Customers expect a lot these days - and rightly so.
It’s something Josh Gill, CEO of Teesside-based water supplier Everflow Water, knows all too well. In fact, he’s built a business on it. We’re entering a new age of customer service, one where automation and digitisation can mean a smoother, more stress-free process for all involved. At Everflow, we’ve always been innovators, putting the client at the heart of our journey to make utilities simple.
And it shows. We’ve recently been shortlisted for the European CXA 2022 Best Customer Service Awards, and last year won a UK Business Award for best customer experience. We also have an ‘excellent’ Trustpilot score – something of a rarity in utility firms.
However, we’re not resting on our laurels, and the team are constantly thinking up and developing new ways to make the customer experience simple and intuitive.
Our latest innovation is Instant Quoting, a tool that allows potential SME customers to get an instant quote for their water service, without having to go through a broker.
Until we launched Instant Quoting, 90 per cent of revenue came from SMEs going through brokers. And while brokers still pay an important part in the Everflow story, we also wanted to offer customers another option, a way of going direct.
This latest update allows our business customers to get a quote immediately through our website, leading to a smoother service for them – something which has been our goal from day one. Added to this we have our customer portal, which also allows customers to deal with many aspects of their account online, without having to spend time on the phone to an agent – again, something they’ve come to expect.
It gives them access to 24/7 online support and allows them to do things themselves that they would previously have had to contact us for, such as downloading bills and arranging direct debits. And as well as improving service for customers, both of the above also improve staff morale, freeing their time up to get on with their day jobs without spending hours on ‘admin’ that could – and should – be automated.
A better place to work and do business
Everything I’ve talked about above feeds into my vision for Everflow: a place where people love to come to work and that also offers incredible customer service. And I remain convinced that the best way to do this is through automation and digitalisation, and through putting that at the very heart of your business, not just as an add-on or in response to an emergency.
We started this journey with our Simple Quoting software, which has achieved what I originally set out to do; it has used automation to revolutionise the water industry.
Devised collaboratively throughout the group, with input from both sales and tech teams, it has streamlined the whole process from quote to contract, and is now used throughout the water industry – we don’t believe in keeping things to ourselves.
The beauty of digital is that there are no limits and, at Everflow, we continue to innovate to continually push the boundaries of what is expected in the water retail market. Our approach is making waves throughout the industry. We’ve twice made it into the FT1000, the Financial Times’ list of the fastest-growing companies in Europe – straight in at third place in 2021, with a repeat appearance at 54 this year.
We’re also leading the way when it comes to environmental matters, having become the first water firm to become carbon neutral in the UK. As a business and as individuals, we’re committed to doing everything we can to protect and secure the environment for future generations, and we’ve implemented a number of schemes and initiatives to ensure this.
That includes taking measures to offset our whole supply chain, as well as our customers’ supply chains, through buying carbon credits to offset all emissions produced in the process – from getting water from reservoirs, treating it and it going back into the sea.
Closer to home, we knew that many of our employees were interested in using electric vehicles, and so we’ve recently signed up to the Octopus employee electric vehicle scheme to make it more affordable.
Innovation is not always about tech, although it’s a good place to start. Instead, it’s about thinking deeper about what you want to create, and how you can go about it. We put customer service and employee wellbeing ahead of profits, or keeping our creations to ourselves – and that’s the true innovation.
