npower Fined for Mishandling Customer Complaints
United Kingdom - 2e2 director comments on latest energy industry penalty
Following on from the British Gas fine earlier in the year,
Energy supplier npower has been fined £2 million for mishandling
customer complaints.
Ofgem, the industry regulator said that the firm failed to
record all the required details of domestic and micro-business
complaints, and that the company did not provide customers with
details about the Energy Ombudsman's redress service.
They also reported that the energy giant failed to have in place
a sufficient policy or process for dealing with customer
complaints and did not deal with complaints in an efficient and
timely manner.
Ofgem said that this latest fine should be seen as warning to
other energy companies, and stated that poor customer service is
just not acceptable anymore.
Helen Rutherford, director, 2e2 commented:
"Many companies still have the wrong attitude and culture when
it comes to customer complaints. They are perhaps defensive
about complaints, seeing them as a criticism or as something
that will only cost money to resolve and not seeing them for the
valuable intelligence they bring.
Fines are a good deterrent but ultimately firms that don't deal
with complaints in the right way will see customers vote with
their feet and move supplier. Not only that, but in a world
where people are airing their views through social media any
compromise on customer service could leave the company red
faced."
About npower
npower is a UK-based electricity and gas supply generation
company. Info:
http://www.npower.com.
About 2e2
2e2 is an ICT Lifecycle Services Provider; an agile,
customer-focused provider of IT services that support the goals
of the way organisations work today. Info:
http://www.2e2.com.
