Back in November 2013 we formed a partnership with the University of Dundee to improve the service we provide to our customers, with a particular focus on people that experience difficulties during a power cut.
This was the first time we had done something like this and it was a first for our industry. The Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) allowed us to tap into the expertise of the team at the University of Dundee on health and social care. The findings of the work have played a crucial role in allowing us to combine our engineering and business expertise with the unique opportunity to deliver an improved and informed service for our customers.
Innovate UK, the UK's innovation agency, sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, has recently awarded us the highest grade of 'Outstanding' for the partnership.
This award recognises the hard work our teams do to make sure we are doing the right thing for customers in our network areas north and south, paying a particular focus to those most vulnerable in our communities to ensure they are cared for and supported when they need us most.
Working in partnership with the University of Dundee has been a crucial step in SSEN becoming a truly customer focused organisation. We need to respond as engineers and with the customer firmly in mind so we can anticipate and respond to individual customer needs, particularly during emergency situations.
The research findings of the KTP showed us that the geographic and pre-defined categories of vulnerability were outdated and that being vulnerable isn't about just one characteristic such as a chronic medical condition or disability. We have spent time educating our employees to treat every customer as an individual, understand that their circumstances may change and appreciate that they may suddenly find themselves feeling vulnerable.
We now prioritise our assistance based on each individual's personal circumstances and the urgency and complexity of our customers' needs. We recognise that one size solutions don't fit every community or individual and our customer vulnerability strategy ensures that our customers can communicate with us on an equal basis, regardless of any impairments or language differences they may have.
The specialist vulnerability training we provide to our employees is also supported by monthly awareness days in partnership with key organisations such as Age UK and Macmillan Cancer Support. This gives our teams the opportunity to learn from industry best practice. We want to continue to find ways to improve the way we engage with our customers, and this is one of the ways we are doing just that.
It's important to recognise that much of the learning from this project can be applied whether there is a power cut or not. Our strategic priorities cover every aspect of our interactions with customers, and allow us to take a more proactive approach in anticipating and responding to customer needs at all times.
A prime example of this would be our approach to planned supply interruptions where we know in advance we may need to turn off electricity supplies to carry out maintenance or repair work. We now work to remove the need for interruption to customer supplies and also proactively identify those most vulnerable in the areas we know we'll be working in to ensure they are supported and communicated with.
Our pride in the KTP, and its recognition, comes shortly after the BSI, the business standards company, awarded us with the Inclusive Service Provision for the second year in a row. We were the first electricity network operator to achieve the gold standard for customer service two years consecutively, recognising that our procedures and services are inclusive. The award from Innovate UK further demonstrates we are being recognised for our service and we will continue to change the way we work to improve our customer support so we meet the needs of our customers in everything we do.