As promised we posted a link for you and those who may have missesd it to view the Webinar if you wish. http://youtu.be/SipT1LRUhco

Please send your questions, comments and feedback to: ContactUs@EnergyEdgeUS.com.

How To Turn Your Customers Into Raving Fans

An Interview with Randi Busse

Thursday, January 26, 2012  2:00 PM

Could you use more customers? Would you like to retain the customers you already have? Would you like your existing customers to tell others about you? Then you should attend this free online webinar, hosted by Energy Edge.

On January 26th I will have the privilege of interviewing Randi Busse, founder of Workforce Development Group.  Randi is a recognized expert in customer service, with a well grounded understanding of our industry. We will discuss with Randi how you can differentiate yourself from your competition with your customer service! You don’t want to miss it. Read more about Randi below.

Join us for this fast-paced interview with useful information you can immediately put into practice. Register now.

Hope you can join us.

Randi Busse

Founder & President

Workforce Development Group

Randi is widely recognized as a Customer Service Expert.  Since her company’s inception, Randi has become a trusted resource for many diverse companies and organizations that have relied on her guidance to help improve their customer service and increase their customer retention.  Randi is an engaging and inspiring speaker who delivers consistently compelling keynote speeches, training, and consulting advice.  Her speaking style reflects her belief that learning is facilitated by life situations and humor to customize the content of her programs, getting you and your employees excited and motivated to turn your customers into Raving Fans.  Randi writes a monthly customer service newsletter, “Customer Service: It’s Not Just a Department; It’s an Experience”.  You can sign up for her newsletter and learn more about her by visiting her website,

www.workdevgroup.com.    

Randi Busse

Founder & President

Workforce Development Group

Randi is widely recognized as a Customer Service Expert.  Since her company’s inception, Randi has become a trusted resource for many diverse companies and organizations that have relied on her guidance to help improve their customer service and increase their customer retention.  Randi is an engaging and inspiring speaker who delivers consistently compelling keynote speeches, training, and consulting advice.  Her speaking style reflects her belief that learning is facilitated by life situations and humor to customize the content of her programs, getting you and your employees excited and motivated to turn your customers into Raving Fans.  Randi writes a monthly customer service newsletter, “Customer Service: It’s Not Just a Department; It’s an Experience”.  You can sign up for her newsletter and learn more about her by visiting her website,

www.workdevgroup.com.   

Friday, September 30, 2011 9:00 AM EDT
Monday, October 3, 2011 2:00 PM EDT

Learn what all the fuss is about. Your Internet strategy needs to go well beyond just your website. Learn how energy companies are using various e-commerce techniques to grow their customer base and increase their gallons. Join our free 30-minute webinar for the answers from the experts.  Are homeowners really buying fuel online? How much? Is it true I can acquire customers cheaper online? It sounds expensive. What are my alternatives? Should I build my own e-commerce site? What about online referral sites? Do they work? How many customers can I acquire? What should I expect in my market? What is my customer acquisition cost? Do I need to add staff – technology or marketing personnel? Oh my! SEO / SEM / SMO / Social Media – What do they all mean? Do I need them? What works? What will my ROI look like? Is it worth the effort? The Energy Edge e-commerce experts will cover these and other topics in a fast paced 30-minute session followed by Q&A. Register now to learn how other companies are achieving true growth in our mature energy industry. Register here. We grow energy businesses! Real growth in customers, gallons, margin and profit. The Energy Engine – It’s like Amazon, but for your energy business. Smart Click Energy – We market, You deliver. Earthsponse Solar – Turn-key solar program for fuel companies. MyMarketer – Market like a Fortune 500 company without the expense. Learn more . Contact Us 570-213-7492

Learn what all the fuss is about. Your Internet strategy needs to go well beyond just your website. Learn how energy  companies are using various e-commerce techniques to grow their customer base and increase their gallons. Join our free 30-minute webinar for the answers from the experts. 

