Customer Insight

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Turn customer data into meaningful action

Utility providers are under increasing pressure to balance customer outcomes with commercial performance. Understanding which customers may be struggling financially, identifying those who need additional support, and helping customers stay on top of their energy usage all require timely, accurate insight.

PayPoint's Customer Insight solutions leverage consented Open Banking data and transaction intelligence to help utility providers better understand customer circumstances, improve engagement strategies and make more informed operational decisions.

By moving beyond traditional account and payment data, providers can gain a richer understanding of customer behaviours and financial resilience, helping deliver better outcomes for both customers and the business.

Identify financial pressure before it becomes financial distress

Vulnerability Analysis

Financial vulnerability is not static. A customer's circumstances can change quickly due to rising living costs, changes in employment, unexpected expenses, or wider economic pressures. Customers who have previously managed their energy bills comfortably may begin to experience financial difficulty with little warning.

Using consented Open Banking data and transaction intelligence, utility providers can gain a more current understanding of changing financial circumstances and identify indicators that may suggest emerging vulnerability.

Potential indicators may include:

Potential indicators may include:

  • Changes in income frequency or consistency
  • Increasing reliance on credit facilities or overdrafts
  • Rising essential household expenditure
  • Changes in bill payment behaviour
  • Reduced disposable income
  • Signs of declining financial resilience

Importantly, these indicators should never be used to automatically classify a customer as vulnerable. Instead, they provide additional context that can help utility providers identify when further support, tailored communication or a different engagement approach may be appropriate.

A more proactive approach to customer support

By identifying potential signs of financial pressure earlier, utility providers can take a more proactive approach to customer engagement, helping to deliver appropriate support before issues escalate into debt, arrears or self-disconnection.

This can support a range of customer-focused initiatives, including:
Confirmation Of Payee
  • Early intervention strategies
  • Tailored payment plans
  • Affordability assessments
  • Vulnerability support programmes
  • Improved collections outcomes
  • Better customer experiences

Benefits of Vulnerability Analysis

  • Earlier identification of customers who may need support
  • Improved customer outcomes
  • Better-informed affordability decisions
  • More effective customer engagement
  • Enhanced regulatory and consumer duty alignment
  • Reduced risk of escalating debt issues
Make every customer interaction more effective

Top-up Decisioning

For providers serving customers with prepayment meters, top-up activity can offer valuable insight into customer behaviour and changing financial circumstances.

Top-up Decisioning uses customer payment patterns, transaction data and behavioural indicators to help utility providers better understand how customers are managing their energy accounts and identify opportunities for intervention where appropriate.

By analysing trends and behaviours across customer portfolios, providers can make more informed decisions about engagement strategies, support services and collections approaches.

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Supporting smarter customer engagement

By moving from reactive to proactive engagement, utilities can provide support at the right time, helping customers maintain access to essential services while improving operational efficiency.

Insight from top-up activity can help utility providers:
Employees And Customers
  • Identify customers whose top-up behaviour has changed significantly
  • Detect potential indicators of financial pressure
  • Support customers at risk of self-disconnection
  • Deliver targeted communications and support
  • Improve customer service interventions
  • Prioritise outreach efforts more effectively

Better decisions through data

Top-up Decisioning can help utility providers:
Employees And Customers
  • Improve customer segmentation
  • Enhance customer support strategies
  • Better understand payment behaviours
  • Reduce unnecessary operational interventions
  • Inform affordability and support programmes
  • Drive more personalised customer communications

Benefits of Top-up Decisioning

  • Improved customer understanding
  • Earlier identification of emerging issues
  • Better prioritisation of support resources
  • Increased operational efficiency
  • Enhanced customer engagement
  • More effective decision-making

Why PayPoint?

Open Banking Expertise
Leverage secure, consented customer data to gain deeper insight into customer circumstances and financial resilience.
Customer-Centric Design
Put customer outcomes at the heart of operational decision making with data-driven insights that support better engagement.
Actionable Intelligence
Move beyond static data and gain access to real-time information that helps identify emerging trends and risks.
Enhanced Operational Efficiency
Enable teams to focus resources where they can have the greatest impact through smarter segmentation and prioritisation.
Better Customer Outcomes
Support affordability, vulnerability and financial wellbeing initiatives with richer customer insight.

Creating smarter, more informed customer engagement

The best customer experiences are built on understanding. PayPoint's Customer Insight solutions help utility providers identify changing customer circumstances, improve engagement strategies and deliver timely support that benefits both customers and the organisation.

Talk to our team