CX Superheroes podcast - Series 16 Episode 3 - From Passion to Best Practice - Kayleigh Harwood - Utility Aid

In 2025, energy broker Utility Aid, dedicated to the charity and NGO sector, collected 'Most Trusted Utility Broker'. Recognised as a leading UK company in this field, we caught up with Kayleigh Harwood, Customer Service Director to understand what make Utility Aid stand out from the crowd. 

In the latest episode of the CX Superheroes, hosted by Lexden CX's Christopher Brooks you will hear how success is earned. Kayleigh shares the passion she has for ensuring customers get the outcome they deserve, and a valued experience to arrive there. 

Kayleigh explains in conversation with Christopher that her passion for delivering great customer experience started long before joining Utility Aid. Being a part of Utility Aid has helped her appreciate just how much you can achieve on behalf of customers, when the culture of the business embraces it too. We hear how having a deep understanding of your customers, charities in the case of Utility Aid, helps you empathise with their challenges, such as not always having expertise in utility contracts to ensure the charity is getting the best deal. 

It also means alot of effort goes in behind the scenes to ensure the effort of those in the charity are not spending their time wading through admin. Their priority is serving others in society who need support, which makes Utility Aid's involvement more of a purpose for all, as Kayleigh explains. 

We all hear about the importance of celebrating gains in CX, and recognising progress. Kayleigh provides great insight into this and the impact it can have on motivating colleagues to achieve more. 

Kayleigh and Utility Aid provide a strong justification to be recognised as leading role models in customer experience, which is high praise considering the guests we've had on this podcast. 

Tune in and discover why we hold them in such high regard. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:15

Hello and welcome to the latest episode of the Customer Experience Superheroes Podcast Series. My name is Christopher Brooks, and along with leading Lexton and being the co-founder of Lexton Lux, both customer experience practices, I'm also the host since inception of this podcast series. And it's been an absolute pleasure to listen to some incredible individuals who we reach out to or come to us from the world of customer experience, whether they're individuals in organizations serving clients or working for suppliers or vendors designing and developing better solutions to help organizations, or if they've got a viewpoint or an opinion on a topic in customer experience, which really stimulates your thinking and makes you look at how the world works in a different way. Today's guest was uh Kaylee Harwood, who is head of customer service at UtilityAid. And if you ever want to hear somebody talk about how passionate they are at solving problems and making things better for customers, then this is the podcast for you. We had a really good conversation about all the great work they do and also an appreciation of how they can deliver the work they do because of the culture they have. There are hundreds of practical ideas in here as well, and it's packed full of enthusiasm. So if you want to grab a coffee, spend 30 minutes being inspired, and just feeling a little bit better about the sector we work in, then this is the episode for you. Great. So we're here with uh Kayleigh Harwood from Utility Aid. Now, Kaylee, as I understand, you are Customer Services Director at uh UtilityAid, is that right? That's correct, yeah. Well, welcome to the podcast. It's really good to have you here and thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me. Glad to be here. That's all right. Now we're going to get on to talk about a number of really interesting things, such as the importance of celebration and just what you know winning a trust award means to you. But before we do, I've mentioned there your customer service director. Sure, you didn't start your career in that particular role. I'm sure you didn't even start at Utility Aid. So can you give us an appreciation? I mean, I very few people say this is where I intended to be. So I'd imagine some twists and turns along the way. But where did you start out and how have you ended up having a journey, which brings you to this particular point?

SPEAKER_00 2:40

Yeah, no, you're right. I didn't start out as customer service director. I started out my career actually as a customer service apprentice at BT. Right. And once I had completed that apprenticeship, I was offered a permanent role there, which I really enjoyed. I was working on um the technical help desk helping business customers solve their broadband fault. So very, very techy. And I really enjoyed that. But whilst I was there, I was very curious about how everything worked in the business. And I wanted to try a bit of everything and learn as much as I could about the business. So I did lots of different things whilst I was there. I did some real-time lead, I did some floor walking, I did some coaching, I did some complaint handling, I did some cover managing, and I really enjoyed doing lots of different things and getting lots of different skills. And also one of the great things about BT, certainly whilst I was there, was that they did some really, really amazing training. So I was exposed to I did Bellbin training, I did insights training, I was trained by the Institute of Customer Service in coaching. I did continuous improvement training. And and through doing all of those different, you know, roles and trying all of those those different things, I came to the conclusion that I really wanted to do customer service leadership because I wanted to get people really excited about customer service, which is how which is how I feel about customer service. So I really wanted to sort of inspire that in other people. So that's what I did. I moved into a customer service team manager role at BT, which I loved. 2020, I think I left BT and I moved to utility aid. And initially what I was doing was working with the national accounts director, and I was helping her to optimize her processes so she could maximize her sales. And we had a really, really great year. She hit record numbers for the company that year. So I was presented with an opportunity to move into a head of account management role where I would essentially do what I had done for the national accounts director, but scale it across the whole business. So that's what I did. I created a team, I did the training, I created the processes and built it from the ground up. And it went really well. We got great feedback internally and externally. After about 12 months, the business won a customer service award, which was sort of validation that the direction that we had gone in as a business was was right. And just over the years, I've gained more and more functions across the business. And I now oversee five functions across the business and manage over 20 indirect and direct reports. So it's really grown. And like you say last year, became customer service director, which is what I'm doing now, and I absolutely love it.