• Are homeowners really buying fuel online? How much?
• Is it true I can acquire customers cheaper online?
• It sounds expensive. What are my alternatives? Should I build my own e-commerce site?
• What about online referral sites? Do they work?
• How many customers can I acquire? What should I expect in my market?
• What is my customer acquisition cost?
• Do I need to add staff – technology or marketing personnel?
• Oh my!  SEO / SEM / SMO / Social Media – What do they all mean? Do I need them? What works?
• What will my ROI look like?
• Is it worth the effort?

The Energy Edge e-commerce experts will cover these and other topics in a fast paced 30-minute session followed by Q&A. Register now to learn how other companies are achieving true growth in our mature energy industry.

Register here.

We grow energy businesses! Real growth in customers, gallons, margin and profit.

• The Energy Engine – It’s like Amazon, but for your energy business.
• Smart Click Energy – We market, You deliver.
• Earthsponse Solar – Turn-key solar program for fuel companies.
• MyMarketer – Market like a Fortune 500 company without the expense.

Learn more .

Contact Us  

570-213-7492  

We grow energy businesses! Real growth in customers, gallons, margin and profit.

• The Energy Engine – It’s like Amazon, but for your energy business.
• Smart Click Energy – We market, You deliver.
• Earthsponse Solar – Turn-key solar program for fuel companies.
• MyMarketer – Market like a Fortune 500 company without the expense.

Learn more .

Contact Us  

570-213-7492 

With almost 3,000 attendees at this year’s AREE trade show, it was a very busy 2 days. If we were not able to spend time with you during the show, this special issue of Energy Insights highlights 4 ways to grow your business.

The Energy Engine makes it possible for you to operate your own on-line energy business without a significant investment, without a technology staff, without a marketing staff, and without the trial-and-error frustrations typically associated with launching a new business. The Energy Engine is a premium, turn-key ecommerce solution designed by energy marketers, for energy marketers.  Learn More

We acquire customers, care for customers and process payments. You deliver their heating oil orders. You add gallons and profit to your business without any costs or fees! The incremental volume means better delivery efficiency and better profits in your core business.  

Become part of our exclusive Smart Click Energy delivery network.  

Smart Click Energy is an innovative marketer of energy products and services for residential and commercial customers. The Smart Click team has a track record of improving volume and profits for our dealer network members. Our team has sold more oil online than anyone in the industry. Learn more.

If you have looked for solar business opportunities, you already know that developing a successful solar business can be complicated. We make solar easy! Our Earthsponse solar program is a comprehensive turn-key solar solution designed specifically for qualified fuel companies. Learn More

Sell more to your existing customers by identifying untapped opportunities and acquire new customers using MyMarketer’s Neighborhood Marketing tools …and get a positive ROI on your marketing investment.

MyMarketer identifies the opportunities, plans the campaign, executes the campaign and analyses the results. Make MyMarketer, your marketer …and watch your business grow. Contact us for a brief online demonstration. 

For those of you who know us, you realize that we have spent many years just like you as energy marketers. So we know your business from the ground up and build products specifically to meet the needs of your business. If we don’t already know you, don’t be a stranger. Give us a call or drop us an e-mail. We’d like to hear from you. In a nutshell we help energy marketers improve their performance and their profitability …if that rings true for you, let us introduce you to our products.

Let us know how we can help you grow your business. Contact us today.

Keep up the energy!

John Vrabel
 

Phone: 570-213-7492

E-mail: ContactUs@EnergyEdgeUS.com

We didn’t set out to build The Energy Engine when we launched this business a year ago. However, it soon became apparent as we worked with energy marketers on their on-line strategies, that there was demand for full-featured business e-commerce solution …something that did not exist. Certainly we knew how to build sophisticated custom systems …we had done it before. But full-featured systems are expensive to build and require ongoing support and enhancement. It was from your comments and questions that emerged The Energy Engine.

