Online Appointments

Obviously with the impact of Covid in March 2020, face to face appointments became impossible. Charles Wigoder and his team at UW HQ pulled of an astonishing feat by pivoting all the call centre staff to work from home, meaning that there was very little impact on the customer experience. As a distributor, the support was equally strong; An online method of gathering customers was devised very rapidly. Initially I thought – that will be fine for people who are comfortable with technology, but many of my customers are elderly and might have struggled if I had to sign them up face to face.

However, my experience has been that the online signup process is so slick and refined that there are far fewer barriers to achieving success with this method than I first thought. Indeed, there are many advantages – miles and miles in the car saved being the obvious win.

The way it works is that you send a link to the customer, you access a different link and you can then see their screen. You can then call them or (I prefer) video WhatsApp them and guide them through the presentation (which pretty much runs itself). It’s unnervingly simple. For most distributors, the main barrier is / was fear of the unknown. Once you’ve practised on a couple of friends though – all that goes away. It’s the same as it has always been with this business: easy to do, easy not to do. The successful Utility Warehouse partners are those who do the simple, easy stuff consistently.

Earn up to Four Hundred Pounds for Every New Utility Warehouse Customer You Gather

The biggest change to be introduced this year by Utility Warehouse is how we get paid as distributors. Previously, UW partners had a choice: get a small upfront bonus and an ongoing small monthly payment (which compounded to a lot over time), or take a much larger payment up front (known as QUIP) and receive no ongoing commission for five years. It was controversial – the premise that I have always operated on is that the ethical way to get paid is with a small bonus and an ongoing commission – that way we are incentivised to take care of our customers over time rather than getting a quick sale.

The new payment scheme works like this: There are four service types: energy (gas and / or electricity), broadband, mobile and boiler cover. Additionally all customers are differentiated depending on whether they are homeowners or not. For homeowners taking all four services you are given a payment of £300 and an ongoing commission after they have been a customer for five years, similar to QUIP. When you sign up four or more customers in a month who all take all four services, then UW will pay you a bonus of £100 per customer – making a total of £400 per customer, all for an hour or so’s work. That’s a pretty good rate of pay and of course you get the ongoing residual income from year six as well

Get Supported Remotely by an Expert

There are around three thousand experienced Utilities Warehouse partners like myself in the UK currently. Utility Warehouse recognise the value of experienced partners supporting new distributors and are now incentivising this support with a special payment scheme for new partners who need an experienced partner on the call with them. This amounts to a 50/50 split on the amounts quoted above which is fair. New partners are strongly encouraged to have support on their first six customer sign-up appointments (but not required). After this, they have the choice to go it alone and earn 100% or to continue being supported until they have full confidence in running the system and making money for themselves without help.

Brand New App Specifically for New Partners

The level of detail you encounter as a Utility Warehouse distributor can be overwhelming. To simplify the business and to make it easier for new partners to pick up, Utility Warehouse have created a new app which will hand-hold new partners through their first steps developing their business. This covers basics such as setting up a Direct Debit to get paid (it works in reverse), adding a profile photograph, adding your firs six prospects to the planner and setting some simple goals. It’s a great idea to get newbies off to a great start.

Feeling Peckish? Get rewarded With Some Cuisine Delivered to Your Door

For a bit of fun – Utility Warehouse are providing a free meal kit delivered to your door if you gather four “holiday points” in a calendar month. Holiday points are effectively one point awarded for every service that you sign up. Therefore you could sign up one customer who takes: energy (either gas or electric or both), broadband, mobile and boiler cover or you could sign up four customers who take one service each. Either way you would qualify for the free meal kit.

The destination that the meal kit is based on will vary from month to month, currently in April it is pizza to mirror the face to face “Pizza Tuesdays” which used to be so fun pre lockdown. Next month is a mystery – my money’s on curry but we’ll see 🙂

Bag a Free Holiday of Your Choice

Ever since I have been a distributor I can always remember Utility Warehouse offering a holiday promotion of some kind. I used to wonder how they afforded it – they would always be very glamorous holidays to beautiful destinations. I was incredibly close to qualifying for one holiday one year but sadly I missed out. It did however push me to achieve more than I otherwise would have done and I have been paid monthly on those customers ever since.

This time round the offers are outstanding: either a mini break – you can choose from destination with three nights at either (seventy points required) or a holiday of a lifetime – you can choose from two destinations (140 points required) the destinations are yet to be revealed, they will be stunning – they always are..