SPEAKER_01 5:16

Amazing. Well, I mean, when you say it like that, it feels like a deliberate strategy, doesn't it? I mean, you've been engaged on the front line, you've been in service of those in service of the customer. You've really spent a lot of time understanding kind of, you know, customers' requirements. And but it almost was in the stars that this was this was where you were going to end up. But it's interesting, isn't it? When we start that journey, we never believed that. But but clearly you're you're where you need to be now.

SPEAKER_00 5:42

Yeah, it was it was definitely never planned. It was just the the result of I I worked really hard, I was really curious about how everything worked, and uh doing all the training and trying all the different things, somewhere along the way, it unlocked a passion and it's just grown, grown and grown from there. But I think it's really important that I I knew I wanted to progress. I didn't know where I wanted to progress, but I knew I wanted to progress. So I've always just worked really hard, got stuck in, and always just tried to, you know, stand out from the crowd, and and off the back of that, opportunities presented themselves.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

Well, I think that's an amazing testament to those kind of three key criteria there work hard, take opportunities when they come your way, and be curious.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

100%. And I think as well, resilience, because as many opportunities as as I've had along the way, there have been opportunities that I didn't necessarily get, and you just reflect on them, pick yourself back up, and you keep moving. And that's and that I think that's really important as well to state that resilience is so, so important, especially if you want to sort of part, you know, pave out a path to progression and success.

SPEAKER_01 6:46

Excellent. Now, utility aid is let's just kind of unpack what utility aid is because you've got the word utility in there, and people might think you're a utility provider, but the words aid in there, so they might think you're a charity, but you're kind of somewhere in the middle of those two. So would you just like to expand for the listeners just who utility aid are and what role you play in the world?

SPEAKER_00 7:07

Yeah, so utility aid at our core, we're an energy broker. But what makes us very special and what makes us different is that we're an organization of caring people who work specifically with charities and not-for-profits. So we exist to help charities and not-for-profits do what they do better because their reach, you know, our reach is massive through them. If we can help charities and we can help not-for-profits, they can then free up their time and their money to go and do more good in the world. So that's our ethos and that's what we do.

SPEAKER_01 7:39

Right. And functionally, that means helping them become more efficient with their utility expenses, I guess. Fundamentally, that's what it's about.

SPEAKER_00 7:47

Yeah. Well, we look after anything to do with their energy we can help them with. So whether that's procurement, finding them, you know, the best deal on their energy contracts. But then beyond that, we do after care for them because I don't know if you've spent much time on the phone to energy suppliers, but it's an absolute nightmare. So we do that for them so they don't ever have to speak to their energy suppliers. We check their bills for them so they don't have to worry, they can just pay their bills and know that we're checking them in the background. And if there's any issues, we'll get that sorted with the supplier for them. So that's one of the things that we do is fund recovery, which is money that they get 100% back off. We don't take any of that, we give it straight back to them and they can put that back into their frontline services. We also offer net zero services because obviously net zero is a huge thing at the minute. Everybody's trying to reduce their carbon footprint. So that's another thing that we can offer to the organizations that we work with, as well as you know, loads of different things we can help with. So we're very solution focused. So we get customers coming to us and saying, Oh, can you help us with our broadband or can you help us put an Easy charger in? So we don't directly do that ourselves, but we have partnerships with loads of different companies. Um so we're so much more than just an energy broker, we're really a partner to our customers.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

I mean, it's great because I think one of the things that people forget is with charities and NGOs, you might have specialists who understand the topic. You know, we deal with people at the RSPCA, and you know, we've got people in there who have spent their life academically understanding how to look after animals and to treat to deal with mistreatment. But that doesn't mean that naturally they're great kind of you know accountants or procurement buyers. Those two things don't come together. So do you does it kind of surprise you when you speak to charities just how how much help you can actually provide to them? Because this is not core to what they do. And I guess I would always think to myself as well, as a donor to a charity, I want my pound to go towards helping the cause. I don't want to know it's going toward, I don't want to think about it's going towards putting the lights on and, you know, inefficient management of a utility. So is it always surprised you just how much help you can provide them?

