- Auditel Consultant:
- David Gray
The Auditel Difference
04 Aug 2010 | Filed under: Cost Management, EnergyI’ve gone into print again this month in the Lancashire Business View magazine. This time around I thought that I’d do a case study. Of course, here at Auditel, we endeavour to assist clients across a wide spectrum of overhead categories. It is still a fact, however, that energy plays an important part in our portfolio of services. My experience shows that it is the area where we are most likely to encounter opposition, objections and competition.
Many businesses already have their energy sourced for them by an energy broker, so why do they need me? Well, I have a client who was in this situation when I first got involved, but now I look after all of the energy supply management. A dozen separate supplies in total. How? Why did my client change to Auditel? Please read the article and I hope you will be convinced to change too.
The Auditel Difference
My last article provided an overview on the benefits of outsourcing your cost management. One of the core areas Auditel look at is energy. “But I already use an energy broker and it doesn’t cost me anything, so why should I use Auditel?” This is a common objection to change.
Aside from the fact that Auditel cover many other cost areas apart from energy, which means you can have many of your overheads managed by just one entity, there is a difference. I have a client who used an energy broker when I first got involved on other projects. I now manage all of the energy contracts for this client. So how did I win the client’s trust? How did I make a difference?
Have you met your energy broker? Perhaps, but I would guess not. My service involves coming into a client’s premises to personally collect data for an historical audit. During this process, I discovered a couple of supplies that were not being looked after by the broker. As these supplies were out of contract, I received permission to look after them. During the process of arranging contracts, it became apparent that one of the supplies had some billing errors going back four years. I obtained a rebate for over £5,500.
On another occasion a long term gas contract came to an end. The broker gave only two days notice before the end of the contract, offering prices over £25,000 higher than before, due to current market conditions. The client had been paying a low price for several years, but received no updates on the market to ease the pain or help budget going forward. That is not part of the service for many brokers. I stepped in and made a saving of over £11,000 on the broker offer. For another electricity supply I spotted under billing problems going back eight months, even though the broker was doing bill validation.
Now I’m not saying brokers do a bad job. They just do a different job. If you would like a more personal service that manages your overheads throughout the year, then consider cost management. Consider Auditel.
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