Tweet
If you have an issue with your Powergen account, the complaints procedure is quite easy to follow; it has been changed within the last couple of years and is quite a good way of doing things IMO.
I will also explain the structure of Powergen so that it is easy to follow the complaints procedure.
Powergen staff will always let you speak to a manager, it is made quite clear to them that if a customer wants to speak with a manager then that should happen. I have experienced people trying to block me from speaking with their manager in other places but this shouldn't happen at Powergen, all the managers will be happy to take calls.
OK
The people on the front line (call centre) are called 'customer service specialists'. They are the people who you will get through to when you call the freephone number on your bill. They can help with basic queries such as providing meter readings, changing your direct debit amount etc. etc. They do not get into the complexities of billing, although some of them do know how to bill, they have restricted access to the systems as this is left to the 'back office specialists'.
If you have a complicated query, i.e. if you need to update your account to show a meter exchange etc you will be passed to a back office team This team deal with the more complex side of billing accounts and have access to all systems needed to deal with the technical side of billing.
Above the Customer service specialists are 'Senior Customer service reps'. These are people who have a lot of knowledge and have been interviewed and then promoted to this position. They still do the day-to-day work but they will also take calls from colleagues who have customers asking for a manager.
Then they have team managers. These people deal with the day to day running of the teams, in the call centre they manage the phones, make sure there are people logged in etc. If a Senior rep gets a call where the customer is still not happy, the call is then passed onto the team manager.
Above team managers they have section managers. The role of the section manager is to run the section, deal with team managers and general day to day running of a call centre or back office environment. They do take calls from team managers if the customer wants to go further, although 9/10 times the query will be passed back to a customer service specialist to deal with but the section manager will keep in contact with the customer.
So, it works like this:
You ask for a manager = Senior rep will take the call
Senior rep takes call and you're still not happy = Team manager takes call
Team manager takes call and you're still not happy = Section manager takes the call.
Very few customers have been known to resort to speaking with a section head, 9/10 times it would has been a really difficult customer who has wanted the moon on a stick (I know we are still customers, but there are some people out there who do not want to pay bills full stop and will stop at nothing to try and get that).
If after all this you are still not happy, you then need to speak with energywatch. Energywatch are the utilities industry regulator, no company wants to be top of the energywatch tables for complaints, usually a mention of going to energywatch is all you need to get them into gear and sort out your problem. Energywatch will only deal with your complaint if you have already followed the suppliers complaints procedure, you have to give the supplier chance to sort out your query before going further.
Energywatch will liaise with the dedicated Energywatch complaints team to get your problem resolved for you. Anything that is sent to the customer once a complaint is raised is also sent to the person you speak with at Energywatch including all letters etc.
Powergen also provide an address for you to write to the directors’ office. There is a dedicated team of people that deal with these complaints.
There is also a dedicated number on your bill to get straight through to a senior rep, this will bypass customer services if you haven’t had a satisfactory conclusion to your issue.
I will also explain the structure of Powergen so that it is easy to follow the complaints procedure.
Powergen staff will always let you speak to a manager, it is made quite clear to them that if a customer wants to speak with a manager then that should happen. I have experienced people trying to block me from speaking with their manager in other places but this shouldn't happen at Powergen, all the managers will be happy to take calls.
OK
The people on the front line (call centre) are called 'customer service specialists'. They are the people who you will get through to when you call the freephone number on your bill. They can help with basic queries such as providing meter readings, changing your direct debit amount etc. etc. They do not get into the complexities of billing, although some of them do know how to bill, they have restricted access to the systems as this is left to the 'back office specialists'.
If you have a complicated query, i.e. if you need to update your account to show a meter exchange etc you will be passed to a back office team This team deal with the more complex side of billing accounts and have access to all systems needed to deal with the technical side of billing.
Above the Customer service specialists are 'Senior Customer service reps'. These are people who have a lot of knowledge and have been interviewed and then promoted to this position. They still do the day-to-day work but they will also take calls from colleagues who have customers asking for a manager.
Then they have team managers. These people deal with the day to day running of the teams, in the call centre they manage the phones, make sure there are people logged in etc. If a Senior rep gets a call where the customer is still not happy, the call is then passed onto the team manager.
Above team managers they have section managers. The role of the section manager is to run the section, deal with team managers and general day to day running of a call centre or back office environment. They do take calls from team managers if the customer wants to go further, although 9/10 times the query will be passed back to a customer service specialist to deal with but the section manager will keep in contact with the customer.
So, it works like this:
You ask for a manager = Senior rep will take the call
Senior rep takes call and you're still not happy = Team manager takes call
Team manager takes call and you're still not happy = Section manager takes the call.
Very few customers have been known to resort to speaking with a section head, 9/10 times it would has been a really difficult customer who has wanted the moon on a stick (I know we are still customers, but there are some people out there who do not want to pay bills full stop and will stop at nothing to try and get that).
If after all this you are still not happy, you then need to speak with energywatch. Energywatch are the utilities industry regulator, no company wants to be top of the energywatch tables for complaints, usually a mention of going to energywatch is all you need to get them into gear and sort out your problem. Energywatch will only deal with your complaint if you have already followed the suppliers complaints procedure, you have to give the supplier chance to sort out your query before going further.
Energywatch will liaise with the dedicated Energywatch complaints team to get your problem resolved for you. Anything that is sent to the customer once a complaint is raised is also sent to the person you speak with at Energywatch including all letters etc.
Powergen also provide an address for you to write to the directors’ office. There is a dedicated team of people that deal with these complaints.
There is also a dedicated number on your bill to get straight through to a senior rep, this will bypass customer services if you haven’t had a satisfactory conclusion to your issue.
