In the latest of our series of guest blogs, E.ON TPI Code Manager and former Non-Executive for Business Juice Duncan Sedgwick explains why the E.ON TPI Code of Practice is a force for good in the business energy market.
The Code of which Business Juice is a founder member was launched in July 2012 and is intended to be a set of rules and guidelines for business energy brokers and business energy price comparison websites.
Here, Duncan talks about why it was the right time for a Code to be implemented:
It is approximately ten years since a Code of Practice was introduced for face-to-face energy selling in the residential sector. Although there has been a valiant effort from the Utilities Intermediaries Association (UIA) to introduce a Code for third party intermediaries (TPIs), operating in the business sector there has not been universal take up and energy suppliers have not got involved.
It is time for that to change.
For far too long business customers have not had sufficient protection from some less than honest salesmen and we need to see the interests of the customer properly protected.
I am aware that some believed that we should have wait for Ofgem to make a ruling on the Code. That may well have been beneficial but we could not afford to wait any longer. Self-regulation by the entire sector will see proper customer protection. E.ON, in 2012, established a stand-alone, independent code with separate code management, including independent professional audit and mystery shopping that will improve standards and see improvements in the overall customer experience.
E.ON is prepared for this to be a blueprint for the future and although it is currently the only supplier involved it is calling on all TPIs and suppliers to follow suit and join the Code.
As an industry we often wait for problems to get really bad before we do anything. What were we waiting for this time?
For more information on the TPI Code visit our dedicated pages and our Customer Charter commitment, which underline the Business Juice approach to continuing to take the lead in benchmarking high standards for the rest of the market. TPI or Supplier, to follow.