Episode 124: Liz Allan and Russ Morgan - Improv Rap and EV Innovations

Episode 124: Liz Allan and Russ Morgan - Improv Rap and EV Innovations.

Liz Allan speaks to Russ Morgan, the Commercial Innovations Director at Ohme,  a company redefining EV charging with smart, customer-focused solutions. Russ shares his journey from building his first computer at 14 to leading innovation in the EV charging industry. Liz and Russ delve into the importance of education, customer experience, and breaking down barriers to EV adoption. You can also hear about Russ' creative passion for improv comedy and how it influences his approach to innovation. 

Quotes from the Episode:
"Empathy and education are key to making EV adoption seamless and stress-free." – Russ Morgan
"The new generation will wonder why we ever relied on fossil fuels." – Liz Allan

Russ Morgan Bio:
With a career spanning global tech roles and a passion for innovation, Russ has helped drive transformative solutions in the EV sector. At Ohme, he focuses on customer-centric smart charging systems that align with renewable energy, making EV ownership more accessible and sustainable. Russ is also an advocate for breaking down barriers to EV adoption and fostering open, informative conversations to counter misinformation. When he’s not shaping the future of EV charging, Russ channels his creativity as a performer with Track 96, the UK’s first hip-hop improv group.

Russ Morgan Links:
Ohme Website: ohme-ev.com
Track 96’s hip-hop improv performances: track96.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/russmorgan

Episode Keywords:
Improv performances, improvisational rap, Camden Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, Track 96, electric vehicles, EV charging solutions, home charging, OMI, energy market volatility, smart chargers, sustainable energy, dynamic charging, agile energy tariffs, customer experience, Motability Operations partnership, digital survey, customer education, tethered chargers, untethered chargers, energy tariffs, government guidance on EVs, h

Transcript

Liz Allan  [00:00:02]:
So today, I have with me, Russ Morgan, and he's the Commercial Innovations Director at Ohme. And we've met a few times, and it's been brilliant. And you've started listening to the podcast even, Russ. So thank you for joining.

Russ Morgan  [00:00:16]:
I say what I'm gonna do, and I do what I'm gonna say. So I made sure to listen to it. Yeah. It's great.

Liz Allan  [00:00:21]:
I love it. Thank you. And you know that this is just a conversation. It's never been, you know. We've been chatting beforehand, and I'm going to slip a few things in about our conversation, but just not yet.

Russ Morgan  [00:00:33]:
Alright. You let me know.

Liz Allan  [00:00:35]:
I will. I will. Absolutely. So thank you for joining. Let's talk a little bit about about you and your background. So, obviously, you've been you told me before we started recording that you've been a lover of tech for a long time, haven't you? Yeah. What did you end up doing before this role and becoming a citizen in the UK as well?

Russ Morgan  [00:00:57]:
As of last week, it's official. 

Russ Morgan  [00:01:00]:
I swore an oath to, the king and all of his descendants is is very official with the 

Liz Allan  [00:01:05]:
Were they all there?

Russ Morgan  [00:01:07]:
Yeah. How far back do we go? Like, I think when I was 14, I built my first computer from scratch. And, you know, I think I and I built a website as well, and I have always loved how technology can can push us forward. And at that time, it was, you know, the Internet and how it connected us. Eventually, I got to work a little bit on mobile phones with Samsung quite a bit. And then I started travelling the world and and working in different countries. So I moved to Toronto, Dubai, and then Singapore, and then eventually London. We're all working in in sort of tech.

Russ Morgan  [00:01:43]:
And then when I came to London, I actually came as a a co-founder of a technology company.

Liz Allan  [00:01:51]:
Right. Yes.

Russ Morgan  [00:01:52]:
It was a a service marketplace focused on connecting customers to, service providers. So, anything from a handyman to a personal trainer to a photographer. And we grew to about 35 employees. Wow. And we were running it for 7 years, and about 40% of our revenue was associated with in-person events like weddings. And then something happened in this world. I don't know if you're familiar with it, where all the I

Liz Allan  [00:02:21]:
might be.

Russ Morgan  [00:02:22]:
Trying to do a whole I think it was called COVID. Yeah.

Liz Allan  [00:02:25]:
And that was what it was.

Russ Morgan  [00:02:26]:
That's exactly what it was. So that was the end of that company, but it was an amazing journey building something from scratch like that. And then, the day I was supposed to be handing over the keys to the company that bought us, my wife gave birth to our first child. So talk about a crazy day.

Liz Allan  [00:02:48]:
My goodness.

Russ Morgan  [00:02:50]:
Then it happened upon this business called Omi, which at the time was looking to grow and add some people. And I had a great conversation, with both their chairman and their CEO. And, and I've been there for the last 3 years.

Liz Allan  [00:03:03]:
Fantastic. So, Ohme was founded originally in 2017. It was David David Watson. Was he the founder or the CEO?

Russ Morgan  [00:03:15]:
Yeah. So he's the CEO and then the director in one of the in one of the cofounders or the

Liz Allan  [00:03:19]:
Right.

Russ Morgan  [00:03:20]:
I would say the main cofounders. It's really, there's an impact investing firm that still is called Temporus. They invest have invested 1,000,000,000 in sustainability. So whether it be, you know, wind farms or battery technology or, you know, I believe right now they're even building a city or a town in Cork, not a town, but, hundreds of houses. All are focused on sustainable investment. And I one thing that, David realized early on is there there is and there will be a lot of volatility in the in energy markets. And the answer that he felt would be, to that volatility would be EVs and and a smart charger that could help shift, charging to greener and cheaper times. So that was his idea and concept really early on, and, you know, it's really come to fruition, from an idea to something that's now in the market and now helping customers save money in the environment.

