In a first for the energy industry, SSE will inform customers of their right to contact the Ombudsman for resolution of their complaint even earlier in the process as part of its efforts to raise the bar on complaint handling.
Tony Keeling, SSE’s Director of Customer Service and Sales, said: “We view one complaint as one too many, so we work very hard to resolve our customers’ problems and as a result we consistently have, proportionately, the lowest number of Ombudsman complaints in the industry. But we want to keep improving our standards, so from 1 April we will be referring customers’ complaints to the Ombudsman after six weeks instead of eight to make sure they get a quicker resolution to any issues. We’d encourage all suppliers to follow our lead.”
SSE is putting customers first and by reducing its referral period they can be assured they’ll have any issues dealt with quicker. This is the latest in a number of standard-setting initiatives from SSE, including its unique customer service money-back guarantee and commitment not to cold call customers, going above and beyond regulatory requirements. SSE would hope that other suppliers will follow suit to ensure all energy customers receive quicker resolutions to their problems.