Flick Electric Co. is fundamentally changing the traditional electricity retail model by giving customers access to market price signals and smart technology to help them reduce their energy bills.
The Flick model gives customers the opportunity to choose the price they want to pay, for the electricity they want to use, on a live half-hour basis using a proprietary user-centric interface on either a desktop computer or mobile.
Information tools include a 24-hour view of the electricity price, weekly billing based on actual meter reads, a daily bill tally and price alert systems. Customers are actively engaging with these tools, checking their price information some 15,000 times daily.
On average customers saved 19 per cent on their bills in the year through March.
In the same period, Flick introduced the CHOICE mobile application, which it says is a world first real-time carbon calculator. The app, which is available to all New Zealanders, gives visibility around the carbon impact of electricity generation and encourages Kiwis to reduce consumption at high emission times.
Customer-centric approach
The company says it takes a customer-centric approach and endeavours to:
· Call every applicant to make sure they understand how Flick works
· Check to see if customers are on the best network tariff for them
· Help customers identify the source of unusual consumption.
The company doesn’t lock customers into fixed-term contracts and, therefore, does not charge break fees.
Flick is the only ‘Consumer Trusted’ electricity retailer, which means its consumer information, contracts and customer management practices have been fully scrutinised by Consumer NZ and certified to be of a standard that is beyond what is required by law.
Growth
Founded by a group of six entrepreneurs, Flick has grown to serve more than 12,500 customers since it was launched in mid-2014.
In the year to March 31 Flick’s revenue grew 15-fold. Average monthly customer growth in 2015 was 37 per cent.
Flick says its model incentivises and optimises the adoption of energy efficient technologies and developments in domestic energy storage. As home automation becomes commonplace its systems will be able to respond, offering end-to-end demand response support.
The company says its foundation technology is a baseline from which further technical and commercial innovation is planned, all of which will deliver additional value for its customers.
The Consumer NZ Retailer of the Year award category is sponsored by ERANZ