Work Consistently and Get Rewarded with a Brand new Tesla

As I’ve blogged about before, it is very achievable to qualify for one of the heavily subsidised Utility Warehouse branded minis. I had one for over five years – it was the best car I’ve ever had and was great for establishing credibility when driving to new customer appointments. There is now an electric mini option as well. To qualify you need to have at least £100 a month in ongoing (residual) commission. This is much lower than it used to be – I had to hit £175 a month to get mine 🙂

A new addition to the Utility Warehouse vehicle range is the Tesla Model 3 long range. You can apply for this when you reach “Senior Group Leader” in the business. This will take a few years to achieve – I’m still working towards it. Having said that – this business is all about options. There are many distributors who started after me who have achieved this status – they’ve simply been more focussed.

The electric cars represent a step change in the focus of Utility Warehouse to a greener, more eco-friendly approach to the companies ethos. There’s even an option for an electric bicycle when you hit 50 customers!

The Best & Cheapest (Brand New) Full Fibre Broadband

Utility Warehouse are now offering the latest in broadband technology with “fttp” available for £25 a month as an introductory offer. Traditional super-fast broadband is run over fibre optic cables to the cabinet in the road and copper from there to the home. Openreach have now started to upgrade the UK’s network so that the fibre goes to the house and into the modem itself meaning there is no longer a data bottleneck from the copper that used to be there. It’s currently £36 a month after the first six months as long as yuo are taking other services from UW. This is a great deal and currently at the time of writing it is the cheapest in the UK. A great incentive to sign up new customers and make your life as a Utility Warehouse distributor even easier.

Offer Boiler Cover for a Great new Way to Get Paid

UW have been selling boiler cover for a few years now. It’s a great deal as well – definitely the cheapest and most comprehensive in the marketplace that I’ve seen. Up until now it’s only been head office that have been able to offer it, but now Utilities Warehouse Distributors can offer it as well. Not only that but it is a key service and very easy to get paid on. As mentioned above it is a qualifying service to increase bonus payments and holiday points. It’s really easy to sell as well – the automatic presentation takes care of all of the detail so that you, as a Utility Warehouse partner can relax and know that you’re offering the customer a robust presentation with all of the information that they need to make a balanced decision.

30 Day Peace of Mind No Quibble Guarantee for all New Customers & £200 to End Current Contracts Early

Utility Warehouse are incredibly confident that their award winning services represent great value. This confidence is demonstrated in this new development. All customers are now given 30 days to change their mind with no penalty at all. Plus they get up to £200 to get out of contracts such as broadband or mobile phone early. And – on top if they would have been better off staying with their existing suppliers, UW will refund double the difference. That’s incredible peace of mind and makes it a very easy proposition for your friends, family and contacts.

Offer Brand New Ultra Secure Mesh Broadband to all Customers

One of the best inventions of late has been “mesh wifi”. This enables a wifi signal to be 100% robust in the home by the use of multiple small units which all talk to each other to provide a super-strong signal. One of the more prevalent units offering this technology is the eero which is available from Amazon. The cost can add up however with one unit costing £139 and a large house with thick walls possibly needing as many as five units. Utility Warehouse will lease these units to customers for £2.50 a month each. That way if they ever go wrong – they’ll be replaced free of charge giving total peace of mind.

5G Mobile Service Coming Very Soon

As you may have heard a big rollout is underway in the UK with new 5G technology. Contrary to some conspiracy theories, there is zero health risk from 5G – I spent over a decade working in EMC and EMI engineering and saw the science behind the theories – there is none, it’s all hype. 5G does however offer vastly superior download speeds – in excess of what you can achieve with typical fibre broadband at home at the moment. Utility Warehouse piggyback on the EE network which is a leader in this field.

WiFi Calling on Mobile Now Available

Wifi calling is really convenient when yuo don’t have mobile reception, such as when working away from home, or even abroad (note you may need a VPN to make it work abroad). If you have a compatible mobile handset, wifi calling will automatically become possible from May. Another great feature to offer customers.

New, Updated Customer App

UW have offered a really convenient app for some years now. The new, updated app looks even better than before. It’s built to save you time and keep everything simple. It’s especially useful when out shopping and you need to check your balance on the cashback card.

Conclusion

So a really strong series of updates out from Utility Warehouse this year. It should make the customer proposition even easier to sell. If you’re looking to make more money part-time, you should definitely consider the Utility Warehouse business opportunity.