Tracing pension pots and water sector trials

Digital Mover is currently being trialled by Southern Water (see below) but there is interest in the technology from a range of industries. Pension providers see benefits in being able to match old pension pots to addresses as people move home over the course of their career.

“There is a complex matrix, with a lot of pots held in different areas to keep track of, held by lots of different administrators. There is also close to £35 billion in assets relating to lost pensions where administrators cannot reconnect with individuals. So, if you are monitoring address changes, it enables administrators to be able to make contact with those individuals so their pension pots aren’t lost.” Local government is also interested in Digital Mover for council tax debt management, Mitchell explains.

At Southern Water, Capita is working on a proof-of-concept scheme using Digital Mover and a select cohort of the utility’s customers. The trial’s first aim was to demonstrate that it could predict house moves by Southern customers accurately. The next phase involved a communications exercise with those customers. “Southern Water is interested because accurate billing is vital for cash management and ensuring recovery of debt swiftly,” explains Mitchell.

Identification and engagement with vulnerable customers is another important aspect. Southern Water will ultimately be able to cross-reference customers who are moving with vulnerable customers and engage with them early to assist during the moving process.

The company has completed the first two months of the trial. “We are already seeing positives,” says Dan Taylor, head of customer, commercial and revenue at Southern Water, “including a reduction in Direct Debit cancellations.” Customers moving on without sharing their change of address is an issue he is determined to sort out; it costs Southern an eye-watering £2 million in stranded debt each month.

Southern Water was already working with Capita when the issue of customers moving on without updating their address was highlighted as particularly troublesome. “The Capita team explained they had this technology that could prompt us when customers were moving,” explains Taylor.

As well as the reduction in Direct Debit cancellations, there has been a significant drop in the level of stranded debt since the trial started (about £200,000), and good CSAT feedback about the system, too. Taylor says: “With something like this, you are nervous, because it means producing a final bill, or a new bill. There is always that question, ‘is this going to land well?’

“But the feedback has been really positive.”

He adds that although there have been some voice queries about the process from Southern Water customers, the number has been small (about 15 calls) and the calls have tended to reflect the fact that some customers ponder exactly how they have been tracked down. There haven’t been any complaints, however.

“On the whole, customers are happy we have engaged quickly. Once you move house, calling your water company is not your number one priority.” One lesson learnt, he points out, is to give contact centre agents a clear briefing on how Digital Mover works and what it does before curious customers start getting in touch.

Would Taylor recommend the system to other water companies? “100%. It is adding value already. We’ll be recommending that the water-only companies we work on behalf of adopt it.”

The Southern Water trial will run until the end of the financial year, before tripling in size. “Then we will take stock and ask what good looks like, which parts of the business we can use Digital Mover in, and where we can use it earlier,” explains Taylor.

He adds: “Our bills are going up and we don’t want to generate a pipeline of voice calls going into the next AMP.

“If we don’t get it right, or there are long delays in billing customers, that means millions of pounds just sitting there.”

Digital Mover is likely to become a business-as-usual exercise each month, and Taylor already anticipates a positive debt position of £15 million as a result of using the technology. When Digital Mover is used more extensively over a full financial year, he believes the benefits could accrue to £35 million.

“We’ve only scratched the surface of what’s possible.”