Why Cadent is training field teams to ‘see’ customer vulnerability

At a time when the cost of living crisis is impacting many bill payers, providing compassionate customer service and swift support is critical.

With this in mind, Cadent is focusing efforts on training engineers to “see” vulnerability and provide support for customers where appropriate.

Elliott Nelson, network director for the West Midlands at Cadent, told Utility Week that the company wants to “empower our people to use their own judgement in areas that are outside their normal work”.

“One obvious areas is where we’ve started training our engineers to ‘see’ vulnerability and to make sure that, with their permission, we sign up customers to the Priority Services Register or put them in touch with [fuel poverty charity] National Energy Action (NEA). It’s absolutely the right thing that our engineers do it, alongside the day job,” he said.

Nelson admits that from a field services perspective, it can be challenging to empower colleagues to work autonomously, while also balancing the need to monitor activities within safety critical environments. “There are policies and procedures to follow to keep everyone safe but, within those parameters, they have the autonomy to do the best job they can. That could be by raising concerns or coming up with new ideas, where they know they’ll be listened to,” Nelson says.

“We really do trust them [field operatives] to do the job in the absolute best way they can, and to make sure our customers get the best possible outcome, whether from physical work or from the things we do that are less measurable.”

Nelson adds that Cadent has robust monitoring systems in place to support field activities.

As part of this, the company undertakes a year-on-year review which allows teams to see where additional training is required or where changes need to be made. “That also allows us to take a look forward at things, where we can get the right programme in place over five years, for example. It’s all about empowering them to make the right decisions.”

For more insight from Cadent and other energy and water utilities on the opportunities and challenges of empowering field operatives, download the new Utility Week report – Autonomous working: the key to customer satisfaction?