Based in Cardiff and operating across South Wales, Blend Telecom has provided business services to many customers in Wales and further afield since 2018. The core part of the business is wholesale mobile, VoIP & Broadband. Over the last three years the company has partnered with Fidelity Energy to offer its customers a wider range of services. Managing Director, Jay Birch, explains: “We signed as a partner during the pandemic and energy was a great addition to our portfolio - customers already trust us to provide other services so this was an added extra and a single point of contact for them.
“The big value is obviously having access to the Fidelity Energy team. Our dedicated Business Development Manager, Jason Fernyhough has joined customer meetings, so we can utilise his market expertise and have him explain the proposition. Jason provides insight into what is going on in the industry and what to look out for when comparing different quotes – it really gives our customers more confidence.”
Since becoming an energy partner back in 2020, Jay explains how Blend Telecom has evolved: “One thing that’s happened, which I didn’t expect is I have generated telecoms leads on the back of energy, whereas I thought it’d be the other way around. The whole idea of being a partner was to sell this product into the existing base, however, with the current state of the economy and the world at the moment, energy’s become more and more important for businesses and I have been referred into new customers as a result. On the back of that, I’ve been able to sell our core products in to this new base.
“Before the pandemic energy wasn’t a top priority for businesses, whereas now it is high on their agenda because of the soaring costs. One thing I have noticed is that customers are more educated on the proposition and they understand what we’re sending them and can interpret quotes.
“Energy has also helped us support our customers more than we initially thought. Saving a charity money on their new rates and with Fidelity Energy we were able to consolidate their bills which was a key thing for them. Being able to have multiple sites come out of contract at the same time and from one supplier massively reduces their workload. We’ve also given them a little bit of a value as well, where we are consolidating the meter reads from all the buildings. That is something they’re absolutely loving, which is just showing the value of going through Blend and Fidelity.
“We now have a dedicated energy page on our website and also feature energy on our bill run to promote it and to try and save some money for our existing customers that we haven’t already managed to reach.” Jay Birch MD Blend Telecom “Before the pandemic energy wasn’t a top priority for businesses, whereas now it is high on their agenda because of the soaring costs.”