Business Stream has launched a new industry-first Charter seeking to set a customer care standard within the water industry.
The new initiatibve from one of the UK’s leading water retailers Charter, marking a major milestone in the sector’s customer service standards.
Developed in response to colleague and customer feedback, Business Stream’s Customer Care Charter sets out 12 commitments that the Edinburgh-based water retailer is committed to delivering to meet and exceed its customers’ needs.
Jo Mayes, Customer Services Director at Business Stream, said:
“As a customer-centric business, we’re passionate about delivering a great service to our customers, every day. This initiative was born out of a desire across the company to always be transparent, to use customer insight to help shape our service delivery and to hold ourselves to account.
“The Charter provides a framework around the initiatives and services we’re already delivering – or are striving to deliver - for our customers, and also demonstrates our intent to continuously improve the service we provide.”
The Customer Care Charter focuses on four key areas:
- Simple and Easy
- Trust
- Experience and Expertise
- Care
Each pillar, which has been informed by customer research and insight, is backed by clear, measurable actions that exceed business-as-usual expectations
Commitments include longer opening hours, a new live chat service, faster call response times and tailored support for vulnerable customers. Other commitments include maintaining high satisfaction and Trustpilot ratings, further investment in water efficiency services, solutions and data analytics, and meeting environmental and social value targets.
Jo Mayes added:
“We’ll report annually on our progress, as we want to be transparent and build real trust around our commitment to this Charter. And we’ll regularly review our commitments to ensure they continue to reflect what matters most to our customers and colleagues.
This initiative is strongly aligned to our vision to make a positive difference and our hope is that this Charter helps set a new benchmark for customer care in our industry.”
Formed in 2006, Business Stream is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Scottish Water with its own board and independent management team.
The company acquired the non-household customer base of Southern Water ahead of the opening of the English retail water market. In 2019, acquired the customer base of its competitors Yorkshire Water Business Services (YWBS) and Three-Sixty, doubling its market share.
Business Stream now serves over 300,000 customers across the UK and employs c320 colleagues.
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