Gerard Duggan

Archive for January, 2012

Are you paying too much for your telephone calls?

Whilst energy prices are rising the cost of telephone calls is falling but are you benefiting from these in your business?

One thing to look out for when you are checking your rates is to establish if you are on capped rates. Such rates are a great advertising tool for the telecoms industry to promote what appear to be cheap calls but in effect are not cost effective for most customers. Only those businesses with a call profile where almost all calls are at least 3 minutes long benefit from such a plan; a rare thing. The average call across the UK is in the region of 1.5 minutes.

Mobile calls are even more expensive on such a package as so many calls to mobiles are a matter of seconds long due to the number of calls to voice mail or ‘I’m just leaving the office’ calls!

To help you make the comparison between your current supplier and another, construct a table to illustrate how the two compare. If you need any assistance with this call me on 0845 604 1484 and I’ll arrange for one of clever telecoms team to help you.

All commercial businesses have a contract associated with their gas and electricity meters. Towards the end of the contract the energy supplier will issue a written renewal for the next period of supply. That supply period will be equivalent to the length of contract the customer has been in i.e. if you’ve been in a 12 month deal your renewal will be for another 12 months.

But how good is that renewal rate. By using commercial utility broker Utilitrack the saving you can achieve on a renewal can be significant. A recent example illustrates the point: one of my client’s, a motorcycle parts company, received their renewal from their current supplier; it showed a 34% increase or £835.00. My accounts team investigated the renewal and tested it against the market rate. As a result of our intervention we’ve been able to keep the client with the same supplier with only a minor increase of £58.00. A huge difference in a business with very low margins.

If you’d like me to check your renewal please call me on my direct line 01234-267883.

The recent announcement by the major energy companies in the UK is great news for home owners. Though most of their customers won’t see the benefit of the lower tariffs until the spring.

Business uses won’t see a reduction though as virtually every commercial business with a metered supply of gas or electricity is in a contract. Your current supplier won’t be breaking the contract to provide you with a lower tariff.

Commercial organisations need to continue to be aware of the terms of their contracts with their current supplier and be mindful of the roll-over trap. I’m still finding examples of businesses that unwittingly have been rolled into a new contract at non-market rates for another twelve or even twenty four months. A client in St Albans who runs a pizza franchise saved 36% on his gas bill when renewing through commercial energy brokers Utilitrack last week. That represented over £1700 of his current spend. I’d say that represents a lot of profit from a lot of pizzas.

If you are a commercial business and need an impartial, independent and trusted broker please Utilitrack on 0845 604 1484.

What resolutions for 2012 have you added to your things to do list?

Is one of them reviewing your energy costs?

As a business customer, switching energy supplier can make a big difference to your bottom line. In the current climate it is very difficult to increase ones prices to improve profits so best to focus on the costs in your business.

There are many suppliers in the market and it can be difficult to find the time to speak to more than a few of them to get a representative sample to measure the market rate.

Getting the timing right to know when to have those conversation is vital. Most businesses don’t know when their contracts end or when to serve notice so that they can leave their current supplier once it expires.

Understanding your contract is essential to comparison process. Ofgem wants to make sure that businesses understand how to compare deals and how to go about switching. They have produced a guide on their website but so much easier to have someone do the shopping for you!

Find a broker that is independent, transparent and free of charge. They will be able to help you with all the above issues.

Utilitrack is such a broker, we are independent of all suppliers and do not favour one supplier over another; we are transparent as we show our clients the results of our tender process and we are free. We do not take any share of any savings we make for you or charge you for the service. We are recognised by the suppliers who pay an industry standard commission based on usage and not your spend.

If you’d like to be in control of your energy budget please call Gerard Duggan on 0845 604 1484.