The Energy Engine offers several unique advantages for energy marketers.
(a) It’s full-featured eCommerce …it goes well beyond account look-up and bill-pay.
(b) It’s also a marketing engine which allows you to acquire and maintain new customers at a fraction of the traditional cost.
(c) It’s your e-commerce business …your brand, your look & feel, your customers, your profits.
(d) It’s built in a SaaS framework, so it is very affordable with no hardware to buy, no local software to maintain.

E-commerce has become a hot topic in the energy business as companies seek new ways to attract new customers and serve them with less expense. As we’ve worked with companies to implement their e-commerce strategies, we’ve summarized the top 10 reasons while companies are turning to the interactive internet applications to grow their business.

1. The internet is now universal. Usage has tripled in the last decade.
2. It’s convenient to shop on-line and 78% of internet users say so.
3. 76% have purchased on line. Bet you have, too!
4. You can acquire customers cheaper on-line. We’ve done it!
5. You can increase your volume with e-commerce … significantly.
6. You can service your customers better and at less cost.
7. You’re open for business 24/7/365.
8. If you are not doing business on the internet, your customers are looking elsewhere.
9. You’ll be better than 90% of your competitors.
10. You will make more money!

Contact us today! You still have time to have your e-commerce business up and running by next season. Speak to our experts today!

With over 4,000 attendees at this years AREE trade show, it was a very busy 3 days. If we were not able to spend time John Vrabel
with you during the show, this special issue of Energy Insights highlights our new Energy Engine (an eCommerce engine for energy marketers) and the TAG business intelligence tool.

For those of you who know us, you realize that we have spent many years just like you as energy marketers. So we know your business from the ground up and build products specifically to meet the needs of your business. If we don’t already know you, don’t be a stranger. Give us a call or drop us an e-mail. We’d like to hear from you. In a nutshell we help energy marketers improve their performance and their profitability …if that rings true for you, let us introduce you to our products.

Let’s grow together!

John

New! Introducing The Energy Engine
Finally, A Full-Featured E-Commerce Application for Energy Marketers

Think of it as your on-line business “in a box”.

We didn’t have some grand plan to build The Energy Engine. Quite the opposite, after working with energy companies on their on-line strategies, it became obvious that each of these companies wanted similar capabilities that they couldn’t get anywhere else. So rather than building a custom on-line application for each company, it made much more sense to build The Energy Engine. Now each company can have a complete full-featured on-line business but the cost is shared between all the companies. So now you can operate your own on-line business at a fraction of the cost and get to market quickly. Plus, you also get the benefit of our 10 years of on-line energy experience. Invaluable! Contact us for more details.

Complete Web-Based, E-Commerce Engine:

1. Designed by energy marketers for energy marketers.
2. Turn-key, web-based solution (no hardware to buy, no software to manage)
3. Self-contained, stand alone operating system
4. White labeled for your business.
your URL (domain, web address)
your brand, your design, your look & feel
your customers
your pricing
your profits
5. Flexible and modular
6. Exclusive territory (optional)

If you would like to know more, just let us know. A short, no obligation web-demo will answer all your questions. Or, watch our video now to understand everything you can do with The Energy Engine.

TAG Business Intelligence
Find the Hidden Gold in Your Own Data

Do you know?

Which service customers have an excessive # of calls?
Where your underused propane tanks are?
The source of your delivery inefficiencies?
How to quickly find low – even negative – margin sales?
How close you are to budget – today?
Which technicians are causing the most callbacks?

TAG finds and delivers the information hidden in your data. One client saved hundreds of thousands of dollars in tank purchases; another saved $60,000 in payroll in 45 days! What will TAG find for you?

TAG is keeping dozens of petroleum distribution executives informed through reports ad dashboards that provide automated, up-to-date measurements of their key performance indicators.

Want to find the gold in your data? Request a no-obligation demo.

Hope we stimulated some ideas on how you can improve your performance and profitability. Give us a call anytime.

Keep up the energy!