Liz Allan  [00:04:25]:
Fantastic. So you so only, provide home charging, don't you, to actually facilitate or what your what David was wanting in kind of with the EV sector and actually building it to get, you know, kind of connecting it?

Russ Morgan  [00:04:41]:
Yeah. Domestic home charging, you know, it's, I think, you know, I think when I  started, there are so many different charges in the markets. I know there have been, and there are a lot fewer now, but we focused on a couple of core things. One was, you know, being more than just an outlet. Right? You know, and I think that the back-end technology of Ohme enables that really smart and dynamic truck charging. So we work with some of the big energy companies to deliver what's called dynamic tariffs. So instead of just having a cheap window overnight, we enable things like, look, if the wind is blowing or the sun is shining and renewable energy is abundant and available, well, that's a good time to charge your car, but we don't expect individual customers to know when that time is. So the charger can dynamically, hence the word, go on and off based on those greenest and cheapest times, helping, I guess, your wallet and the environment at the same time.

Liz Allan  [00:05:39]:
That's brilliant because, you know, I think a lot of people don't be when you've got new when you've got people who are new to EVs, they're learning so much, aren't they? A 100%. No. And we're talking about, yes, it drives a bit differently, but it charges differently. And there are multiple different options and the ways that people, you know, multiple different options and the ways that people need to learn you know, the things that people need to learn about charging is a bit kind of a bit in some ways, it can come across as mind-blowing, can't it? So if you can simplify all of that on the home side, that makes a massive difference.

Russ Morgan  [00:06:16]:
And any new technologies are scary. Right? And, of course, we have these early adopters that are incredibly keen, and I, you know, we're incredibly grateful for the people who originally took on, you know, Omi and and and tried us out. But what we have invested a lot in is, to your point, the customer experience. Right? I think a lot of the challenges we face as an industry right now are not gonna be challenges in 5 years' time, right? If, if, if you, if you wiped everyone's memory and you said, hey, here's a car, go figure out what a petrol station is, you know, that in itself is a technology that people need to understand and we have that same sort of hurdle. So aside from looking at the customer experience and having educational videos and content, we actually invest a lot in sending our team to dealerships to help educate the dealers, not just on the charging technology, but what it's like to have an EV and how really great that technology

Liz Allan  [00:07:15]:
is. And, actually, we were talking about this beforehand, weren't we, about making sure that those those dealership those conversations with the dealerships. When you if you're going to and I've I've had this experience, and I was telling you about it, wasn't I? If you're going to a dealership and you're new to EV, you need that conversation about charging home to be, like, front and centre. And it's got to be easy to understand. And it is getting that message message out there to those dealerships, isn't it? And that it's not just the dealerships, is it? It's prior to that, it's making sure that that the the OEMs, the manufacturers are understanding, you know, they understand that this is really important. It's a bit like the old, you know, you and you still get it in a car, don't you? You get you you'll get your manual in there that you kind of read through your manual and what do you do here? You get it online, you get a book, whatever, But you want it to be simple. You need to be able to understand it. I've sat in our car, gone through the manual going, bloody hell.

Russ Morgan  [00:08:23]:
I think what I often tell people is one of our jobs in the industry is to influence that conversation at the pub or that at the cafe, you know, that when you are the first person in your friend group to get an EV, we wanna make sure that that person is sharing the best experience possible. And to your point, making sure it's easy to understand. Right? So when I often talk to customers, you know, I'm less inclined to say, you know, our charger charges at 7.4 kilowatts. Who knows what that is? Right? Yeah. I could say if you plug in your car, we'll add 25 miles for every hour charge. Or to get from London to Bristol, it cost me £2.68. Cost me less than a cup of coffee. Then it becomes a lot more tangible and people can really understand it.

Russ Morgan  [00:09:13]:
When it comes to the big swings, you know, really getting people over the fence, it's conversations like, "I drove 5,000 miles last year and spent about £ 117 on fuel."

Liz Allan  [00:09:24]:
Right?

Russ Morgan  [00:09:25]:
You're gonna be saving a £1,000 compared to a combustion engine. So when you put it in those terms, you can even help the naysayers, you know, get across the line.

Liz Allan  [00:09:35]:
And that, I mean, God, there's so many of them out there at the moment. There are so many, and it is about kind of getting how do you think I mean, obviously, this you know what you guys are doing, but how do we need to be addressing this negativity? And I talk about it a lot in the podcast. What are your thoughts? I mean, you know, how do we move this?

Russ Morgan  [00:10:01]:
So I'll say open, honest, and nonjudgmental conversations. You know, when people are unfamiliar with the technology, they don't want to feel talked down to. Right? They just want it to be communicated with in their terms and things that they understand. Right? And not pushing people into vehicles that maybe aren't right for them right now, or they may not be ready for the transition. But if you are having really great conversations, and you're getting people in EVs to even do a test drive, it really helps. So we do a lot of work, with some of our partners where we go to these events that they host, and it's getting people in EVs. And so case in point, I I had a a customer come up to me, and she said, hey. Oh, I know I think I know what you guys do, but I'm getting a hybrid.

Russ Morgan  [00:10:50]:
Guaranteed I'm getting a hybrid. That's the best thing for me because in the last 2 years, I did 7,000 miles or or 14,000 miles. And I said, okay. So that equates to about 30 miles a day in driving. I used a calculator. I'm gonna be honest. I didn't calculate it that quickly. And I go, do you know the average EV has over 200 miles in range? So the amount of driving you do, you're never gonna use that up in a given day.

