Dr WOODRUFF - Ms O'Kane, the 2023 Energy Charter Disclosure Statement notes that there were extended wait times to contact the call centre in the last quarter of 2022-23. In part, it was due to a move to a new customer care and management system. Have these delays improved since 30 June? How soon do you expect to see improvements as a result of the new system?
Prof O'KANE - I will refer the question about the exact numbers to Mr Burke and what we're doing to come through, and we will see improvements as we run through the financial year.
Mr BURKE - Thank you, Mary. I absolutely do recognise there were periods of time over that financial year where our wait times were extended. Despite the number of channels we have, we do recognise that Tasmanians really value speaking to Aurora over the phone. That's why it's something we are really focused on, making sure that we can answer calls as quickly as possible.
To your direct question around improvement, we have made a number of changes to our operations over the past 12 months to improve those wait times and our broader performance. Pleasingly, we've seen, over the first quarter of the current financial year, that our key metrics have improved. Our speed to answer has improved by over 10 per cent. Our grade of service, which is the number of calls that we answer within 30 seconds, has improved by 10 per cent. It's good to see that some of those initiatives are paying off, but we do recognise that there are periods of the day, in particular with high demand, where customers will have to wait a little bit longer. We've noticed, with the complexity of the energy market over the past 12 months and some of the cost of-living challenges, that we have seen volume increase as well. That's something we're monitoring closely and making sure we're adequately resourced to respond to.
Dr WOODRUFF - Thank you. Possibly through you, Ms O'Kane, I'm aware that some customers on aged pensions found that their concession discounts disappeared on the first bill after their account was upgraded. Many people don't check their bills line by line when they receive them and they simply pay them. Do you know how many customers experienced a loss of concessions and other rebates off their bills because of the upgrade? How was that identified, if it was, and managed?
Mr BURKE - We'll try to get that data. I'm not sure if we capture that information specifically, but we'll have a look. I think what we do recognise is as part of that transition between billing systems, sometimes errors do occur. It's been something we've had a significant focus on, ensuring that we've got active controls and monitoring in place to limit any customer impacts as a result of that migration. There are situations, obviously, where customers identified that something hasn't come across and we've worked really quickly to try and resolve that. We obviously monitor really closely that transition across billing systems to make sure that all of that information flows across correctly.
Dr WOODRUFF - Just to be clear, have you done a review specifically of people who were on concessions to check that they had been migrated and to find the ones that hadn't been, and to make sure they were recompensed?
Mr BURKE - I'd have to double check in terms of timing. From memory, we haven't done a specific review on that particular item, but we'll investigate that.
Dr WOODRUFF - Do you agree that maybe you should? Well, this is what we've heard.
Mr BURKE - Absolutely. We will make sure that - particularly concession customers - that there is no gap in terms of the period they are receiving concessions. That's one of the items we're really focused on. There's a number of others, as well, that we want to make sure come across - things like life support and other customer information. That's why we do have really robust monitoring processes through that migration process. But, absolutely, we need to ensure that concession numbers are where they should be.
Dr WOODRUFF - Thank you. I am aware of other customers who, after the upgrade, didn't receive a bill for more than six months. I think you talked about more than 100 days. They only got one when they contacted Aurora about the problem. Then the same customer received a bill for two billing cycles after contacting Aurora and had been assured that the problem was fixed. The next bill wasn't issued on the usual billing schedule and they didn't receive a bill until they contacted Aurora and that has been going on for 12 months for this customer and they are still not confident that it has been fixed.
That is a bit more than the stuff that you have been talking about. It seems there is something else going on in this system. Are you confident that the person's situation has been resolved?
Mr CLARK - Without knowing the specific details of the customer, it's hard for us to answer that. There can be many reasons why a bill might be delayed, whether it be a metering issue or the data that's come through from the metre. It could be a variety of things but we would gladly take on notice the details and come back on that particular case but without knowing all the full details it is impossible for us to answer that.
Dr WOODRUFF - Thank you, Chair. Ms O'Kane, I am aware of instances where after having solar energy installed it's taken multiple billing cycles before people have received rebates for the energy they supply back to the grid, despite the fact that they have ticked all the boxes Aurora requires in terms of a properly installed and compliant system. Do you know how many people have been affected by delays like this and what's being done to address these problems? Are you aware of that?
