How much would business energy prices have to rise before you’d act?
In our Business Energy Barometer survey, we asked business how much their energy prices would have to go up by before they’d take action to cut their bills back down to size.
Encouragingly, 49% said that prices would have to go up by 10% or less before they’d do something, which indicates that these businesses probably have a good idea of the impact of energy bills on their business and will be able to cope with price rises.
However, 25% said that they didn’t know how much prices would have to rise before they’d act.
Why does it matter? Well, it suggests that these businesses might not have a full understanding of what an increase in their energy bills could do to their profitability.
When you split the data and compare the answers given by businesses that have switched their energy supplier to businesses that have never switched, you see an interesting pattern.
45% of businesses that haven’t switched answered ‘Don’t know’ and they also tended to say that only significantly higher percentage prices rises would prompt them to act.
Meanwhile businesses that have switched, understandably, seemed a lot more sensitive to price rises: 29% said price rises of less 6% of less would be enough to get them to act.
The results seem to suggest that businesses that don’t switch energy supplier just aren’t as switched on (if you’ll excuse the pun) when it comes to their bills and the impact on their business. The process of comparing and switching does give you an awareness of how prices measure up and can help you to figure out where you’re tipping point is, in terms of bills becoming unaffordable.
The key, as ever is to engage, understand and act. To not to is the business equivalent of the ostrich’s head in the sand.