Russ Morgan  [00:11:17]:
And if you have a charger at home, that means you're leaving with a full tank of, you know, electrons. Right? So you get to you get the benefit of cheap electricity at home, and you don't have to worry about running out. And, yes, there will be those odd, you know, long trips. But, you know, myself, as an example, I only used public charging 4 times in the last year. Right? It's gonna be few and far between, and the network is so great right now, that you're gonna benefit from it. So I know I'm rambling a bit, but I think the simple answer is, you know, frequent nonjudgmental conversations and challenging people when what they say is completely incorrect. And, you know, my wife was having an ultrasound the other day and the person doing it, he's like, oh, what do you do? And I mentioned EV. He goes, well, I hear the batteries run out on the motorway and you're gonna be stuck.

Liz Allan  [00:12:10]:
Oh my god.

Russ Morgan  [00:12:11]:
And I'm like, no, actually. They and and hearing the AA speak, you know, that's actually less likely than running at a petrol. And I can't and we had this really engaging conversation. And so my wife said, can we just focus on the ultrasound? I go, yeah. Fair point. Fair point. Got a little too riled up.

Liz Allan  [00:12:29]:
We're gonna segue, right, now that you've talked about this because I think I want the audience to know this. When this when this episode goes out, you will have your 2nd small child. And when you're talking about the ultrasound, you probably need to say how many weeks your wife is pregnant.

Russ Morgan  [00:12:47]:
I'll I'll just give you days. The due date is technically in 7 days, and the baby's in position. And any day I may need to leave this podcast because I don't know.

Russ Morgan  [00:12:59]:
So it's it's listen. I'm now working from home. It's it's imminent. My wife is equally eager and terrified about the coming of the second baby. But, yeah, it's, you know, it's life. Right? It's one of these things that we, we all have going on and, outside of our careers. But, it's also really exciting, like, really fun only funny enough. My daughter, when we were on a trip, we ended up renting a car, and it was a hybrid.

Russ Morgan  [00:13:28]:
I'm sorry. It wasn't a fully electric car. And as soon as we got in the car, she's like, noise. What is this noise? And she's so confused that the car made noise because the car she's used to is completely silent. Silent. And, you know, that's what it's gonna be, you know. Everyone is gonna benefit from this great technology and the new generation is gonna say, you put what into your cars? Stuff that exploded and Yeah.

Liz Allan  [00:13:50]:
That's what is not from a liquid. Why did you do that?

Russ Morgan  [00:13:54]:
That's great. That can't be safe. Why would you? Yeah. It's, it's amazing.

Liz Allan  [00:13:59]:
But we've got we've got used to it for so long, haven't we? I mean, you know, it's kind of cars cars as in, you know, petrol engine cars or diesel engine cars have, you know, been around for such a long time. And it and it is it is a massive change. But like you say, your 3 year old daughter and your and your little little one who's coming soon, you know, that that that's all. They'll they'll just start seeing that. And like you said, there will be occasions that you'll you'll see there'll be a smelly, petrol or diesel car or whatever. But on the whole, their life is gonna be electric, isn't it?

Russ Morgan  [00:14:35]:
You know, one of my first jobs, I worked in the equivalence of a Currys in Canada, and I sold computers. Right? And people, you know, oftentimes, it's their first home computer that they were buying from me. And back then, the big fear was putting your credit card online. How how could you do that? It's terrifying. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Now, could you imagine, you know, someone even, you know, taking a second thought about doing it? Right? It's it's become so ingrained.

Russ Morgan  [00:15:03]:
And EVs, it's it's the exact same thing, you know, in in 5, 10 years time, I mean, 5 years time, it's it's just gonna be so, it'll be the norm and everything. Right? And I think at that point, people will be like, okay, now let's talk about autonomous driving, but that's, that's even further ahead. So we'll see.

Liz Allan  [00:15:20]:
Absolutely. And actually, do you know what? I was thinking back because I am old, and I was thinking back to, you know when we were hitting the end of 1999, and everybody was talking about the 2,000 and the potential, the millennium bug. And, oh my god, all these things might break down, and things will explode, and we won't be able to connect and all this kind of stuff. Mhmm. It's sort of that, isn't it, in a way? It's kind of going back to that, oh my god. This big thing's gonna happen, and it's all gonna turn into God's pear-shaped.

Russ Morgan  [00:15:51]:
I I was at a New Year's party at a house and, someone at midnight, year 2000 switched off the main breaker to the house.

Liz Allan  [00:16:00]:
Oh, on purpose, the little buggers.

Russ Morgan  [00:16:03]:
It was really funny. We're like, oh, no. But everything turned out okay, didn't it?

Liz Allan  [00:16:08]:
It blooming did. And like you say, so 24 years on, we are in a totally very, very different space. We've got AI, you know, we've got, as you say, possibly heading to autonomous vehicles, different ways of fueling our vehicles, different ways of driving them, and actually, in some ways, we just we get we're being given an opportunity to do things differently.

Russ Morgan  [00:16:34]:
Yeah. Absolutely.

Liz Allan  [00:16:36]:
For your kids and, you know, my son's kids, whenever they happen I'm sorry, James, if you're listening. I'm not trying to say you have to have babies soon.

Russ Morgan  [00:16:48]:
Yeah. No. It's true. And, well, like and even, you know, you mentioned your son's in university now. The job that he's gonna be working, you know, probably wouldn't have existed, you know, 20 years ago. Right? With the new industries and new roles, it's just it's amazing how quickly we are advancing as a society. Technology is just, and I don't know the exact stats, but it's like the time between the radio and the television versus the television and the PC versus the PC and, you know, the Internet. Like, it's the s curve we're on.

