A new payment partner became a profitable investment for Telge Energi

Telge Energi was founded in 1994 as a municipally owned energy company based in Södertälje. Today, the company exclusively sells renewable electricity from solar, wind, and water to its approximately 150,000 customers across Sweden. Telge Energi's ambition is to be at the forefront of the industry in sustainability, customer care, and innovation.

Telge Energi chose Billogram as its payment and invoicing solution because of both the existing features on the platform and the potential for future development.

"We liked the setup where both parties—our customers and employees—get a shared, real-time view of the payment status. It was also important for us to choose a solution that continues to evolve, so we wouldn't be stuck with something that would soon be outdated," explains Anna Blom, Head of Product and Business Development at Telge Energi.

More customers pay via Swish - and fewer pay late

Approximately two years after Telge Energi implemented Billogram, what results have they seen from the partnership? Anna Blom highlights positive changes in customer payment behavior that have benefited the company's cash flow.

"We clearly see that more customers are paying earlier, especially via Swish, which has become a very popular option. In addition, the percentage of late payments has decreased significantly, largely thanks to the soft reminders feature."

Soft reminders—also known as friendly reminders or due date reminders—mean that customers who have not yet paid their invoice on its due date receive a gentle reminder via email so they don't forget to pay on time.

Three measurable effects of Telge Energi's collaboration with Billogram:

• 30% increase in direct debit payments in the first 18 months

• 136% increase in digital invoices (via email) in the first 18 months

• 100% increase in the number of Swish payments in the last 12 months

A targeted campaign led 75% to abandon paper invoices

According to Jenny Treffner at Billogram, reducing the number of paper invoices is an important key performance indicator (KPI) for companies in all industries. Paper invoices consume significant resources, and their handling is unlikely to become smoother or cheaper in the future, she notes.

To get more of Telge Energi's customers to opt out of paper invoices, the company, in collaboration with Billogram, launched a targeted effort starting in the fall of 2022. For a period of about four months, a specific group of electricity customers, for whom Telge already had an email address, received an email with their monthly invoice. The email contained a link that the customer could click on to switch to a fully digital invoice. Customers who had not clicked the link within 48 hours automatically received a letter with similar information.

While the campaign was ongoing, the procedure was repeated with each billing for customers who had not yet made the switch. When the initiative concluded, a full 75% of the approximately 25,000 customers included had switched to a digital invoice.

Anna Blom from Telge Energi is clearly pleased with the result.

"The campaign yielded an impressive increase in the share of digital invoices, which means significant cost savings for us. But more importantly, it allows us and our end customers to get the full value of Billogram."

One reason the campaign was so successful is that they chose the right customer group, says Jenny Treffner at Billogram.

"Telge Energi did important preparatory work where they filtered out customers in segments where they didn't see the conditions for success, such as groups where many prefer paper invoices. In those cases, pushing for digitization could have led to more calls to customer service, which was already under increased strain due to high electricity prices."

A partnership that continues to evolve

What are Telge Energi's plans for its future collaboration with Billogram?

"We want to continue working on efficiency and personalized customer journeys, but also focus more on our important B2B segment. Billogram's specialists are good at listening to our needs and have already developed solutions that have helped us lower our costs and simplify things for our customers. We look forward to continuing to develop the partnership and tackle future challenges together," concludes Anna Blom.

Are you curious about how Billogram has helped other energy companies achieve impressive results through digitized invoice management? Don't miss the interviews with Upplands Energi and 7H Kraft. And if you want to know what we can do for your company—don't hesitate to contact us today.