Putting small businesses first: Making new energy work for every SME

Ask Stella Hughes what shapes her approach to work and she goes straight back to her first day at Powergen, now E.ON, 26 years ago: headset on, phone ringing and prepared to help customers.

That front line experience has stayed with her throughout a career spanning residential service, metering, finance, sales and small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) operations. Today, as Head of SME Service at E.ON Next, she leads seven operational managers covering everything from everyday enquiries to complex complaints.

“When I’m making decisions, I’m not just thinking about how something looks on a piece of paper,” Stella says. “I can put myself back in that chair and ask: how will this feel for our frontline colleagues, and what will the impact be on our customers?”

For Stella, good service comes from balancing what she calls the “three Cs”: customers, colleagues and commercials. If all three have been considered, she believes the right outcomes and business performance will follow.

It is an approach rooted in making energy work for everyone: delivering fair customer outcomes, supporting colleagues and building a sustainable business.

“We really care about our people and our customers,” she says. “I couldn’t work somewhere where every choice was only about the bottom line. If we do the right thing by customers, colleagues and the business, the metrics tend to look after themselves.”

That principle matters because no two small businesses are the same. A farmer or a sole trader may engage with their energy account much more like a household, while a managing agent could oversee hundreds of sites. Between them sit all sorts of companies and sectors, from pubs, bakeries, restaurants and nurseries, to takeaways and corner shops, each with different operating hours, pressures and priorities.

“That variety is what makes SME interesting, but it is also the challenge,” Stella says. “There is no one-size-fits-all solution, so we have to understand the business behind the meter.”

Seeing the business behind the bill

Small businesses are facing what Stella describes as a “triple threat”: rising operating and supply-chain costs, higher employment costs and continued volatility in the energy market. Unlike larger organisations, most do not have specialist energy teams to optimise their energy needs, or the financial headroom to absorb any sudden increases.

“If every ingredient costs more, your wage bill has risen and then you open an energy renewal or invoice that is higher than expected, it is a daunting situation,” Stella explains. “Our job is to help customers navigate that.”

Accurate, timely billing is fundamental in helping businesses manage cash flow and Stella’s teams consistently deliver around 98% of invoices on time, something they continually seek to improve. Together, accurate billing, smart meters and clearer consumption data can help businesses understand their energy use, manage costs and make more confident decisions.

Service as a point of difference

In a competitive market, price will always matter, but Stella believes confidence between customers and their supplier is vital for a strong relationship – one that provides the foundation for helping businesses to move beyond simply buying energy towards managing it more intelligently. One customer once described the experience as “reassuringly boring” – an unusual compliment that has stayed with her.

“What they meant was they knew what they were going to get,” she says. “Customers value quality, reliability and the reassurance that their supplier will be there throughout the contract.”

Meeting different customer needs

Just as there is no such thing as an ‘average’ business, Stella has had to focus support so colleagues can build specialist knowledge and have more informed conversations with customers – pre-empting their needs by identifying what specific customers need.

Those insights will be increasingly important as E.ON explores new targeted offers including export tariffs, solar panels, batteries, heat pumps and electric vehicle charging – making best of use of new technology that can actually make energy a competitive asset for business.

By combining specialist service, smarter technology and solutions tailored to different sectors, E.ON is helping SMEs to take greater control of their energy, reduce their costs and build resilience.

People at the heart of progress

Stella’s deep understanding of SME customers helps their varied needs shape decisions across E.ON. Small businesses are diverse, valuable and deeply connected to local communities, so bringing their perspective into conversations from the outset will help the business design services and solutions that work for them.

For Stella, leadership begins with creating a resilient, passionate team that wants to take ownership and do the right thing. The pace can be intense and customer situations can be difficult, but that makes determination and belief even more important.

“I’m only successful if the team is successful,” she says. “My job is to build a team with the passion, resilience and confidence to get things right for customers. It starts and finishes with people.”