Getting in touch... How would you do it?

  • Anasa_EONNext's Avatar
    Community Manager
    Hey everyone! It's the Community Team here! 👋 Hope you're all well!

    We understand life is busy and hectic and no one wants to spend their time having to contact their energy company but when you do it's important to us that we get it right!

    We would love to hear from you! we always value your feedback to help us help you in the best way we can and always striving to improve our services.

    QUESTION: If you need to get in touch with us what is your preferred method?

    This is a Multiple option Poll so you can choose more than one option - if you click other please comment below to let us know about it - Thank you ☺
    Last edited by Anasa_EONNext; 25-05-22 at 12:12.
    'The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members’

    Did you know that we're open 24/7? There are lots of ways to contact us over here!📣


  • 29 Replies

  • Andy65's Avatar
    Level 47
    I'm afraid I've just wasted my vote because there wasn't an actual question and nothing to say that it was multiple choice UNTIL the results are shown.

    I will always try the phone simply because when you get through, it's quicker, I can ask questions/confirm things more easily. The problem with email/secure messaging is that more often than not, the person at the other end doesn't read what I've written properly, so I get a cut and paste reply which doesn't help at all. So then I have to write back again, and on it goes.

    The problem with social media is I might want to sort something out now, not in 5 hours time when someone replies and I might be doing something else.

    I'll give you a very recent experience of mine with Severn Trent, tar, brush and all that.
    My Mum had received a closing water bill (she wasn't going anywhere) on a Saturday and I saw it on Sunday. ST's phone lines were closed so I sent a DM via Twitter with the necessary information and that I wanted to speak on her behalf (89, dementia etc). I get a reply Monday morning while I'm out saying that as I'm not named on her account, I need to call an 024 telephone number while I'm with her.
    So I make an extra trip and call the number given from her landline, I get an answering machine saying that "We tried to call you..., call this 0345 number", which is the normal customer contact number! So the reply via Twitter wasn't of much use.
    I call ST on their 0345 number, enter her account number and DOB, the automated voice tells me there's a queue of 10-15 minutes. Fine, I'm happy with that. 20 minutes later its 5-10 minutes, then it goes back to 10-15 minutes. After 30 minutes the call hasn't been answered so whilst I continue to wait on the landline I call from my mobile. I'm asked to enter her account number and DOB which I do but the system doesn't recognise either. So now I've got two calls in the queue. ST answer my mobile after 15 minutes, her landline was still in some mythical queue.
    10 minutes on the phone after the usual nonsensical questioning of my Mum to allow me to speak on her behalf, and the problem is solved.

    In less than an hour on the phone the problem was solved. Communicating via Twitter took several hours and I was given an incorrect phone number to call. Of course whatever form of communication is used, the key factor is the competence of the person at the other end.
    For the life of me I can't understand why there's this push for businesses to use social media. My assumption is that it requires less people as they can handle multiple queries at the same time, mainly by spreading the queries out over time/CS staff.

    I understand that there needs to be different ways to contact a business, but surely most of us want to use a telephone don't we?
  • Anasa_EONNext's Avatar
    Community Manager
    @Andy65 Hi Andy! and thank you so much for your comments! I'm sorry you felt your vote was wasted 😞 I think you made up for it in the comments and was able to get your point across, these are the kind of comment we need to help us improve our services and see what our customers want.

    I think its really interesting that you say you prefer to use the phone as it gets the job done quicker, you can ask any questions there and then and if you're misunderstood you can talk it out, a lot of our customers dislike the phone due to the long call waits during busy times and the fact that our phone lines operate during business hours when a lot of people are at work during those times.

    I personally find it so much easier to be able to WhatsApp and get your query sorted as I can work at the same time and don't have to waste my lunch or break waiting for someone to pick up but I have in the past had to contact a company again as they 'seemed' to have resolved it only to find out weeks later it hadn't been done resulting in me having to give them a call for peace of mind.

    One of the reasons for this survey is to gauge where everyone is at so we can go away and look into this further and give you the best service we can perhaps work on other services that are more preferred. We recently launched WhatsApp and did a survey and the response we got from that was people would continue using this method over calling us especially as the phone lines are closed at the weekends, we want to be able to offer around the clock customer service and this where Social Media comes into play so we can do just that and give people the choice of how they'd like to get in touch so hopefully we'll be able to please everyone 😬

    Have a fab day! 🙂
  • MichaelS's Avatar
    Level 1
    Hey everyone! It's the Community Team here! 👋 Hope you're all well!

    We understand life is busy and hectic and no one wants to spend their time having to contact their energy company but when you do it's important to us that we get it right!

    We would love to hear from you! we always value your feedback to help us help you in the best way we can and always striving to improve our services.

    QUESTION: If you need to get in touch with us what is your preferred method?

    This is a Multiple option Poll so you can choose more than one option - if you click other please comment below to let us know about it - Thank you ☺
    Smile time - Quote "Cold potatoes aren't hot".
  • jimmyjames's Avatar
    Level 2
    I voted email & other. Other would be live chat

    Regards
  • Lacoste1985's Avatar
    Level 1
    Live chat and an option to be called back by an agent so you don't lose your place in the phone queue
  • Anasa_EONNext's Avatar
    Community Manager
    @locoste1985 and @jimmyjames Morning! thank you so much for your feedback! I think its a great idea to have an option for a call back so you don't lose your place in queue always looking at ways to improve our customer services and what is best for the customer - have a fab week 😎
  • Edyta's Avatar
    Level 0
    @Anasa_EONNext


    Hi, Can you please call my mobile:REMOVED,
    I have problem with my bill. Thank you,
    Regards,
    Edyta
    Last edited by PeterT_EONNext; 09-07-22 at 13:18. Reason: Removed contact number - personal details
  • Beki's Avatar
    Hey there @Edyta, Beki the Community Manager here.

    We have edited your post to remove your mobile number as this is against our Community Values.

    You will need to pop our Energy Specialists a message on Facebook/Twitter or Whatsapp to talk about your bills.
    If you prefer giving us a ring, know that our lines are open 9am - 5pm Monday to Friday - 0808 501 5200