Our Commitment To Helping Vulnerable Customers

We’re committed to fostering a better experience for customers with vulnerabilities. Our Vulnerability Group aims to meet with customers, seeking to better understand their experiences so we can improve our services. We supply energy to a diverse community of people, and tailoring our approach is at the heart of our ethos as a supplier.

What are vulnerabilities?

When we talk about people with vulnerability, we’re referring to someone deemed more at risk due to their personal circumstances. This means they may be less able to protect or represent their interests when it comes to energy. They could have a long-term health condition or have experienced a negative change in their circumstances that has greatly affected them. Our Vulnerability Group is about creating a space where we can learn from our customers who may have vulnerabilities that mean they may require extra support.

How we help vulnerable customers

Priority Services Register is a free way for vulnerable customers to get help from their energy supplier. Whether you have trouble reading your bill or rely on our energy to run essential medical equipment at home, our Priority Services are designed to give you peace of mind. If you’re already a So Energy customer, you can log in to your account and sign up.

Hearing directly from our customers

Meeting with our Vulnerability Group enables us to better understand the challenges some of our vulnerable customers may experience and ways we can improve in the future.

We recently spoke with longtime So Energy customer Robert Taylor, an author who is a Severely Sight-Impaired Person (SSI), who noted that he would love to see us shift towards a mobile app, as sometimes websites can feel a bit awkward to navigate. Since working with our Vulnerability Group, Robert has been able to customise his bill payment procedure to create a visually accessible routine – which sees a customer service representative call Robert each month to talk through a comprehensive breakdown of his energy bill, which Robert can pay over the phone.

On working with So Energy’s Vulnerability Group, Robert says:

“I’ve been registered with So Energy’s Priority Services Register since becoming their customer, and it means a lot that they take the extra step to consider their customers’ individual experiences as a way to improve their own ways of working.

Before being registered with So Energy’s PSR, I had to pay my bills online, which could be very challenging due to a lack of accessibility options like audio functions. I found paying my bills to be a real pain in the neck, and often left me unclear about what I was paying for each month – and So Energy's Vulnerability Group worked closely with me to develop a new process that suited my lifestyle and needs to relieve some of that burden.

The Vulnerability Group have also been very receptive to my suggestions, like the possibility of shifting to a mobile app for easier access, and the personal touch of a call from a customer service representative every month not only takes the stress out of reading and understanding my energy bills, but also adds the personal touch of being able to connect with a real person, and makes me feel that the So Energy team are on my side.”

Robert also documents his experiences traveling while blind on his blog, which offers an interesting insight into how people with vulnerabilities navigate everyday life. Meeting with customers like Robert helps us to plan for how we can improve our services for vulnerable customers as well as across the board.

In addition to sharing his lived experiences, Robert is a published author. His latest novel, Wish Dead List, is a gripping psychological thriller exploring themes of justice, trauma, and human resilience. You can find out more about Robert’s writing and his books at roberttaylorauthor.co.uk.

Do you need extra help?

If you’re a customer who has a vulnerability and have not already let us know, you can register for our Priority Services Register via your online account. Or feel free to get in touch to learn more about how we can tailor your experience with So Energy.

‍