Russ Morgan  [00:17:22]:
If you look at technology as a whole, it's just amazing how quickly we're growing.

Liz Allan  [00:17:27]:
And I was, do you know what? You've just come back to me. I would say, probably when my son was a baby, so, you know, kind of 19 years ago, one of my husband's friends, and I can't remember who he worked for, but I remember him saying, oh, you know, these mobile phones, they're not gonna we're not we don't need them to turn into mini-computers. They're never gonna be they're just gonna be like a brick. You know, they'll just be there for phone calls and texts and stuff. And look where we are now.

Russ Morgan  [00:17:54]:
Oh, yeah. When the first telephone came out, and they were gonna use them for businesses, they only estimated they needed one telephone per floor of an office building. That's it. Right? And now it's complete, obviously. Everybody's glued to their hip now. Right?

Liz Allan  [00:18:10]:
I know. Yeah. And in your hand. And I mean, there there are there are some fantastic things about mobile phones, but there are some things that, you know, like, the way that we communicate face to face. Even now, you know, this is great. This is these are conversations that are needed rather than just, you know, you kinda see it, and I've done it. My husband did it. We've sat in a restaurant or a pub or somewhere, and you end up being on your phone.

Liz Allan  [00:18:34]:
It's just like, oh my god. We just need to learn to communicate a little bit differently. And maybe, as I say, maybe some of the stuff that we'll get will be given besides the way we're moving, you know, electrification, everything else. Maybe we'll be given other chances to actually start communicating differently.

Russ Morgan  [00:18:53]:
Yeah. I think the importance of human connection isn't it couldn't be more important, you know, in an age where, you know, people can just become so engrossed in their phone and the, you know, the different platforms that are really they're incentivised to keep you engaged.

Liz Allan  [00:19:10]:
Yeah.

Russ Morgan  [00:19:10]:
And that's where I always prefer to have, you know, face-to-face meetings, you know, actually, talk to people, and learn from them because that's where, you know, the magic happens.

Liz Allan  [00:19:20]:
And if we kinda go if we step back a little bit and we talk about that kind of being engrossed in the phone and that face-to-face, you know, contact, but also take it back to that kind of the stuff that we were talking about with regards to the negativity around electrification, about EVs, etcetera, etcetera. The fact that we are so engrossed in the phones in our phones probably gives people who can access that ability to influence people. We've done that. We've given that ability, haven't we? As you said, people are being held in, you know, that it's, it's that level of fear of missing out because you now know that, oh my god, there's this thing happening. And if I don't join that, I'm gonna be missing out. 10, 15 years ago, you wouldn't give me a mortgage because you wouldn't have known anything about it.

Russ Morgan  [00:20:10]:
Yeah. It's true. Yeah. It's it's definitely a double edged sword, but I think, you know, the more proactive we are across all channels, you know, the better. You know, I think I was, surprised to see a really positive EV story the other day, and I looked at the comment section, and it was so polarizing. Some people are, like, yes. This is great, and other people adjust to more sorts of misinformation. So it's, you know, I I have sections and presentations I give talking about fighting the FUD or the fear, uncertainty, and doubt.

Russ Morgan  [00:20:40]:
How do you break down these common objections that have no basis in truth? That's often what we need to focus on.

Liz Allan  [00:20:49]:
And if we kinda go back to so, you know, I I use this quite often, you know, back in Henry Ford's day. And he said, you know, if people would have actually asked me what they if, you know, if I'd have asked them that he said they wanted a faster horse.

Russ Morgan  [00:21:05]:
Absolutely right. Yeah. I have a friend who quotes quite often. And, yeah, it's and that and that's you know, I think there is there is you should be listening to customers. I think that's critical for the success of any organization, but you should also bring to light technology that can make their lives easier and better

Liz Allan  [00:21:24]:
Mhmm.

Russ Morgan  [00:21:25]:
Or make our in terms of the environment, make our global lives easier.

Liz Allan  [00:21:29]:
Yeah. So if we go back, obviously, it's because we're supposed to be talking about Ohme. Let's go let's go back to Omi because yeah. And you. We'll come back to you in a bit. What so you have several you've talked about partnerships, and you've talked about energy providers. How is that? So, who are you partnering with? I know kind of Octopus is one of them. Mass massive cost you know, cost massive partnership, isn't it? But what is important in your mind? I look.

Russ Morgan  [00:22:02]:
I would say we're a very privileged organization to work with many great companies. And I think one of the reasons why we've been so successful in building these partnerships and these relationships is two fronts. Right? It's 1, having a forward-looking technology. So it's, like, back in the day, it's, and we're not just looking at creating another plug. We're looking at creating something that's intelligent and dynamic, and that can really help customers save money in the environment. So that's, you know, if you look at some of the energy retailers we work with, whether it be Octopus or Ovo, our charges work with them all. It's, you know, helping design and create some of the, you know, world-leading energy tariffs. Right? And some of the early tests, you know, I think we're one of the first with Octopus, if I'm not mistaken, to create an agile tariff where customers got paid to charge at certain times.

