Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) has teamed up with London Sustainability Exchange (LSx) as part of its ongoing commitment to enhance customer communication.
Founded seventeen years ago by the City of London and a group of influential partners, LSx is a "think and do" charity that works closely with culturally diverse communities to share tools and techniques, so that they can develop their own solutions to issues such as fuel poverty and climate change.
Their previous work with utility companies - helping connect organisations and individuals - led to SSEN setting up a workshop with LSx to explore how the distribution network operator could improve communications with different faiths and minority groups across its central southern England patch.
Held at SSEN's West London depot, a group of colleagues from a variety of roles including Customer Community Advisors, Engineering, Project Management and Social Inclusion worked with LSx to identify possible communication challenges and solutions, how potential language barriers could be broken down and how SSEN's mapping tools could help identify customers who might need additional help during power cuts or planned outages.
Austin Cobb, SSEN's Head of Thames Valley Region explains more: "SSEN realises that when it comes to communicating with customers and understanding their needs, there is no 'one size fits all'. It's important then, that we take steps to shape our communications so we can speak to our customers when and where they need, and in the format they want. That way we can start a conversation, not a one-way dialogue that doesn't fit the individual's needs.
"Working with LSx, and their wealth of experience, allows us to explore all of these opportunities for better engagement with communities, faiths and groups that may have been traditionally harder for larger organisations to reach out to."
Ben Hudson, Programme Coordinator for LSx, says: "Our Faith & Utilities project is empowering community champions to reach out through faith networks to provide energy advice, from understanding bills to accessing grants and support schemes such the Priority Service Register. As part of this project, we met with SSEN to enhance customer communication for a range of staff members. It was great to see such enthusiasm, creative ideas and willingness to engage."
This working partnership with LSx comes as SSEN achieves compliance with the BS 18477 Inclusive Service Provision standard through its commitment to accessibility services for all. Awarded by BSI, the business standards company, the verification recognises organisations which can demonstrate - through rigorous assessments - that their policies, procedures and services are accessible and fair to all customers. SSEN is one of the first companies to be assessed by BSI since the Inclusive Service Provision standard assessment has been formally recognised as a verification scheme, having met the requirements of the BSI standard for the past two years.
Additionally, in the last few years, SSEN has made significant progress in developing its services to become more customer focused and inclusive, including evolving its Priority Services Register (PSR), welfare services and enhancing marketing and communication channels to enable customer feedback. SSEN has also worked to develop partnerships with many charities including the NHS, Home Energy Scotland and Dementia Friends in a bid to constantly improve and tailor its customer services.
To learn more about SSEN's Priority Service Register and see if you or a friend or family member are eligible, please visit ssen.co.uk/PriorityServices or call 0800 294 3259.