Back in May, I spoke about SSEN's latest digital innovation which involved bringing online communities together into regional Facebook Groups to improve the way we communicate to our customers. Six months on, our digital team are still working hard to provide a best-in-class experience for customers using digital platforms.

In an ever-changing digital world, it's clear more and more customers are using digital channels to contact businesses and SSEN is keen on making sure we're at the front of digital evolution. Our social media channels are rapidly growing with almost 90,000 messages received in the last year, a 135% increase on the year before - and feedback from our customers shows they're happy with how we communicate with them through Facebook and Twitter. We survey every customer that contacts us and, with 3290 survey responses in the last year, we gained an average satisfaction score of 91%. On a recent survey undertaken with more than 2000 customers, 98% who had used social media to contact SSEN told us that they got their query successfully answered through social media. At SSEN, we appreciate the importance of getting information to customers quickly (especially in a power cut) and our teams have worked relentlessly to respond to our customers within an impressive seven minutes on average.

Taking on board customer feedback, SSEN has made a number of changes to improve the service we offer through social media. This includes:

  • The creation of online Facebook Communities to send important information to whole communities
  • Providing personalised regular updates on power cuts
  • Public posts about power cuts affecting large areas
  • Provided the ability to request non-emergency jobs or ask questions about the electricity network

Customers also told us that they'd like it to be easier to contact SSEN online, so in August we introduced Messenger Web Chat. This allows customers to start a conversation with us directly from our website and continue the conversation through their messenger app. This has already been a great success and we're rolling this out across our site in phases.

Our social media service offering was recognised in this year's CCA Global Excellence Awards where we were shortlisted as finalists for 'Most Effective use of Social Media'. The peer-judged awards programme is one of the most prestigious awards ceremonies in the customer service and contact centre profession; highlighting the achievements of companies throughout the customer service industry.

It's not just social media that our digital team is busy improving. SSEN recently launched our refreshed PowerTrack app. The new app allows customers to report power outages directly, find fault information in their area, get advice on how to cope during a power cut and the unique feature is that you can also report damage to our network through the app by simply taking a picture. This is the first app of its kind and has already helped our field staff better identify faults on our network through the help of customers taking pictures.

SSEN's website continues to be improved on a regular basis using customer feedback and for the past six quarters has scored the highest out of all distribution network operators for overall score, including accessibility and user experience. Some of the changes we've made to the website include:

  • Providing customers with the ability to request non-emergency jobs online.
  • A review of all FAQ's and the creation of a dedicated Power Cuts FAQ section.
  • Improvements to layout to make it easier for mobile users to access the site.
  • A re-design of our complaints webpage which allows you to raise a complaint online and also view our streamlined complaints process.
  • Refreshed look and feel of our safety webpage, providing more advice on staying safe around our equipment than ever before.
  • The creation of our 'Winter Ready' webpage to help customers get ready for the winter period.
  • Improvements to our search engine keywords so it's easier to find us on sites like Google.

These are just some of the positive steps we've taken to improve our online experience. At SSEN we're truly committed to providing an excellent customer experience and will continue to do this based on what our customers tell us.

You can follow us on twitter at ssencommunity, like us on Facebook, and if you do lose power, simply send us a message and one of the team will be there to help you 24 hours a day.