Ms O'KANE - Thank you for the question. I'll ask Mr Burke to answer it.
Mr BURKE - It is difficult to respond to the specific scenarios of any customer case. I am happy to investigate specific customers who have had challenges and provide an update on where that's at. We know there have certainly been no systemic issues around solar and the application of solar-feeding credits onto bills. We don't have any instances of complaints raised around that or significant trends around complaints raised around that issue, but I'm happy to look into any specific scenarios where customers may have had a challenge.
Dr WOODRUFF - Your report shows that the number of customer complaints, on average, has dropped to 529 per month. That is about 6350 per year. About half of those complaints relate to billing, which we have already discussed quite extensively. What other complaints are being logged and what practices have you put in place to respond to them?
Prof. O'KANE - I would like to refer that to Alistair. After that, if I have the chance, I would like to add something on the people.
Mr BURKE - We have seen a reduction in overall complaints over the past financial year. Separate to billing, we capture a wide range of complaints.
From our perspective, it is a key mechanism to identify any opportunities for improvement and how we can feed that back into improving our processes and our systems to avoid the same type of complaints re-emerging for customers.
We have a dedicated complaints team. Our customer advocacy team work really closely with customers who complain to help them resolve it. They may capture a range of items. We've spoken about billing, customer service, related complaints, any network ones that come through often relate to TasNetworks, but we do capture those as well, ones relating to our metering coordinator.
We are doing a meter rollout which is going really well, but sometimes, engaging with customers in that way, we get feedback and capture any complaints relating to the migration experience that customers have when moving from one system to another. As we have spoken about, it is something that we monitor really closely and want to make that experience as seamless as possible for our customers.
Dr WOODRUFF - I note that the referrals to the Ombudsman have increased from 0.51 per cent in 2018-19 to nearly 3 per cent now. That's a 570 odd per cent increase in Ombudsman referrals in five years. Can you please tell me what's driving those referrals? What are the types of complaints that are going to the Ombudsman? Are any of them related to billing or what else?
Mr CLARK - In sheer number terms our complaints to the Ombudsman went from 176 to 219, an increase of about 45 complaints. As far as the origins of those complaints, they would largely follow the same categories as what has been explained already on our broader complaints, so it would be an element of billing, metering transition and customer service. It would follow similar lines as to themes that the Ombudsman would present back to us.
Dr WOODRUFF - Wouldn't each of those complaints indicate a non satisfactory response and engagement from Aurora with people about the concerns they've raised?
Mr CLARK - Not necessarily. Someone could complain to the Ombudsman just because they had a high bill and didn't like a high bill and they could have genuinely used all that energy and there's nothing untoward, they just wanted to have a complaint and feel a need to vent to the Ombudsman, so it doesn't necessarily indicate a level of service that hasn't been resolved. Someone has a right to complain to the Ombudsman even if we've resolved the issue to what we believe is the satisfaction required, but obviously that's the nature of the Ombudsman scheme.
Dr WOODRUFF - How many of those complaints that have been referred to the Ombudsman, what proportion of them are determined in favour of the customer and what proportion in favour of Aurora?
Mr BURKE - We don't treat complaints in an adversarial way where either the customer wins or Aurora Energy wins. As I have spoken about before, we treat complaints as a really important way to get feedback around how we can improve our business and how we can improve our service to our customers. There are scenarios, as Nigel said, where we investigate all complaints, particularly ones that have escalated to the Ombudsman and there are scenarios where, through those investigations, we confirm from our perspective that everything has been done as it should have been, and notwithstanding that the customer is not satisfied with that outcome and we obviously support their right to go to the Ombudsman.
We do have a really strong relationship with the Ombudsman and make sure that we're really transparent about any issues we are having internally, but that is something we make sure we see through to the end, even though at the end of the day customers might not be satisfied with the response we give them. There are also scenarios where they might still not be satisfied with the Ombudsman's view as well, and that's sort of part and parcel of the industry.
