Congratulations to Flick, the winner of Canstar Blue’s 2023 Innovation Excellence Award for its Flickin’ Best Plan Promise, which ensures Kiwi electricity consumers are always switched on to a great power deal.
The award comes on the back of Flick winning Canstar Blue’s most recent award for Most Satisfied Customers | Electricity Providers.
Just like the seasons, a household’s energy usage can change. The power plan that’s best for your electricity usage in January might not be suited for your consumption needs in June. And that’s where Flick’s Flickin’ Best Plan Promise can help.
The Flickin’ Best Plan Promise means that every 90 days your power usage is reviewed. Flick looks at the times of day you typically use power, calculates your variable kWh and fixed daily charges, and compares them against the rates of its Flat and Off Peak pricing plans.
Flick then works out if you’re on the best plan for your household, or if there are savings to be made by changing to a different Flick plan. If you can save over $10 by switching to another Flick plan, you’ll be advised to do so and informed of the amount you can save.
Currently, no other electricity retailer in NZ offers such a feature. And it’s this innovative approach to ensuring its customers are always on the best plan that earns Flick Canstar Blue’s Innovation Excellence Award 2023.
Innovation Excellence Award 2023
Canstar Blue’s Innovation Excellence Award recognises the stand-out product in the fields of energy and telecommunications to launch in the New Zealand market each year. Using a unique rating methodology, our expert panel of judges assesses and evaluates submissions on their degree of innovation and their ability to improve the consumer experience.
When assessing innovations, our judges look for the following qualities:
- The impact the innovation will have on improving or affecting a consumer’s day-to-day life
- How the innovation stands out from products already available in the NZ market
- What gives the innovation wow factor
- If the innovation is accessible, easy to understand and/or affordable
Flick: Innovation Excellence Award 2023
In awarding Canstar Blue’s Innovation Excellence Award, our panel of judges recognised the uniqueness of Flick’s service and acknowledged the energy company’s efforts to offer value and transparency to its customers.
On accepting Canstar Blue’s award, Neisha Ashaye, Flick’s Chief Marketing Officer, said: “We’re extremely proud to be awarded the Canstar Blue Innovation award. Flick’s value proposition is to be deliberately on the customer’s side. Everything we do at Flick, we do to ensure that we’re delivering customer-focused solutions that are also differentiated, disruptive and transparent.
“Our Flickin’ Best Plan Promise was born directly out of these values. It was designed to reassure customers that they were on the best energy plan for their consumption patterns and, if not, proactively inform them that they could save money by changing plans. With the continued elevated cost of living in NZ, our Flickin’ Best Plan empowers our customers to know that they’re getting the best value for money.”
Flick is a proudly independent power company based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington). Founded in 2014 by six Wellingtonians, Flick is also the winner of Canstar Blue’s Most Satisfied Customers Award | Electricity Providers 2022.
What’s on offer from Flick Electric?
Flick offers two plan options, with no fixed-term contracts or exit fees:
Off peak
This plan is ideal if you’re using most of your power during off-peak hours, when prices are cheaper. Shift your power usage to cheaper, off-peak times and you can make big savings on your power bill.
Off-peak times:
- Nationwide (excluding Christchurch) = 11am-5pm, 9pm-7am and ALL DAY at weekends
- Christchurch only = 9pm – 7am and ALL DAY at weekends
Flat
Pay a simple, fixed rate all day and night. Ideal if you tend to use most of your power during peak times (7am-9am and 5pm-9pm) or if you find it hard shifting your usage to off-peak pricing.
Flick App
Use Flick’s app to monitor prices, manage your usage, and keep an eye on the carbon emissions generated by your household’s electricity use.
See the price of your power
Know the exact kWh price you’re paying for electricity in real-time, so if you’re on a plan that offers off-peak pricing, you’ll be able to see when your power’s cheaper.
Track your carbon impact
Keep tabs on the carbon emissions being generated by NZ’s electricity industry, as well as your own personalised carbon footprint data, with Flick’s exclusive Carbon Tracker tool. See how much carbon your power use contributes, choose when to switch things on and off to make a difference, and balance your emissions with Flick’s partner charity, Trees That Count.
Monitor your usage
The Flick mobile app breaks down your individual appliances’ running costs for you.
Track your power bills
See at a glance how much your next bill will be, and view the amounts you’ve paid for previous power bills to track your spend over time.
Change your billing frequency within the app, set up Bill Smoother to keep your power bills predictable, and check your Bill Smoother balance at any time.
Solar buy-back
Flick is currently running a trial for customers with solar panel to enable buy-back of excess electricity generated.
Paying your bills
Flick offers different options for billing: weekly, fortnightly or monthly. You can choose to pay your exact bill amount, or open Bill Smoother and pay a regular amount. By paying a little more than your normal bill amount, you’ll build up a stash of cash that you can then use to automatically knock the top off a higher than normal bill.
Control of your account
Flick customers can log in to their online account through the Flick website and can access a statement showing a breakdown of their electricity usage, costs and any other fees and charges, along with their invoices. Customers can also view bill amounts in the Flick app.
Compare electricity providers with Canstar Blue
If you are looking to change electricity providers, or are unsure if you are getting the best deal, Canstar Blue can help. We rate NZ power companies for customer satisfaction and value for money, see the table below for some of the results, or you can click on the button below for the full results of our survey.
Canstar Blue’s latest review of NZ power companies compares them on customer satisfaction. The table below is an abridged version of our full results, available here.
^ By clicking on a brand or 'details' button, you will leave Canstar Blue and be taken to either a product provider website or a Canstar Blue NZ brand page. You agree that Canstar Blue NZ’s terms and conditions apply (without limitation) to your use of this service,to any referral to a product provider from our website, and any transaction that follows. Canstar Blue may earn a fee for referrals from its website tables, and from sponsorship (advertising) of certain products. Payment of sponsorship fees does not influence the star rating that Canstar Blue awards to a sponsored product. Fees payable by product providers for referrals and sponsorship may vary between providers, website position, and revenue model. Sponsorship fees may be higher than referral fees. Sponsored products are clearly disclosed as such on website pages. They may appear in a number of areas of the website such as in comparison tables, on hub pages and in articles. Sponsored products may be displayed in a fixed position in a table, regardless of the product’s rating, price or other attributes. The table position of a sponsored product does not indicate any ranking, rating or endorsement by Canstar Blue. See How we are funded for further details.
Canstar Blue NZ Research finalised in April 2023, published in June 2023.
See Our Ratings Methodology
Compare electricity providers for free with Canstar Blue!
About the author of this page
This report was written by Canstar’s Editor, Bruce Pitchers. Bruce has three decades’ experience as a journalist and has worked for major media companies in the UK and Australasia, including ACP, Bauer Media Group, Fairfax, Pacific Magazines, News Corp and TVNZ. Prior to Canstar, he worked as a freelancer, including for The Australian Financial Review, the NZ Financial Markets Authority, and for real estate companies on both sides of the Tasman.
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