3 September 2018
In certain sectors - notably banking, energy and telecoms - customers are exhorted almost continuously to consider ‘switching’ supplier. Organisational structures have been developed to facilitate switching and the strategy of switching tends to be strongly supported by the regulator in those industries. For example, over 40 UK banks and building societies now participate in the ‘Current Account Switch Service’ run by the payment service, Bacs. In the energy sector, there is an ‘EnergySwitch guarantee’ and the regulator (Ofgem) provides advice on how to switch to a new supplier, as does Ofcom for the telecoms sector.