Customer Service – British Gas
Customer Service – gas powered magic
Some time back I received an email from a customer on a bleak Monday morning. Our installation team were still on site after a major weekend office shuffle in the City. I must admit, I was expecting bad news as I glanced at the email preview the word ‘problem’ leapt out at me. I hadn’t heard from any of my team and I thought perhaps something had gone drastically wrong. Well, it certainly could have done had my installation team not leapt (or in this case knelt) into action.
On reading the email I discovered that my installation team had saved the entire weekend project by going above and beyond the call of duty. There were many trades involved in the weekend office reorganisation, one of the trades – the carpet fitters – failed to show on Sunday afternoon so the desks could not be put back in place. With half the carpet up the office would not be able to open for business the next morning for health and safety reasons. My installation team offered to cut the carpet to the new floor tile layout to enable the desks to be moved into their new locations. When I spoke to my team on their return to the office they said they would not have offered had they known the cost of each tile. Apparently, they were incredibly expensive. Sometimes, going the extra mile may actually require a modest amount of effort but with incredibly far reaching results.
As we were entering the winter months of last year British Gas sent us a notification of installation of a SmartMeter for our gas and electricity supplies. We were told the gas and electricity would be stopped for up to two hours each.
“…my elder daughter Karen had only recently been discharged from hospital after eight months in hospital. “
This was a particularly difficult time for my family as my elder daughter Karen had only recently been discharged after eight months in hospital. Karen was in the early stages of a long recovery from a brain injury and our living room had been equipped with a mains powered hospital bed for her use. She also had a number of other powered items that she could not be without.
The central heating was vital to maintaining Karen’s environment, especially overnight as she was unable to keep her covers over her. We also needed the gas cooker and microwave several times a day to provide the care she needed.
Karen also has Autism, she struggles to cope with change and suffers with anxiety attacks. Her internet connection is an important aspect of her life and she gets very anxious when the internet is out for whatever reason. I had not had time to set up a 4G alternative so I had agreed with Karen that the SmartMeter engineer would be taking the service down for a maximum of two hours.
“…it was looking like we would be without heating or our cooker for the weekend. “
I explained this to the agent in the call centre when I booked the appointment and explained that we could not sustain a long gas or electricity outage. I hadn’t expected the message to get through. However, when the SmartMeter engineer arrived (on time) he spent time understanding all of our concerns to understand in more detail the ‘special requirements’ that had been passed down to him by the call centre agent. When he realised how important the internet was to Karen he planned the migration to the SmartMeter to achieve what he need to do with minimum downtime. In fact, Karen lost her internet for around 15 minutes and she was very happy as a result. He then needed to move onto the gas supply.
As part of his safety procedures he had to test every gas appliance before completing the migration. We had a disused gas fire in our living room (now Karen’s bedroom) and when this was tested it was found to be in need of a service. The engineer said unless he could isolate the appliance he would have to disconnect our gas supply until the problem had been resolved. This was now around 3pm on a Friday afternoon. I explained that I didn’t know any gas engineers let alone anyone who would come at this late on a Friday so it was looking like we would be without heating or our cooker for the weekend.
“…I am likely to remain a loyal British Gas customer for a very long time as a result of their engineer’s excellent customer service.”
The engineer called his office and asked for permission to help us out of this predicament. He worked out a way of isolating the gas appliance to prevent it from being used but he needed a special part to cap the gas pipe. He turned his van out in search of a suitable part and after two to three hours the engineer managed to cap the pipe. Following some safety tests the engineer agreed with his manager that we could be left with our gas supply connected and we were very happy. The engineer was a fantastic ambassador for British Gas. It is very difficult dealing with my daughter when she is anxious. The engineer was brilliant, he took his time to explain to Karen in a way she could understand what he needed to do and why.
I was so impressed with the service that I wrote to the Head of British Gas SmartMeter services. Again, I didn’t expect a reply as I was just wanted the senior management to know that I am likely to remain a loyal British Gas customer for a very long time as a result of their engineer’s excellent customer service. A week or so later I received a personal email thanking me for taking the time and trouble to give such positive feedback and Karen received an Amazon voucher in the post. I also received two follow up telephone calls and another email telling me that the engineer was going to receive some recognition for his services that day.
I will never forget that day, not because of the anxiety of potentially losing our critical gas supply but because of the excellent customer service we received from the British Gas engineer and his management team for allowing him to see the problem through to a successful conclusion. Thank you British Gas.