Liz Allan  [00:23:01]:
Goodness. Yeah. So, you know,

Russ Morgan  [00:23:03]:
things like that have helped both of our companies, you know, grow quite successfully. And then I think aside from the technology, I think customer customer customer is the most important thing. It's that customer experience, and it's putting that at the forefront. It's helping customers that, you know, are having difficulty with this new technology and and really walking them through step by step. You know, what I often when when training people, it's it's about dropping everything to help that customer that, you know, has an urgent request, but not forgetting that customer who you committed to call in in 15 minutes time. Right? And I think a lot of cuts, a lot of organizations take for granted, you know, that customer experience and putting and being empathetic and putting themselves in the shoes of the customer. As a result, we've been able to win some really great partnerships. And, you know, one that I was involved with from the get-go was Motability Operations.

Liz Allan  [00:24:00]:
Yes. Yeah.

Russ Morgan  [00:24:01]:
I know you're familiar with them, but if the people listening aren't, you know, they're an organization that operates the modability scheme. And if you are a customer who lives with a disability, you have an opportunity to take your disability allocation or a portion of that towards a vehicle. And they're they wanna make sure that no driver is left behind. They wanna make sure that if you live with a disability, that you should be at the forefront of this great technology and what it has to offer.

Russ Morgan  [00:24:30]:
And, you know, when we started with them, it was purely a focus on how can we make their, you know, how can we complement their already exceptional customer experience. And we've been able to grow that, you know, as you know, over the last 3 years. And and because of some of that work, we now work with some of the largest OEMs. So whether it be, you know, Volkswagen or or Hyundai or Audi, you know, they they recognize what a really great managed installation experience is, and we provide that aside from just the charger itself.

Liz Allan  [00:25:02]:
So please tell me what you're saying about the installation experiences. Let's just talk about that a little bit. So so how does it how does it work with with you guys? So can people come to you directly, or do they go to your network of installers or go through, like, you know, like a company through what, like Octopus? How does how does it all kind of pull together?

Russ Morgan  [00:25:23]:
Really good question. And there are lots of ways of getting OMI chargers now. When I first started, one of my mandates was to help build our managed installation experience, and now we have much smarter people running it. But, you know, if you are a customer, you can absolutely come directly to our website, and you come through Omi, and we ask you some questions about your property to understand exactly what needs to be done. Then, we will send out an engineer to undertake the work and work with a network of great top-tier installation partners across the UK. Aside from, you know, coming directly to us, of course, we do have partnerships with a lot of these major OEMs. So oftentimes, they have special offers, whether it's a discounted rate for an OMI charger with what we call standard installation, or sometimes they actually bundle it with the car as well. And in those situations, what what we do is we have an interface directly with the dealer.

Russ Morgan  [00:26:21]:
They let us know that, hey, Liz has just got this new Hyundai. She'd like to take you up on an Omni charger. And then what we do is, again, we send you that digital survey for you to complete, and then we'll have someone out, you know, in a matter of weeks to to install your charger.

Liz Allan  [00:26:36]:
So I've got a question because not, you know, in the UK, and I don't know what it was like in Canada when you were there, but we have a peculiar kind of housing stock sometimes. It's not we were quite lucky with our charger because our consumer unit, you know, our sort of fuse board is quite it's not far away from the front of the house, but some places, you know, some people's houses, the consumer units at the back of the house, the drives at the front of the house, how do you manage that? So, you're kind of saying that the customer fills that information in? What happens if they haven't got a clue what they're doing and they're kinda like, well, it's there, but I've got no idea how you get it to the front.

Russ Morgan  [00:27:19]:
It's been a it's been a learned process for us. Right? You know, it's, you know, We've done so many installations now that nothing surprises us. We've seen and done installations from the centre of London up to Orkney. Right? You know, we do every every location. And what we define as a standard installation covers, you know, I'll say, 75, 80% of installs, and then some customers do have some of these quirks in relation to their properties. So fortunately for us, the digital journey we put people on has always been adapting and updating, and we've always been improving upon it. Right? Because we wanna ask customers the least amount of questions while also ensuring that our team has enough information so that when we show up to do the installation, it's successful. So, some things we may ask a customer to do is take a simple video of where their fees for it are versus where their car is, And then just that video alone gives us a lot of information where we can understand the exact scope of the installation.

Russ Morgan  [00:28:23]:
Now, of course, you know, obviously, we work with a lot of customers that have physiological impairments. Sometimes, they can't get those photos that they need, but we have options, what we call sort of an in-home survey, where we'll actually send an engineer out, capture that information on their behalf, and then just get the job done that way. And then, of course, anything that falls out sort of our standard definition of installation, we'll quote the customer, and they'll be able to, you know, decide what they wanna do from there. But, obviously, because we have the scale that we do, we can give customers really great rates.

Liz Allan  [00:28:56]:
Because it's funny, isn't it? Because, so I've got I've got a friend whose husband is due to get an EV this month through his business, you know, through their through the company he works for. And, obviously, it's not you guys, but the company that he was, they were just there was an agreement with the with their business who who they'd use. And, basically, because of the fact that, like, my friend and her husband didn't realize about the kind of the the charger. And it's not something you can just plug into a socket, you know. And, actually, she was finding it quite stressful because of it. You know what it's like. It's just life. And you throw charging and EVs into a busy day and somebody's kinda having stress at work and stuff like that. So I basically gave us some information about right.

Liz Allan  [00:29:47]:
Okay. This is the reason why you can't just plug it in. It doesn't work like that. We're talking about, you know, a 7 kilowatt charger that needs these you know, I'm not I'm not an expert, but to give her that information because she was being asked questions that she couldn't answer.

