Customer & Product Stewardship
Significance
BPP dedicates to generating and supplying power and other forms of energy with quality and reliability according to the international standards and customers’ needs. Realizing that BPP’s operations have stabilized the nation’s electricity grid system and are the key factor for the industrial sector’s production, leading to better community’s well-being, it is, therefore, the responsibility of BPP to deliver products meeting customer’s expectations. Consequently, BPP has operated its businesses with honesty and integrity. It has also kept its customers’ data in accordance with the standards set. Moreover, the international standards have been integrated into its power generation systems so as to keep the quality and stability of its electricity and energy to meet customer’s expectations and create trusts from customers.
Management Approach
Due to the greater variety of businesses, BPP’s customer management differs in each country. For example, major groups
of customers generating income for the CHP plants in China are the government agencies and state enterprises, which are the main power purchasers under the long-term power purchase agreements, as well as the industrial sector buying steam. As a result, the ISO 9001 Quality Management System Standard has been used in customers management in the production units having to deal with various customers. Furthermore, the principle of quality management is Customer Focus and having a process to understand needs and expectations between manufacturers and customers.
Major operations carried out are as follows.
According to the power trading business in the United States of America, BPP focuses on mitigating risks possibly arising since electricity buyers are retail customers with various power demands, such as:
- Determining the Retail Risk Management Policy to serve as a guideline for the Retail Pricing Committee and management team in managing market risks of retail electric providers.
- Specifying the Pricing Policy to be used as a guideline for setting the daily trading prices. The policy requires to check customers’ quotation if it is accurate or up to date, while keeping the price difference according to the targets set.
- Setting the Credit and Collection Policy to mitigate credit risks from entering the sales contracts with customers. The policy requires inspecting and evaluating the customer credit rating of retail customers to be used as a guideline for analyzing customer reliability before entering a contract. This will also help in getting a good customer group in the long run as well as reducing the chance of bad debts and write-offs in the future, including limiting losses possibly arising from data disclosure by the contracting party.
- Utilizing technology to help analyze the market needs to be used for designing proper packages, services, and prices to meet customer’s needs.
- Creating a customer journey for retail customers. The customer journey is primarily used for customer management operations and helps in understanding various types of customer behaviors, ranging from before using the service, during using the service, to after services. It can be used to determine marketing strategies and operations in each service phase to create good experience for customers. In addition, BPP has set the key performance indicator (KPIs) measuring both quantitative and qualitative results for every service phase. Then, the results gained will be analyzed and used for service development and improvement to meet customers’ need as much as possible, achieve maximum customer satisfaction and retain customers.
Moreover, BPP also focuses on creating relationships with customers, treating them as the partners of mutual success. This is done by giving top priority to delivering sustainable value to every customer and considering 4 main values as follows:
- Product value: Employing high efficiency, low emissions (HELE) technology and having an ability to control air and water quality as well as managing the environment to meet international standards.
- Service value: To create service values, BPP has improved its production efficiency to be available and reliable in alignment with customers’ needs. Its operations are also flexible in reaching customers’ demand, including controlling product quality to meet standards and agreements made with customers.
- People value: To build people values, BPP encourages its employees to develop their knowledge and skills. Moreover, the corporate culture filled with qualified staff daring to solve the customers’ problems properly and quickly, has been cultivated.
- Reputation value: In order to gain good reputation, BPP operates its businesses professionally in accordance with the code of conduct and good corporate governance.
Additionally, BPP is closely monitoring legal and policy changes to adapt itself to any changes in energy demand from the government sector, aiming to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from power and energy generations. It is also an opportunity to transform the business towards renewable energy and energy technology derived from market demand and government support.
Performance
- Customer’s satisfactory scores equaled to 100%.
- No customer’s grievances involved with customer’s privacy data protection.
- None of customer’s complaints related to safety and environment of product consumption.
