While price has understandably dominated B2B energy discussions over recent years, we're increasingly seeing service move back to the forefront of commercial conversations.
At contract renewal time, service quality is an important factor. In a market where many suppliers can offer competitive pricing, customers and brokers increasingly want confidence that organisations can deliver what they promised, before and after the contract is signed. Poor service can have a much greater commercial impact than many organisations expect.
The basics matter more than the extras
From our work across the industry, we know customers and brokers want consistent service. Nothing fancy, no gimmicks, just reliable service which covers the basics:
- Accurate billing
- Contracts that match what was agreed (fixed means fixed)
- Reliable metering and change of tenancy (CoT) processes
- Calls answered and emails responded to in a timely manner
- Clear service level agreements (SLAs) that are consistently met
- Issues fixed within a reasonable timeframe
Excellent service won’t usually win a contract on its own. Price, product and contract type are still important. However, organisations getting service basics right are more likely to secure customers and keep them for longer. They know commercial success is about consistently meeting customer expectations.
Mistakes can happen
Customers know suppliers make mistakes sometimes. But too many mistakes or unresolved issues lead to frustration. Particularly recurring billing errors, missed deadlines, or chasing the same issue twice.
Customers lose confidence and may switch to another supplier after inconsistent or consistently poor service. They see staying with a poor service provider as riskier than trying another.
Brokers see patterns, not incidents
In a broker-led market, the reputational and commercial risk grows faster. Brokers often spot recurring problems across multiple customers, meaning the margin for error can quickly become much smaller. One badly handled issue can quickly lead a broker to question whether the same problems exist elsewhere in your business, shaping how they view your organisation as a whole. And they may think twice about who manages their portfolio.
The commercial impact can include:
- Existing portfolios come under threat
- Reduced or lost accounts
- Fewer tender opportunities
- Smaller pipeline
- Broken relationships with key brands and individuals
- Higher cost to serve securing new clients
This is bigger than a service problem; it’s commercial too. Lost renewals, lower margins, long-term damage to reputation. Trust, once lost, is hard to win back.
Sales teams carry the weight
Sales and account teams are often the first port of call when something goes wrong. They didn't cause the billing error, or the missed meter read. But they inherit the problem.
Salespeople often get pulled in when billing, metering, credit and customer service don't work as one team. They’re firefighting or finding internal answers between siloed teams instead of selling.
The hidden risk of favours
A good account manager will know who in billing will answer a query quickly, or who in credit will review a deposit. This ‘favour’ workaround built on relationships rather than process helps many suppliers. But they also expose a weakness. In these environments, service depends on who you know, and individual stars within teams, not on what the business can reliably deliver.
This creates real commercial risks:
- Process failures or hurdles are hidden
- Customers get different outcomes depending on who manages their account
- Salespeople risk burnout and may leave
- Service quality drops when key people leave
- Customer churn increases
- Performance drivers become harder to spot
- Growth is harder to scale
Even the strongest sales teams struggle if the operating model behind them isn't consistent. Increasingly, we're seeing high-performing suppliers place as much emphasis on strengthening operational processes and customer outcomes as they do on developing sales capability.
What good looks like: one system, not silos
Many organisations are focusing on creating a more connected operating model, bringing together sales, service, operations and technology rather than treating them as separate functions. While every supplier approaches this differently, the aim is often the same: reduce unnecessary handoffs, free up firefighting time and prevent issues falling between teams.
Other operational benefits:
- Customer journeys are designed around the customer, not around internal teams
- Issues have clear ownership with fewer handoffs
- SLAs that are designed and monitored, not managed through informal favours
- Better data helps to flag the accounts that carry the most value or risk
- Cost to serve is lower
- Service models become proactive instead of reactive
Real-world proof this approach works
We've seen many of these challenges and opportunities firsthand through our work with B2B energy suppliers. While every organisation is different, we're increasingly seeing renewals and commercial performance influenced not just by price and sales capability, but by how easy suppliers are to do business with across the entire customer journey.
We help organisations take an end-to-end view of their operating model, simplifying customer interactions and identifying where sales and service need to work as one team rather than as separate functions.
For one supplier, we identified 14 sales process improvements and a TPI engagement strategy to unlock 200% margin growth.
“BFY was invaluable, identifying gaps and limitations that we didn’t know we had. The insight and supportive approach will really help us build for future success.” Director of Sales and Marketing at a B2B energy provider.
We also helped to:
- Raise the tender ranking from 10th to 3rd
- Uplift the annual total contract value by 24%
- Increase post-April high-value (>1Gwh) gains by 100%
Through our Sales Excellence and Commercial Transformation support, we help organisations find a clearer path to growth. Better-targeted service. Clear ownership across the whole customer journey. Sharper broker management. KPI driven strategies. Improving service standards and making the customer journey much easier.
Steps for commercial success
Sales excellence remains fundamental, but winning a customer is only part of the challenge. Increasingly, the commercial opportunity lies in keeping them. We're seeing more organisations revisiting how well their sales capability is supported by the wider operating model, as that’s often where renewals are won or lost.
Where service, operations and sales aren't working together, even the strongest sales teams can find themselves compensating for process issues elsewhere in the business. That can make it harder to deliver a consistent customer experience and place unnecessary pressure on the people responsible for winning and retaining accounts.
The organisations gaining traction are increasingly linking up sales, service and operations into one smooth system. A system and processes that allow every team member to deliver, not just the top performers. This consistency builds customer and broker confidence, strengthens renewal outcomes and helps protect margin over the long term
If there are gaps between service and sales in your organisation, they can quickly become commercial issues rather than just operational ones. If you’re sure you could do better, but aren’t sure where to focus your attention, contact Hannah Sword.
We can benchmark you against the industry, identify opportunities and talk through adapting your operating model to strengthen retention and protect margin.