John Vrabel
jvrabel@EnergyEdgeUS.com
973-222-3516

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So why isn’t there an Amazon in downstream energy? Sure our industry is a bit more complicated than shipping a book or widget across the country, but if we look at the big picture, businee e-commerce solutions hold the same promise for our industry as it has demonstrated for others.
Greater exposure for your business
Greater customer convenience: 24/7/365, transparency, customer self-serve
Lower customer acquisition cost.
Lower customer retention cost.
Reduced operating costs.
… and more.

It’s happening. Energy marketers are now adopting the magic of e-commerce and enjoying some very impressive results. Sure the technology needs to be adapted for the energy business, but the results are worth the effort.

Greater Exposure: What would it be like if every time someone searched on heating oil or propane in any town you service your company was listed at the top of the search results? You’re potential customers are doing those searches today. How do you rank? If you are not at or near the top of the page, then search engine optimization (SEO) can change that for you. It’s a small investment to make but certainly worth diverting some of your marketing dollars to the internet, where your potential customers are already doing their shopping. It will give you a positive ROI in a matter of months.

Greater Customer Convenience: Today’s customers want to shop when they want to shop, which isn’t necessarily when your office is open. It’s in the evening; it’s on a Sunday afternoon. They want to get the information they are looking for at their convenience and they want to be able to act on it at the same time …to find the price, to schedule service, to order some fuel conditioner, to check when their delivery will arrive, and more. They are already doing it with other businesses and they expect to be able to do it with yours, too.

Lower Customer Acquisition Cost: A GM from a very successful, full-service heating oil company told us last week that his cost to acquire a new customer runs as high as $650! What’s your cost? Even if it is a third of that amount, you can still do better using e-commerce. Companies with solid e-commerce strategies are doing it for less than $100 …and sometimes a lot less.

Lower Customer Retention Cost: What do you do to nurture your relationship with your existing customers? And sending them an invoice does not count! E-commerce opens up an entire array of low-cost, precisely targeted options for you to communicate useful information to your customers and to do so at a moments notice. The possibilities are endless. Let them know when their delivery will arrive …they get that from Amazon, why not you? Automatically ask them for their feedback so you know what you are doing well and where you need to improve. What you learn will be eye-opening.

Reduce Operating Costs: Suppose 90% of your orders were placed on-line. It’s being done today. What if you could increase your drop size by 50 gallons per delivery? It’s possible. What if you could increase your delivery density, or help each driver make an extra delivery, or two, each day? It’s all possible when e-commerce is used strategically and the technology is designed specifically for energy businesses.

The bottom line to a well executed e-commerce strategy is the ability to grow your business while making your business more profitable in the process. Drop us an e-mail at ContactUs@EnergyEdgeUS.com and tell us what you would like to accomplish. We’ll tell you if it is possible. We’ve been using e-commerce for energy businesses successfully for 15 years. We are energy marketers building solutions for energy marketers.

Jim Stengel, the heralded Global Marketing Officer for Proctor and Gamble, aptly pointed out that traditional “telling and selling is dead”, and he is right. Others have similarly pointed out that consumers today want a dialogue, they want to be involved, and they need to be empowered. The impressive growth of social marketing has certainly demonstrated the power of dialogue and empowerment of the participants. Every Tweet, Facebook post, or LinkedIn interaction reinforces that paradigm. So what does it mean for energy marketers? How do we establish a dialogue and involve our customers or prospects so we build meaningful long-term relationships?

So let’s challenge some of the conventional wisdom of energy marketing and see if we need to re-think how we are communicating with our customers. Here’s a sampling to think about.

