[ad_1]
UK-based payments platform GoCardless notes that Yorkshire Energy CEO Anne Faulder, who has a background in executive roles in local and central government (and the NHS), understands how building a “strong culture” around shared values is “vital” for any business that wants to “make a mark” in its industry.
As noted in an update shared with CI, Yorkshire is a Leeds-based energy startup that launched in early 2018, following a period of “careful groundwork-laying.” The company is well-known by its 40+ team members and “felt by its entire customer base.”
The company says that “everything we do at Yorkshire Energy has to make us fair, hassle-free, sustainable and innovative.” The firm’s management also noted that they “want to change the relationship between energy suppliers and customers.”
Yorkshire Energy’s electricity is sourced “solely from wind power, 90% of the team commute to their city-centre office by foot, by cycling or on public transport, and the company passes on efficiency savings to its tens of thousands of customers,” the update from GoCardless noted.
In the run-up to launch, Annie realized that there needed to be a way for accepting recurring payments that met all of the firm’s “core” values.
Annie reveals that her company spoke to five different payment service providers. She claims that they chose GoCardless because of their “flexibility” and “patience” and their “desire to help [them] achieve the most from any future partnership.”
After a careful look at how GoCardless would work, Yorkshire Energy’s management said they were confident in their ability to properly collect payments “at scale, easily send customers payment-related communications, all while using their own recognizable branding at every touchpoint.”
As noted in the update:
“Having decided on GoCardless, the next step for Yorkshire Energy was to have the platform fully up and running. … Annie was surprised by the speed of the API integration. It took just two days to be fully operational. GoCardless was up and running before we had even noticed.”
As well as the “hard-and-fast” payment success metrics, Yorkshire Energy reports seeing various other benefits by using GoCardless.
The Yorkshire team revealed:
“We’re adding an average of 1,500 customers every month, with 100% of them using GoCardless.”
The business has a small team that takes care of customer billing, and their time spent actively using the GoCardless portal “amounts to a mere one hour a week.” Although Yorkshire Energy places a “huge emphasis” on the billing experience, Damian Clements, Finance Director at the energy startup, explains the “lack of time chasing and reconciling payments allows them to focus on the long-term.”
The Yorkshire team added:
“The systems provided by GoCardless give us clear visibility on cash flow and payments into the business. The daily reports are reliable and easy to read, enabling our team to spend time growing the business rather than cross-checking payments.”
The update also mentioned:
“Like the wider energy market, the company is constantly evolving, and it has ambitions to give their customers even further autonomy over their energy payment plans. However, despite Yorkshire Energy adding thousands of customers every single month, their values remain at the core of everything:”
Damian remarked:
“We have ambitious growth plans, but we’ll always put our customers first, rather than growing the business at all costs. We have a responsibility to transform the national energy market and give back to the local community we work in.”
[ad_2]
Source link
