAS’s role in relation to the Green Deal/ECO and what data it will be holding in that regard

1. ESAS Data and Reporting

The Energy Saving Advice Service collects data/statistics and reports to DECC (and the Welsh Government) on the following key areas:

Call volumes, including; calls offered and answered, calls answered within service level and average call handle time.

Contract service levels, including; customer satisfaction, complaints and number of referrals.

CRM customer details, including; customer details (inc. local authority and country), how caller heard about ESAS, and the reason for call and call outcome.

Referrals data to ECO Affordable Warmth participating energy suppliers and previously CERT suppliers.

This data is not made publicly available by EST or HGS.

1.1 DECC Reporting template

The following list provides all the current headings for the data which is compiled for DECC on a monthly basis and therefore records held by the Energy Saving Advice Service.

Service level and Credits

Service Level with Credit applied	Description
SLC1	Percentage of Call answered in 20 seconds
SLC2	Percentage of calls diverted to outflow service
SLC3	Percentage of the total contracted working time that the service is operational and taking calls
SLC4	Percentage of customers who receive a ringing tone for >60 seconds
SLC5	Percentage of e-fulfilments responded to within 30 seconds
SLC6	Customer Satisfaction
SLC7	Customer Empowerment
SLC8	The number of complaints
SLC9	Number of referrals
SLC10	Number of unique contacts leading to installation (not collated currently)
SLC11	Number and percentage of total of ECO Affordable Warmth of ECO referrals submitted within 24 hours following receipt of the DWP match results

Service Level	Description
SL1	Percentage of e-mail enquiries responded to within 24 hours
SL2	Percentage of events, coupons and fax responses processed within 2 working days
SL3	Percentage of complaints resolved within 10 working days for a simple complaint and 28 working days for a complex one.
SL4	Percentage of PQs (including AQs) responses sent to DECC/WAG within 1 working day

Contact Statistics

Measure
Number of inbound calls
Agent utilisation rate
Number of inbound English calls
Number of inbound Welsh calls
Number of inbound Northern Ireland calls
Calls to 0800 512 012 number (EST legacy number and Scotland)
Calls to 0300 123 1234 number (ESAS telephone number)
Number of inbound e-mails
Number of outbound e-mails
Average call duration
Complaints against Government Schemes
Number of ECO AW cases sent to DWP for verification
Number of ECO AW matched referrals issued in aggregate and per energy supplier
Number of ECO AW unverified referrals issued in aggregate and per energy supplier
Number of ECO AW unmatched results (ESAS outbound calls/letter)
Number of callers who do not consent to DWP data share
Number of ECO AW weekly data batches rejected by DWP upload

Reason for Contact and Origin of Contact Statistics

Reasons for contact	Origin of Contact
Behavioural Advice	Big Energy Saving Week
Business Policies	DECC or Directgov Website
CERT	Directory (eg Yellow Pages)
CERT Scheme	Energy Bill
Change of Details	Energy Saving Trust
Complaint	EPC
ECO	Green Deal Cashback Mailing Domestic
Energy Performance	Green Deal report
Energy Supplier	Internet Search
EPC Assessor	Leaflet
EST Advice Centre	Local Authority or Local Council
Financing Improvements	Local Campaign
FITs	Newspaper or Press
GD assessor	Previous Contact
GD Provider	Southern Water Enquiries
Green Deal	Warmfront
Heating	Word of mouth
Heating Ventilation & air conditioning
Insulation
Lighting
Making Home Improvements
Microgeneration
Microgeneration Signpost
Other
Referral/Signpost
RHI
RHPP
Understanding EPC/GD Report
Warmfront/Nest
Water
Water Heating

February 2013