 Pricing: Can your customers easily find out what price they will be charged for a delivery made today or tomorrow? Either full-service or will-call? Will all customers receiving the same level of service get the same price?
 Deliveries: Do your customers know when they will get their next delivery? Do you advise them? Do they receive any notification of their delivery (other than the unfriendly ticket that was left in the door or in the mailbox)? Do they receive a personal “thank you” from you for their business?
 Products: Do your customers know about the blended fuel you just delivered to them and why that is good for them? Do they know about the new high-efficiency propane furnace that qualifies for federal tax rebates? Or that you can arrange financing so they can budget it at only $129/month?
 Programs: Do your customers have the option to pick and choose the combination of products and services that makes the most sense for them? Or is it “one size fits all”?
 Communications: How often do you communicate with your customers? Do they receive more than an annual “program” letter? More than that? Do you offer them any on-line surveys so they can let you know how you are doing?

If you answered “no” to these questions, you owe it to your business to evaluate potential changes that will build better relationships with your customers, and make your business more inviting to new customers. Ask us what is possible. We’re seeing companies enjoy dramatic improvement in their business by embracing well-conceived communications plans that use the best of the internet and social media, alongside conventional channels to achieve meaningful business growth.

Energy customers are different today! I think I just heard several of you say, “duh”! But understand what the implications are for your business and how you need to adapt. We could go on for hours on this topic, but let’s keep it simple and say that your customers are smarter, more demanding and less forgiving than grandad’s. Let me explain. Smarter… with just a few keystokes on a keyboard and a few words typed into a search engine your customers know what the NYMEX was for fuel yesterday, who your chief competitors are, and how your customers rate your service. The internet is powerful and you need to know how to manage your presence and your reputation on the internet. More demanding…they want it when they want it, how they want it and at the price they think is fair. It’s no longer good enough to have office hours 9-4 Mon-Fri. That’s so 20th century! Today’s customer expect to be able to access your services 24/7/365. And don’t try to tell them what you want them to buy, because they only want to buy the products and services that make sense for them, so you better be flexible with your product offerings. Less forgiving…You bet they are. Not only will they stop buying from you, but they’re likely to tell the world about their bad experience, too. By the same token, if you give customers the products they are looking for, price them fairly and back it up with quality customer service, customers will also sing your praises.

Energy demand is shifting quickly. Heating oil gallons continue to decline, propane gallons are up, I can buy my electricity from a dozen different companies, natural gas is at the lowest price in 7 years, Obama wants more solar, and even wind is gaining traction in certain areas. Wow! So what does this mean for your business? Are you a fuel company, or are you an energy company? As your customers turn toward other forms of energy, should you be involved? I talked to a friend of mine this week who is now involved with a new company that is training HVAC techniciains to install solar PV systems. Is that a good way to add more revenue to your company and satisfy the demand of your customers? Take a page out of grandad’s book. After all, as coal stokers declined, grandad added other energy to the company. Didn’t he?

Today’s energy companies must be smarter, too. You know all that data that you have in your computer system? Today’s leading companies, and the leading energy companies too, are turning that data into useful information that can be used to operate their businesses better, reduce costs further, increas efficency, provide better customer service, and increase their profits. It’s no longer good enough to operate your business the same ol’ way you have for the last 10 years. Today, Performance Management initiatives are underway, using sophisticates business intelligence software to allow you to know how and where you can improve your business and stay ahead of your competitors. Remember the old PF Flyers that made you run faster and jump higher? You need PF Flyers for your business ….Performance Management.

E-Commerce has changed the retail world. …and it’s only just begun. Last Saturday a major snowstorm rolled through the mid-Atlantic region and customers could not get to the malls to finish thei Christmas shopping on what historically is the largest Saturday in the retail business. Sales were down in stores along the heavily populated I-95 corridor. So what did shoppers do? They turned to the internet and on-line sales soard 24% higher than the same day last year. If you are in the downstream energy business, you too are in the retail business. Can your customers do business with you on the internet? The energy industyr has been slow to adopt e-commerce, but that is starting to change. What if you were the Amazon of energy in your territory? Imagine.

No, this isn’t grandad’s industry any longer. But that’s no reason to forsake. Rather adapt your business to meet the needs of your new customers. Want to know how? E-mail us at ContactUs@EnergyEdgeUS.com