Npower to launch new TV campaign

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 15:37:22 GMT

npower will launch a new TV campaign promoting its new easier to understand bills from the beginning of February.

The new npower energy bills have been designed incorporating feedback from both Consumer Focus (the statutory consumer champion for the UK) and Which?. The bill carries the Plain English Crystal Mark for its 'Jargon Busting' page.

The new 20 second TV ad, designed and produced by Aardman Animations, features 'Penny', npower's customer service representative, solving a 'Countdown-style' conundrum.

The new TV ad will be supported by a multi-media campaign that includes sponsorship of regional quiz and crossword pages, print advertising in match-day programmes across npower Football League clubs and a competition to win an Apple Ipad on npower.com.

Kevin Peake, marketing director at npower said: "Over the last year a criticism often levelled at energy suppliers is that gas and electricity bills can be complicated to understand. We decided at an early stage to take action and started to make changes to the lay-out.

"We deliberately sought feedback from some of the industry's fiercest critics, Consumer Focus and Which? and, where possible, we have included their recommendations. We will continue to seek feedback and constantly review our bills."

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About npower:
npower is one of the top energy suppliers to the UK business market, serving over 238,000 small to medium sized enterprise sites and around 17,000 industrial and commercial customers, with over 100,000 sites.

npower is proud sponsor of the npower Football League, including the npower Championship, npower League 1 and npower League 2.

npower is dedicated to helping UK businesses use energy more efficiently and therefore spend less money on their bills. It aims to have a positive impact on the communities it serves and reduce its customers' carbon footprint whilst always improving its service to its customers.

npower bill gets top marks for plain English and clarity

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 09:50:30 GMT

npower is introducing new bills for its customers. The new bill, based on extensive research and feedback from customers, call centre staff and consumer groups, has received the Plain English Campaign’s Crystal Mark for clarity for its information page.

The front page of the new bill has been designed with a 'less is more' approach. It is extremely clear and easy to read, with the front page summary now simply showing the customer's account details; npower's customer service number; exactly how much the customer owes or is owed; whether the bill is estimated or based on a meter reading; and emergency contact details.

On the second page, there is a 'jargon buster' section, which clearly explains the unavoidable technical terms that have to be included on any energy bill, such as 'calorific value' and 'correction factor'. It also talks customers through 'what’s a watt?' and explains exactly how npower works out customers' bills.

The third page, detailing how the customer's account balance has been calculated, has been amended to make the calculations clearer and also includes an energy usage graph so that customers can compare their usage over a set period of time to the corresponding period the previous year.

"Our discussions with customers and stakeholders have told us that people want their energy bills to be clearer and simpler; they want to know how much they have to pay and how that amount has been calculated," explained Chris Johnson, managing director of npower's retail operations.

"This is just one of the ways in which we’re working hard to improve our service to customers: we're committed to listening to our customers, understanding what they want, and delivering products and services that meet their needs."

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About npower:
npower has 6.6 million residential gas and electricity accounts throughout the UK. npower is a market leader in renewable energy. Consumers can join the energy industry discussion on npower's interactive debating website - the brighter energy debate, where they can post their questions, views and comments.

npower is dedicated to helping UK businesses use energy more efficiently and therefore spend less money on their bills. It aims to have a positive impact on the communities it serves and reduce customers' carbon footprints whilst always improving service.

npower hometeam installs, and services boilers, in addition to offering boiler repairs and a wide variety of heating cover options in conjunction with homeserve.

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