Prepare for a surge in extreme weather complaints

As temperatures plummet, complaints will soar, so you should prepare for the surge now.

While just about any organisation can deflect a certain level of responsibility and blame the weather for poor performance, the reality is that utilities suppliers really are at the mercy of extreme weather conditions. Such events can put a huge strain on many aspects of the business’s operations – especially its customer contact function.

It is for this reason that having robust processes in place to ensure a swift and effective response to any operational surge can make a big difference to customer outcomes. Being quick to respond should result in a boost in customer loyalty and brand advocacy. In contrast, businesses that don’t get their act together quickly following an extreme weather event could suffer from a flood of complaints, defecting customers and, potentially, performance penalties from regulators.

Last month, experts at University College London (UCL) issued a first-of-its-kind extended-range weather forecast for central England and predicted that Britain should prepare for the coldest winter in a decade. If their forecasts are accurate, it could mean widespread disruption and a challenging set of conditions for suppliers to navigate.

It’s time to act now, before the temperatures plummet.

Perform root cause analysis

The first step for firms is to review their root cause analysis framework to ensure it is effectively identifying opportunities for both issue reduction and proactive resolution.

Once the framework has been re-evaluated, the data should be used to pinpoint issues that have caused or contributed to spikes in complaints so they can be mitigated. Consider whether your business has appropriate contingency resource ready to be deployed to respond to customer contact surges, for example. Or whether you have appropriate technology, security and even basic infrastructure in place.

Even something as simple as slippery walkways outside your headquarters or frozen pipes can mean delays and setbacks for your operation. Have you managed and diversified the risk by having a multi-location operation, for example?

Businesses must also ensure that their approach is in line with their regulator’s expectations around the fair treatment of customers. It should go without saying that customers should be central to any planning or remediation activity, after all. Businesses that don’t take this approach will only fan the flames of customer frustration, leading to greater spikes in the future.

As part of their preparation, it is important that utilities providers take a long, hard look at their resource ahead of the winter months and ensure processes are in place that will allow them to flexibly up-scale resource in the face of operational stress.

Keep lines of communications open at all times and explore the use of technology – for example, automatic updates or smartphone “push notifications’”– and integrate these into your current processes.