Russ Morgan  [00:30:03]:
It's it's a major electrical appliance. Right? Its, you know, just like getting a, not even a dishwasher, but, you know, say you had to get a hot tub installed or something like that. You know, there needs to be some work done potentially on the consumer unit, that allows for that. There needs to be cabling put in. But what we do is is is is these step by step, you know, videos and information where we say, you might not know what earth bonding is as an example

Russ Morgan  [00:30:31]:
Because I didn't know what earth bonding was before I started here. And why would she?

Russ Morgan  [00:30:35]:
But here's a photo of what it looks like, and here's where you can typically find it. So if you can grab us a quick snap, great. We'll we'll be able to do that. Right? So, you know, it's, you know, as soon as customers go through the journey, it's pretty simple for them to understand exactly what we're looking for. But we have a really big team that we call our customer success team, and their job is purely to help people through that process. So if you have a question, if you're unsure about it, we'll let you know we'll be able to help. And the other thing we do on the post-installation side, because as you know, you know, there are people that have, I guess, different technological profiles in relation to their comfort with technology. The engineer will actually set up the app for the customer fully there.

Russ Morgan  [00:31:19]:
So they know exactly what to do and how to use it. So there isn't that barrier that gets faced as well. But, yeah, it's something new. It's something different. But we'll help you every step of the way.

Liz Allan  [00:31:29]:
I love that. And that's and that's brilliant. I mean, there was another lady that, that I've been talking to, a company that I've been working with, and she was she's just got, an MG 4, and they were looking at home charging. And I ended up asking her, do you know the difference between tethered and untethered home charges? And that's the other thing that, you know, she hadn't had any experience or knowledge or understanding about this. So I was kind of saying to her, right, okay. If you want to get your cable out of the car every time you charge, then that's your untethered because there's no cable on the front, you know. But if you want something where, you know, depending on your life and how it works and whether you can do this, like, you know, actually, the cable will be attached and all you do is just plug it in, you know, trying to just explain that because she didn't she didn't know this.

Russ Morgan  [00:32:22]:
When we launched our untethered charger in the UK and offered it to our customers, you know, one of the more common questions we had was, well, which one will work on my car? Yeah. The answer is obviously both. Right? But, but, you know, obvious to me, obvious to you, but not too obvious to somebody who's brand new to this technology. Yeah. Right? So we make it very clear. We send through communications and say, here's the difference. But, yeah, you're absolutely right in terms of the difference. It's really just out of convenience, you know, for me and most of our customers, it's, you know, I get home.

Russ Morgan  [00:32:54]:
It's already attached to the wall, so I can plug it right in. However, there are a few customers who, if there are charges at the front of the house, may not want the aesthetic of having a cable there at all times. It's really just down to personal preference. The good news is that both options are available.

Liz Allan  [00:33:10]:
And that's and that's brilliant. The fact that you're offering that, you know, you and they're quite attractive looking chargers, you know. They're just

Russ Morgan  [00:33:20]:
I think so. I think what annoys my wife, though, is whenever we go on walks, I often stop in people's driveways and start walking up and seeing what charger they have, and she's like, stop walking on straight to the top. Nope. But I don't have an EV. I just need to take a look.

Liz Allan  [00:33:34]:
I know. You're a bit lucky. I'm a geek like that as well. I've always been a bit of a geek about tech stuff over the years and very various things. I'll kind of go, oh, yeah. Anywhere that I've worked and it's a bit kind of there's a bit of technology in there. Oh, I remember that. But, yeah, well, look.

Liz Allan  [00:33:50]:
What charger do they have? You know? Exactly. I totally, totally get it. It's not about walking up people's driveways. I do tend not to do that out of there.

Russ Morgan  [00:34:01]:
I try to avoid it now. Yeah. It frees people out a little bit.

Liz Allan  [00:34:04]:
So can I just ask you with regards to kind of the so you said, obviously, working with companies like Octopus on the overnight tariffs and stuff like that? Do because we we might have done it slightly differently from how you do it with your customers. We didn't end up going on to the overnight EV tariff with Octopus until we'd had our charger installed. Can you set a tariff up in advance that says, right, my install date is this date and can you swap us over? Or do you have to wait until the charge is installed and actually then then you can move over to the tariff?

Russ Morgan  [00:34:43]:
I think it's a really good question. I think because I think I think you can do either. But that's just me thinking you better you'd be better off contacting your energy supplier, and they will be the best thing, whether it's a switching date or what have you. But what I will say, and, you know, we have been talking about tariffs, and oftentimes, you know, you take for granted what a tariff is, you know, for people who are considering EV, research your tariffs. That's the biggest tip. Because the last thing we want is to see, I've seen customers on older tariffs that haven't they're like, oh, I haven't changed it in the last 10 years.

Liz Allan  [00:35:17]:
Yeah.

Russ Morgan  [00:35:17]:
When you're getting an EV, you're doubling at least your energy consumption in your house. And, as I said, if you're on the right tariff, it can cost you less than a cup of coffee to charge your car. So

Liz Allan  [00:35:27]:
Absolutely. And this is the thing making making sure that this is the communication thing. And I'm not just saying this isn't about you specifically at all. It's about making sure that whoever you are talking to as a new EV driver or potentially new EV driver is telling you this stuff as well. You know, if you're buying a charger that they're talking to you about the overnight tariffs, what is an overnight tariff? You don't want to be plugging your car in and paying what you were paying before because, actually, you can get 7 p per kilowatt. You know, 7 p per hour on an overnight tariff. Why would you want to pay what you paid before when you can get it cheaper?

Russ Morgan  [00:36:09]:
Yeah. Exactly. And then a lot of people, and it's funny because as soon as someone starts driving an EV, they get it. Right? It's just getting into that position. Yeah. But, but a lot of people, that's a a bragging point. You know. They're, like, let me tell you how much I've been paying on fuel whenever they're at, you know, the, like, the pub and having a chat with my friends, which, I really love to see.

