Last month, The Customer Service Blog
reported on an embarrassing gaffe by the energy company Ovo, who had given
their customers ridiculous and insulting energy saving advice, such as 'doing a few star jumps' and 'cuddling pets'.
But it seems that Ovo are not the only
energy company who are far removed from the realities of the everyday life of
their customers. In a new energy supplier gaffe, E.On (the UK's second biggest
energy supplier) has been forced to apologise for sending socks to customers in
a bid to encourage them to turn the heating down!! This is an appallingly crass
and insensitive marketing gimmick, at a time when customers are facing a
massive cost of living crisis, driven by a massive jump in energy prices.
The forthcoming energy price cap looks
likely to add around £600 to the annual gas and electricity bill of a typical
household.
So what has E.On done wrong?
The company sent the socks to 30,000
customers who responded to an energy-saving campaign last year. The socks were
sent by E.On Next - an arm of the company which sells and promotes renewable
electricity. They came with a message encouraging people to leave "lighter
footprints" by turning heating down and lowering carbon emissions.
However, many customers have reacted
with anger - especially when they were sent to elderly relatives who are facing
a massive hike in bills.
E.On later posted a message on Twitter
saying: "If you recently received a pair of socks from us, we would like
to say we are incredibly sorry for how we have made some people feel. In light
of the seriousness of current challenges that many people are facing, this
mailing should have been stopped and we are sorry."
In a subsequent statement, a spokesperson for E.On said: "This activity was in no way designed to detract from the
seriousness of the current energy crisis. This campaign originally went ahead
last year and was intended as a fun way to encourage people to think about
'lightening your carbon footprint' and isn't meant to be anything to do with
the current challenges many people are facing."
The View of The Customer Service Blog
This latest customer service gaffe by
an energy company came on the same day that a group of charities called on the
government to take urgent action to tackle the energy price crisis. The 25
charities, including Age UK, End Fuel Poverty Coalition, Save the Children,
WWF, Green Alliance and Greenpeace, have said that emergency funding is needed
to support the most vulnerable members of society.
But what does this marketing gaffe tell us about the energy companies themselves, and the people who work for them? According to Darren Bugg, the Editor of The Customer Service Blog, this type of insensitive marketing campaign is typical of big companies that become out-of-touch with their customers.
He said: “I’ve worked in marketing for
over three decades, and in that time I’ve seen numerous embarrassing and
downright insulting marketing campaigns that have been dreamt-up by highly paid
yuppie marketing professionals who are sat smugly in flashy London office
blocks.”
“These marketing executives are
usually very intelligent young graduates that have gone straight from the ivory towers
of university life into cushy roles with massive blue-chip
corporations. They know nothing about the ordinary lives of ordinary customers, and
so they are incapable of understanding what the typical customer is really
experiencing and thinking.”
“Posting out free socks as a marketing
gimmick to vulnerable and poor customers might sound clever. But it is a downright stupid idea. It sounds
like something that was conceived around the boardroom table of a London
skyscraper by highly-educated yuppies who are ‘high’ on too much organic
espresso, or whatever 'powdered substance' takes their fancy. And this is not meant as a joke!”
“Marketing and good customer service should always go hand-in-hand - they are inextricably linked. To be successful in business, you MUST fully understand and empathise with your customers. Unfortunately many of the yuppies who work in marketing and customer service roles for big corporations are entirely removed from the real world of their customers.”
© 2022 Darren Bugg
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