Utility Warehouse Changes for 2018

Utility Warehouse changes and improvements have made a significant difference to the customer and Partner proposition in 2018:

Utility Warehouse Changes the Partner fee to £50

There are now two options when signing up as a Utility Warehouse Partner:

1. £50 Option to being a Utility Warehouse Partner. If you choose this route, you need to follow these steps:
   1. Sign up as a Utility Warehouse customer by clicking on the “Save Money” link in the menu bar above.
   2. Once you have completed the signup process, you will be given a membership number. Make a note of this.
   3. Apply to be a Utility Warehouse Partner by clicking on the “apply now” link on the right hand side of this page
   4. Enter you Utility Warehouse membership number in the box labelled “Utility Warehouse customer account number”
   5. Choose whether you want the company branded tablet or are happy to use your own tablet / laptop. See this blog post for more information.
   6. Complete the form and submit. You will automatically be charged the discounted rate of £50.
2. £100 option. If you choose this route, there is no requirement to sign up as a Utility Warehouse customer first.
   1. Apply to be a Utility Warehouse Partner by clicking on the “apply now” link on the right hand side of this page

What Happens Next?

Once you have completed the online application form, you will receive a confirmation email from Utility Warehouse head office. Within 24 hours you will receive your unique “Executive ID number” and access to the online portal provided by Utility Warehouse, known as “The Partner Portal”. From there, you will be guided through your early steps as a Utility Warehouse Partner, including:

• Completing online training
• Uploading a passport style photo for your ID card
• Agreeing to the OFGEM regulations agreement
• Booking your classroom training from one of the hundreds of training centres nationwide
• Ordering your optional piggy shaped business cards

…and many more

To find out what you get in return for your application fee, see the FAQ page here.

Extra Benefits for “Daffi Double-Gold Homeowner” Customers

A “Daffi Double-Gold Homeowner” customer is a homeowner who takes all four services available: energy (gas or electricity), telephone line, broadband, mobile phone. For those customers who qualify, Utility Warehouse may offer extra benefits. See http://www.utilitywarehouse.org.uk/ for more information.

Mobile Phone Signal Booster Box

For years, Vodafone was the only company to offer a mobile phone booster box – a “Femtocell”. Then EE came into the market and now that the technology has been honed and perfected, Utility Warehouse are offering the equivalent product.

This means that Utility Warehouse mobile phone customers can now enjoy 5 bars of coverage in their home. The booster box plugs straight into their internet router and within minutes it is boosting the Utility Warehouse mobile signal within the customers home. I have one of these myself and it works perfectly for calls and texts. It cannot be used for data – your phone will automatically pick up data from the router instead while calls and texts will run through the booster. Just one of the great Utility Warehouse changes in 2018!

Utility Warehouse Changes the Partner Commission Structure With Larger Up-Front Payments for Gathering Customers

One of the most significant Utility Warehouse changes that has been introduced is the “QUIP” QUick Income Plan. This enables Partners who opt-in to be paid a lump sum for signing up Daffi Double-Gold customers. This up front payment replaces the usual monthly commission that would otherwise be paid for the first five years of that customer being with Utility Warehouse. After the five years is up, regular monthly commissions are paid as normal.

I’m always very honest on this blog and I have to admit that when I heard about QUIP, I wasn’t entirely positive. For me, Utility Warehouse has always structured their commission programme very ethically by paying Partners with small monthly commission payments over a long period of time, rather than by incentivising with large up-front payments. It is a well known fact that the door-knockers of old that were part of the marketing strategy of the ‘big 6’ used to be paid a large up-front commission to tie customers into contracts. This is partly what earned them a poor reputation. Historically, Utility Warehouse rarely tied customers into long contracts (with the exception of a brand new phone line install).

Having reflected on “QUIP” for a while now, here are my conclusions:

• The customers who qualify you for a QUIP bonus are those who take almost all of The Utility Warehouse services. Therefore they are making the most significant savings.
• All “QUIP” customers are receiving free, professionally fitted LED lightbulbs (see above) so they are getting a benefit that no other supplier can currently offer.
• The tie-in that Utility Warehouse do need to apply for QUIP customers to make it commercially viable is ethically structured: There is a fair buy-back on the free LED light bulbs that operates on a sliding timescale.
• From a Partner point of view, approximately 10% of your customers will be QUIP if you offer all of the services on every appointment. That means that your monthly commission is likely to increase in the short term but not significantly.
• From the point of view of gaining increased motivation as a brand new Partner, QUIP is excellent as it allow you as someone brand new to the business to earn a meaningful commission. My first residual commission payment was £6.75 which came four months after I started. It took significant patience, persistence and hard work to keep going to the point where I was earning so much that Utility Warehouse funded a company car for me.

This is one of the most significant Utility Warehouse changes to come into effect and it is certain to make a big difference to customers and Partners in 2018.

Utility Warehouse Changes Include Training Improvements: Sign Up Customers With Only Online Training

It is a much, much simpler task to sign up a new customer than when I started as a Utility Warehouse Partner back in 2009. Back then, there were paper forms in duplicate, it was very, very easy to make a mistake and that would delay the application process etc. As an engineer, I was fairly good with detail but I still had many forms come back with errors.

Now, with these new Utility Warehouse changes, the entire sale and quotation process has been made foolproof. This has been partly helped by the government’s initiative to force suppliers to add comparable prices and greater clarity to bills. All suppliers must now quote annual usage for the past twelve months and a predicted price for the next 12 months based on the same usage profile.

During an appointment, rather than have to get a calculator out and dig into piles of paper, it is simply a case of pressing the screen on a tablet to show a series of short videos and then input the customer’s data into an interactive online form (there is an offline backup version too if you don’t have internet access). You can get the few figures you do need from their most recent bill or answer a few simple questions with them using drop down menu choices to get a quotation.

Utility Warehouse have, for some time now required all new Partners to complete a series of online training modules and in addition attend classroom training. Whilst it is still highly recommended to attend classroom training, it is now possible to go to customer appointments, having only completed the online training course. There is an assessment within each module to maintain high quality results.

Are Utility Warehouse Always the Cheapest?

No – there are a small number of people out there who are better off not signing up to Utility Warehouse . For those people who compare ppkWh tariffs – the honest truth is that much of the time Utility Warehouse is not the cheapest in the marketplace. The question I ask potential customers is: what are they more concerned about: the ppkWh rate or the amount of money the utility company takes out of their bank account every month?

Energy rates with Utility Warehouse often drop with the addition of services – customers who are able to take telephone & broadband get a better deal and – they get currently 25% off their telephone & broadband. Customers who take the Cashback card typically get £25 – £40 off their utility bill and it is often more with big purchases and around Christmas time. We have been Utility Warehouse customers since 2008 and in 9 years we have had over £4000 in cashback – and we are not particularly big spenders.

Understanding the above concept and having the decency to walk away from an appointment when it is not the best thing for the prospect to sign up to Utility Warehouse is, in my opinion the key to making a success of this business. The only quality that is more important is the ability to get lots of “no’s” and keep moving forward – keep making appointments. Put those two qualities together and you will make a success in this business as a Utility Warehouse Partner.

Questions, comments? Please advise your thoughts in the form below, I read them all!