What's one of the best ways to fight energy price hikes? Here's our top 5 tips for finding those champions that will show others the way. 

We know that finding and supporting local champions is the key to a successful campaign. Our top tips come from almost 20 years of working with housing associations and local authorities to help them support customers and residents. 

Our Top 5 Tips

Here are our top 5 tips for encouraging your community champions.

1) Provide lots of free gadgets

Give out free energy saving products they can test and then recommend to other people. Word of mouth is a powerful tool and will spread messages far quicker than you can. Providing a new gadget like an energy smart meter will provoke conversation with friends and family.

2) Teach the tools, not the script

Help your champions find their own words to promote energy saving. Educating them to talk authoritatively to others about energy saving will encourage and give them the confidence to spread their experiences and tips.

3) Champions deserve continued support

Your champions are doing your job for you. Provide them with extra training and lots of support, so they know you value them. Don’t just deliver the training and walk away. Make sure they have somewhere to go if they hit a stumbling block and check in often. That way they will never just give up.

4) Use good visuals

Give people good materials so they can make energy use more visible. Providing materials that engage and educate makes energy simpler to understand and communicate with others.

5) Champions have lots to teach you

Learn from them and implement their good ideas. Who better to gather ideas on how to engage your residents than the residents themselves? Our experience has shown they come at the problems with fresh and realistic ideas. They can help you spot opportunities to reduce bills. 

Our Energy Training Workshop 

Download our Energy Training Workshop summary and agenda to see how you can train your staff, residents or customers to spot oppurtunities to reduce energy use.

Contact us 

If you'd like to find out more about our training, or if you'd like to set up your own resident engagement partnership like the one that won us two Sustainable Housing Awards, get in touch. 

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