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Scottish Power has slashed call centre answering times by 75 per cent to just 61 seconds in April.
The energy supplier told Utility Week it improved its call response times after the rate slowed to a yearly high of 249 seconds in June last year following the introduction of a new billing system.
Scottish Power said it has made “major improvements” following a “very challenging period” which has resulted in current average call response times being ten seconds faster than the company’s target, and half the rate it was last April before the billing system issues.
Yesterday a Which? survey rated Scottish Power as the worst energy company for call centre customer service, and in the bottom three companies across all sectors.
The survey, conducted between February and March this year, revealed that 21 per cent of Scottish Power electricity customers have spent more than 20 minutes waiting for an answer in the last six months.
But a Scottish Power spokesperson said that since the survey the company has improved its performance significantly and it now has “one of the best levels in the industry.” It also said it has the longest call centre opening hours in the industry.
The introduction of the £200 million customer IT system last year resulted in Scottish Power receiving the highest number of complaints by an energy company ever in the last quarter of 2014 and a 488 per cent increase on the previous quarter. Citizens Advice branded the increase “staggering”.
Scottish Power said it had responded by adding 700 new customer service advisors to its team.
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