Liz Allan  [00:36:31]:
And it's funny, and I and I've talked about this in the last few podcasts. One of my lovely friends, I love her to bits. I've known her for ages. She thinks CV charging is a faff. And I haven't shared this video with her yet because I'm waiting for the right time, but I've literally taken a video of right. I'm in the car. My check on my car charge says this. I'm literally taking, you know, I'm taking my key, and I'm and I've opened the thing on the car, and this is where I'm plugging in, and that's it.

Russ Morgan  [00:36:59]:
You know, as I said, we work with a lot of customers that live with disabilities and physical impairments, and, you know, a home charging cable and the gun is more weight than a petrol pump. Right? Yeah. It's easier to manage, you know, for some of those customers, they, historically, they've had to call ahead to the petrol station to have someone assist them. Oh, yeah. Whereas when it's at home, it's a lot more manageable and, So is your control, isn't it, really? And like you say, because

Russ Morgan  [00:37:31]:
It's in your control. It's convenient. It's there. You don't have to, you know, it's an there's a spot where your car can reach, and you can get in and out of quite easily. Mhmm. So it's it's a real game changer.

Liz Allan  [00:37:43]:
So, really, what we're saying is if you've got a driver, you can charge at home. That is the best way. And I and I know there are there's quite a decent percentage of people that can't charge at home. I know that doesn't make it that

Russ Morgan  [00:37:58]:
They say, you know, 28% of people don't, 40% of people in the UK don't have a driveway, but 28% of drivers, more succinctly, do not. But hopefully, next year or maybe this year, the government's supposed to be coming up with guidance. We're gonna see, you know, cross-pavement solutions and allowances. Right? So these are things like, you know, like like cable trays, like, curb charge. If you watch the Bright and Dens episode, they're a perfect example of how your cable comes to your house, goes through a tray, so it doesn't create any sort of trip hazard, and then just plugs in your car. And I think, hopefully, at the end of this year, but definitely next year, we're gonna see more councils coming along saying, yes. You can do this. Here's the process, and then we can enable many more customers to get cheap home charging.

Liz Allan  [00:38:46]:
Yeah. And actually, those kinds of solutions have been around for a long time. We've probably just not seen them. You know? I'm not saying specifically with EVs, but I've seen water channels go through or various channels go through pavements. And, you know, and they're safe. It's not you that all of these cable solutions will make sure, you know, that that actually the purse the pedestrian who's walking past where that cable, you know, that cable solution is, they're not going to hurt themselves because that's what would be the point to do that. That's what they're there for, you know.

Russ Morgan  [00:39:23]:
But, like anything, it's it's it's a new technology that councils need to get used to and find. But as more and more councils do, you know, support this and have a process and have, you know, an improved technology or technologies, then it'll become ubiquitous, and we'll be able we'll be very happy with that. And the same thing exists with, you know, EV charging and and, you know, DNOs. Right? You know, DNO, they're district network operators. So, you know, the sort of local people that control your electricity is a simple term that, you know, they weren't used to so many, you know, connection requests for for all these EV chargers, right? Mhmm. They've adapted and now the process has become quite smooth

Russ Morgan  [00:40:03]:
when

Russ Morgan  [00:40:03]:
it comes to connecting and notifying DNOs. So I think it's just a matter of time, and I think we're all the right people are pushing in the right direction, which is really good to see.

Russ Morgan  [00:40:12]:
Yeah. I mean, we've just had a heat pump put in about kind of 6 weeks ago. So we are fossil fuel free flippin' neck. And actually, that kind of, that the whole situation with the the district net network, operator, most of it was managed by the heat pump provider, Eira. You know, there are there were little things, little tweaky things that actually I'd get a text. I'd be like, oh, while they were with me and going, what does this mean? You know, but it was it was great. It was great. And as you said, it's

Russ Morgan  [00:40:46]:
I agree. The less paperwork a customer has to manage, the better. And and, you know, when it comes to DNL stuff, obviously, we we would manage that. But even when it comes to this cross street stuff, I think we need a or cross pavement, we need to look at a solution where the the customer doesn't have to worry about much, where they just say, I want it, and great. We'll take care of it.

Liz Allan  [00:41:04]:
Oh, absolutely. As you say, providing a good customer experience is so important to me. Actually, it's been part of my working life. You know, it's always been about ensuring the customer experience is right. But like you said, you've got to think about technology and the fact that some customers don't know what they don't know.

Russ Morgan  [00:41:29]:
Yeah. Yeah. So you've got Don't take don't take anything for granted.

Liz Allan  [00:41:33]:
No. No. Exactly. Exactly. And to make sure that you provide enough information, I always talk to people because I've been working in improvement for years. I talk about the fact that people learn in different ways.

Russ Morgan  [00:41:49]:
Yeah. You know, and actually Yeah. Interestingly enough, I have an adult education degree, and that was one of the main themes that came out of that degree was how people learn in different ways and how you should do different, whether it's written or lectures with different types of approaches.

Liz Allan  [00:42:05]:
Yep. Video, visual, written, shown.

Russ Morgan  [00:42:10]:
To support your point about not taking things for granted, one thing I encourage everyone at Homey—or I would say anyone listening to this—to do is talk to people about EVs because then you'll learn what their concerns are, what their thoughts are, and where they're struggling. That will allow you to adapt your approach to better serve those individuals.

