How do we do it?

If there’s one message that we hear from customers all the time, it is that they have had a lot of phone calls about energy supply recently. We appreciate the fatigue that all of you business people feel about the energy decision. The Megawatt Hour is built to be different– we provide arms-length, transparent information therefore easing the process of purchasing. It is an entirely open, information and market-driven decision-making process. Because customers pay us directly, our interests are entirely aligned with customer interests. One recent experience with a customer demonstrates why our focus on transparency, service and information creates a unique customer experience, and saves customers time and money, reducing (not adding to) your workload.

When we first met the management at The Holiday Inn in midtown Manhattan—which is the largest Holiday Inn in the United States—we met an organization that was fatigued by the energy decision. They had had frequent calls from brokers recommending that they look at various energy contracts. Overwhelmed, and annoyed, they had opted not to commit to a fixed contract and had been floating on an index rate. (With gas prices sliding down to where they are these days, it turned out to be a good decision as they rode the market price all the way down.) When we first met, management explained that they had recently connected with a broker and that it was unlikely they would consider another option like The Megawatt Hour. They were intrigued enough, after our initial demonstration of the product, to move us along to the next step in the decision-making process.

At that point, we explained to the Controller that we would provide them with better pricing information than any broker in the market. We put our money where our mouth was: we told The Holiday Inn that they could pay us on either a share of the savings that we were able to deliver, or they could pay us our regular subscription. And they wouldn’t pay until they were perfectly satisfied. The Controller decided to experiment…..he had The Megawatt Hour provide pricing, along with the broker who had contacted him.

We were just developing our Supply Transaction Module at the time—we offered to gather supplier pricing and evaluate contracts on behalf of the hotel. We sought pricing from 5 reputable, long-standing players in the industry using the contract term sheet from our information service. One of them did not perform quickly or professionally during the process of delivering a price quote, so we dropped them from the mix. The other four suppliers were excellent, and provided prompt, clear, competitive pricing. One of them was more competitive than the rest. We presented the pricing offers to the Holiday Inn management online, through our web-based portal. In reviewing our online Contracts Module, the customer had a number of excellent additional questions about product offerings, possible alternatives to fixed price pricing, and wholesale market dynamics. In the end, The Megawatt Hour’s combination of online, web-based information, the cost-effective, efficient pricing of our service, and transparent, highly competitive supply quotes delivered a lower overall cost and higher return for the customer than going through a broker.

Our service will continue through the term of the hotel’s contract. Since the customer purchased the contract through our service, we will provide the hotel with periodic reporting that alerts them to purchasing opportunities (i.e. points during the year when the market presents an opportunity to extend or renew the current contract at or below the current price) and helps them keep track of when their contract expires, so they have plenty of time to decide on a new electricity contract.  Don’t just take our word for it, here’s what The Holiday Inn had to say about their experience working with us:

We were hit from all sides by every company for months soliciting an electricity contract. When it came down to deciding who would be the best fit all others were beginning to tire me out until we met The Megawatt Hour. They not only presented the best price for our power supply contract but their professionalism and patience throughout the negotiations process secured the deal. The supply price they got for us was the lowest including the cost of The Megawatt Hour subscription. It was how they handled themselves from our initial meeting to closing that made me decide they were a class act.
J. Edward Cecala
General Manager
Holiday Inn Midtown

Bottom line: The combination of The Megawatt Hour’s information portal and supply expertise represent a new and competitive offering in the energy industry. Recent customer experience demonstrates the value of The Megawatt Hour’s new Supply Transaction Module.