5 Factors When Choosing A Power Company

Navigating the complex terrain of different power companies can be difficult to understand. In this post, we've highlighted 5 important key factors to consider when choosing the right power company for your small business.

1. Reputation and credibility

As most business owners know, reputation and credibility is important, and so are relationships. When choosing the right power company, you’ll want to make sure it is someone you can trust and rely on to handle one of your most important commodities - your power supply.

This is especially relevant for businesses who consume a lot of power in their operations - such as restaurants and florists - who rely on refrigeration units to keep their stock cool during the hot summer periods. Any disruptions to power supply will likely cause havoc for customers and day to day operations.

You’ll want peace of mind that your power company not only provides you with fair rates at the start of your contract, but that you’re looked after going forward. You’re also handing over to them a large amount of private / personal data, so they’ll need to have the proper processes in place to properly manage and protect your data on your behalf.

2. Clear contract terms and transparent billing

The last thing you need when you’re running your business is to spend your time figuring out our tax liability. That’s why you hire an accountant to handle these complicated matters for you.

For power, you’ll also want an expert that can provide you with transparent information, when you need it. Some companies complicate the invoicing by structuring a range of different tariff options in various cuts and complex ways. This includes layering charges on top of one another, or charging different rates at different times of the day.

At Tensor, we keep our tariff structures simple and easy to understand, and focus on only single unit charges on your bill to make things clear. This makes it easy for you to understand what you’re paying for, and why.

3. Industry knowledge and experience

Electricity’s a complicated industry - there’s distribution lines, transmission lines, ancillary services, frequency keeping. There’s also different pricing structures at the network level that affect how you’re charged at the retail end.

This is why you’ll want a power company that has knowledge and experience in the industry that can provide you with informed insights. When you pick your power company, you’ll want to pick someone that you can rely on so they can give you advice about what to expect from the market, and what you should pay for.

You should consider your power supplier as your expert advisor for all energy-related matters. When you contract with an accountant, you’ll want to get the best advice from them to help you manage your financial accounts. Why not the same for power?

4. Customer service and strategic support

Customer service is key for any retailer. Customer queries about their billing and/or invoices need to be addressed and responded to as soon as they’re raised.

When you end up spending hours waiting in a queue for a customer service team to respond to you, it’s never fun or a good use of your time.

Tensor aims to respond to any questions you have immediately. We’re more than happy to talk through any queries you have over the phone or email. We won’t put you in a queue as we don’t operate a call centre - instead we try to respond to all account queries using digital means. This cuts down any delay.

5. The company serves businesses like yours

All businesses will have different usage profiles. Some might use consistent power throughout the day, while others might fluctuate when they’re busy with customers.

You’ll want to contract with a company that has insight in the business you’re in and works with similar businesses such as yours so they understand your usage patterns (how much power you use, and when during the day).

This way, any questions you have on the best tariff structure for your patterns of use, you’ll know you can trust their knowledge and advice to help you save on power costs.