Liz Allan  [00:42:32]:
And, actually, because if you don't and you're just thinking you know what people want, then actually you're putting your own bias on it and not the information that that those people who you need to be talking to actually have. Mhmm. No. So, yeah. I want to talk because I know you've gotta go very shortly, but I want to talk to finish off. We've talked about the baby. But there's you have. You are a man of many talents. I don't normally talk about this stuff on the podcast, but you shared with me about the fact that you do improv.

Russ Morgan  [00:43:15]:
I do. Yeah.

Liz Allan  [00:43:16]:
I want to finish off on this because you've got to tell everybody what improv you do, why you do it, and how you got started. This was just so interesting.

Russ Morgan  [00:43:27]:
Sure. You know, everyone has their own hobbies, you know, some people play football and, you know, I think, I've always loved, you know, I think everyone loves having fun at the end of the day. And I always enjoy, laughing. And, you know, years, years ago, in London, someone suggested I I take an intro to improv with this organization called Hoopla, which is the biggest sort of improv school in in the UK. And, and it was as soon as I did it, I was like, oh, this is amazing because it's, you know, when was the last time you pretended a dinosaur was chasing you? Right? It's when you're a kid. Right? And you sort of tap into this, this spontaneous creativity in play. And, it teaches really practical skills, as I was talking about terms of being adaptive. But, but I've sort of done it so much over the years.

Russ Morgan  [00:44:20]:
It's how I met my wife and, more recently, the last 5 years, I've been focused on, with my group doing hip hop improv of all things. So

Liz Allan  [00:44:31]:
love it.

Russ Morgan  [00:44:31]:
Yeah. We have a live-themed boxer on stage. We get audience suggestions, and, we make up wraps on the spot. So we've done everything from Camden fringe to Edinburgh fringe and, everything in between. So it's, it's a lot of fun.

Liz Allan  [00:44:45]:
Right. Okay. Can I throw this at you then?

Russ Morgan  [00:44:49]:
Go on.

Liz Allan  [00:44:49]:
Or you can I bet you know what I'm gonna ask you now?

Russ Morgan  [00:44:52]:
Go on.

Liz Allan  [00:44:53]:
Are you can you do a one-minute EV improv?

Russ Morgan  [00:44:56]:
Yeah. Of course, I could.

Liz Allan  [00:44:58]:
Go go, gadget.

Russ Morgan  [00:44:59]:
Hold on. Listen, Liz. There's a second rule. So one of the things with improv is that you have a team and they have Oh. Oh. It's kinda it's, you know, it's funny. Stand-ups get it all the time when you're you're you meet someone who does stand-up. It's like, great.

Russ Morgan  [00:45:11]:
Okay. Be funny. And it's like, well, you know, I kinda have a set. I have patter of things I work into. But listen, if you or anyone comes to my show, our show is I should say track 96.com. You can throw out Evie as a suggestion, and trust me, I can wrap about that for days.

Liz Allan  [00:45:28]:
I will make sure. So track 96.com. I will make sure that it is in the show notes. I want to come and actually hear this because it sounds fantastic. As I said to you, I am all about the chat.

Russ Morgan  [00:45:42]:
Yeah. My only caveat is that in the next couple of months, I'm probably gonna be taking care of a newborn.

Liz Allan  [00:45:46]:
So you are. Absolutely. But, you know, at some future date when you're kind of not changing nappies and, you know, helping your wife and all of that stuff and looking after your 3-year-old or your 0-year-old, a x number of days-old, then I want to hear some of this stuff because I think Listen.

Russ Morgan  [00:46:05]:
I can bring it. I'll bring the fire.

Liz Allan  [00:46:07]:
I want. I want. I definitely wanna see it.

Russ Morgan  [00:46:09]:
My name is Danger Russ. Isn't it Danger Russ? Well, I'm debating between Danger Russ and Chival Russ, but, I think I'm going to Danger Russ.

Liz Allan  [00:46:19]:
Oh, I love it. Right. I've got it. I'm gonna be looking at your website as well. So on that note, I'm gonna finish because I think that's a really, really good, a really kind of lightened poem because

Russ Morgan  [00:46:32]:
I recommend that people try improv. It's a lot of fun, and it's one of my top recommendations.

Liz Allan  [00:46:39]:
Oh my goodness.

Russ Morgan  [00:46:40]:
Drive a jig and take improv. Those are my two tips.

Liz Allan  [00:46:45]:
I'm gonna have a go. Yeah. I'll I'm not saying it would be kind of hip-hop improv, but I might have a little bit of a little bit of a bash at that, and then maybe next time we can have a little, you know. Anyway, I'm ready.

Liz Allan  [00:47:03]:
I want to just say thank you to you, Russ. It's so lovely and interesting to talk to you. It really, really has.

Russ Morgan  [00:47:12]:
Thank you, Liz.

Liz Allan  [00:47:13]:
I want to also say to you guys out there listening and watching, please just even if it's just so, you know, letting people know that Russ exists and the things that he does and obviously about Oney and everything like that. Please just share the podcast. Please just share the episodes if you found them interesting, and make sure you visit the only website. It's it's ohmedev.com. I will put that in the show notes. You'll be able to find it in there. But share this, because this is what we talk about. We always talk about kind of getting through the fear, uncertainty, doubt, and negativity that's out there. The only way for us to actually break out of it is by sharing the truth, and this kind of knowledge is just priceless.

Liz Allan  [00:47:57]:
So, Russ, thank you ever so much again for taking the time out. I really, really appreciate it. Thank you to everybody else for listening and watching, and I shall see you next time. Bye bye.