Key Activities and Projects
The Company has offered various channels for receiving complaints from customers such as:
• Consultations with customers in the governmental and industrial sectors within time period upon mutual agreements
• Providing hotlines allowing customers to call for changing the power purchase, requesting for product consultation, including reporting any complaints directly to the production unit
• Emails
• The Company and subsidiaries websites
The Company has established a complaint recording system, tracking and amending system, as well as responding to customers’ complaints in a timely manner. Designating the process of receiving and handling complaints is in accordance with the context of each area. The Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plants in China have handled their customers based on the Quality Management System Standard (ISO 9001)
The Company has conducted the customer satisfaction surveys through various channels, for example:
• An in-depth interview to evaluate customers’ satisfaction to assess particular problems, needs and expectations of customers so as to use the information obtained to improve work processes and production as well as enhancing good relationships with them
• Sending questionnaires to customers for satisfaction scoring
The CHP plants in China have managed customers’ satisfaction by using the Quality Management System Standard (ISO 9001), having frequency to conduct customer satisfaction surveys varying from quarterly to yearly
The Company has put great attention to the significance of safeguarding information receiving from customers in order to prevent damages and build trusts among customers. Policy and guidelines are as follows:
A Use of Information
- The Company uses database on expectation, suggestion and complaints to better improve services, develop operational and production process, as well as create products to respond customers’ needs.
Disclosure of Information to the Third Party
- The Company will disclose customers’ personal information to the third party only with consents from the customers
- The Company will disclose customers’ personal information only when the Company honestly believes that there are necessity and appropriate reasons for the disclosure and in compliance with related laws
Information Security Maintenance
- The Company protects its customers’ personal information from unauthorized access by restricting to authorized staff, employee and representatives who need to use that information for customer service or data processing. As such, those people must strictly comply with regulations of securing confidential data
The Company realizes the significance of customer satisfaction towards business success of the Company. Therefore, the Company has intention to find any methods in response to the customers’ needs more efficiently and effectively at all time. The policies and guidelines have been formulated as follows:
1) Delivering products and providing quality services to meet or exceed the customers’ expectations at fair prices
2) Providing accurate and adequate as well as up-to-date information to customers about products and services without any exaggeration possibly causing customers misunderstanding about quality, quantity or any conditions of certain products or services
3) Strictly complying with conditions towards the customers and if in any events that any conditions cannot be met, customers must be notified to find means of solutions to problems together
4) Contacting with customers with politeness, effectiveness and reliability
5) Providing the system and process for customers to complain about quality, quantity, safety of products and services including timely responding, delivering and executing to the utmost for a quick response to customers
6) Securing customers’ confidentiality and do not use the data for self-benefit or any wrongful related persons
7) Providing advices on user manual regarding the Company’s products and services effectively with the utmost benefit to the customers
BPP has invested in gas-fired power plants and power trading business in the U.S., which is a merchant market and exists in the entire value chain, starting from electricity generation from large power plants to selling power in the wholesale and retail markets, including power trading. This is to drive the business to grow forward. Moreover, BPP sees the importance of using digital technology in managing power production and distribution business in the merchant market. In addition to enhancing knowledge and expertise for employees, the technology is still needed to be developed in order to raise the level of service meeting different customers’ needs and to build good relationships with customers. This has helped BPP expand its customer base and increase the amount of electricity sold and future profits. The digital technologies used in operations are as followings:
- Developing software to store and analyze factors affecting the amount of power supply in the market in order to track movements in the real-time power trading market.
- Using artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze power consumption behaviors of customers in order to design a variety of service packages at reasonable prices. Moreover, AI is also used for responding to customer needs and proceeding with information from social media to increase opportunities to reach the target customers. In addition, AI is used for developing attractive and interesting marketing activities so as to build good relationships with customers.
- Generating power through digital systems, which allows the power plants to flexibly adjust their production capacity levels, corresponding to the rapidly changing merchant market. The digital system also creates opportunities to increase income while the market is faced with electricity shortage. Moreover, it is transparent and can be traced back by releasing production data to the public in real time.
- Using software systems to record, monitor and control emissions from gas-fired power plants with accurate and transparent data that can be traced back.