SPEAKER_00 9:55

Well, I mean, we know our sector and we know that the customers that we deal with, they are charities and they are on shoestring budgets. So they don't have the funds to bring in a procurement specialist or an energy specialist. So, and that is where we bridge the gap. So it absolutely makes sense that they wouldn't have people in their organization that really know about this stuff because they don't have the budget to do that.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

Sure. And that's absolutely great. And in terms of so let's take kind of charities you deal with. I guess you're dealing with smaller charities, but also larger charities. So the individuals, you used a very important word, you're saying we really care. So, how do you qualify when people come in? I mean, it's evident in just talking to you to a few minutes that runs through your bones. But when you're bringing new people into your team, how do you make sure they get what you're about? Because as I say, it's obvious the functional and the rational benefit in terms of saving money, but the way that you deal with them is going to be slightly different to if you are, you know, a household utility company, you know, calling up a customer who's you know got a got an issue about overpaying their bills. So, how do you ensure you bring the right people into the organization to support utility aid?

SPEAKER_00 11:09

So I think we're very fortunate that we have a great reputation. And the fact that we do specialize in charities and not-for-profits means that we do typically attract that a certain type of person. So people who to apply to come and be with utility aid, they want to join utility aid because they want to make a difference in the world. So that's the first thing is that we by reputation attract great talent. Then I think for me, when I'm speaking to potential candidates and people that we want to look to bring on board, what I'm looking for is that passion, that care, that, you know, because the technical stuff we can teach that, right? It's it's important to a degree, but you can teach those stuff, but you can't teach that fire inside someone where they want to make, you know, a positive difference in the world. So that's what I'm always looking for, and that's what I want to harness and bring into the company. So when I see that in someone, I absolutely bring them in and I nurture that.

SPEAKER_01 12:03

That's brilliant. I mean, we work with uh an agrochemical company, and uh the HR director is exactly echoes what you said, kind of you said, now I know what matters most to my customers, now I know what they think is important, that's what I want to hear in recruitment. All the technical stuff that we do, we can teach them that. But unless it's kind of in them to be able to recognize that they've got to be, I think there's a things like flexible and reliable, unless they've got these characteristics, I'm gonna struggle. And it sounds that's what you look for as well. You look for the characteristics that make them a utility aid person, and then you'll teach them how to do the job.

SPEAKER_00 12:40

Exactly, exactly. And things like if we're interested to know, do they volunteer? Do they go and do you know, work with charities in their own time? Because that's you know, that's our culture and it's laced throughout what we do. So, as part of uh our perks to our employees, we give them two paid volunteering days a year. And if they want more than that, we're very flexible to give them more. So, yeah, those are the things that we look out for. Do they volunteer? You know, because it's easy to say in an interview, isn't it? I do X, Y, and Z, but you know, are they going out? Are they doing things? Is there evidence exactly? Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 13:14

Well, I think I might apply then I so I run a cup group and I also run the Customer Experience World Games, which helps charities. So look out for my application. You know, you can teach me the stuff you do is so technical, but hopefully you can teach me how to do that. Now let's come on to some of that because you mentioned something really important. So we work a lot with studies that understand just where customer experience makes the difference. And post-purchase is the biggest area for impact in my perception of an organization. And as you're saying there, your experience of dealing with the conventional utility companies is they make that really hard. And when you're a when you're a charity and you want to be spending your time on the front line helping the cause that you're serving, you don't want to have your time tied up on the telephones listening to language you don't understand and talking about kilowatts and goodness knows what else. So, how have you addressed that? How do you give the confidence to your customers that look, we can do this bit? And then how do you interact with the utility companies in that instance?

SPEAKER_00 14:14

I think there's two questions there. How do we give customers the confidence that we are the right fit for them? We are consistent, we deliver. So what we say we're gonna do, we we deliver on it. And our trustpilot, we're 4.8. So lots of customers are on there talking about the great stuff that we're doing, and we are multi-award winning. So the you these things show that we do what we say we're gonna do, and we've got lots of people shouting about you know the good things that we're doing for us, which is fantastic, obviously. And your other question was how do we deal with suppliers? Yeah, we have built really good relationships with our suppliers, so we have you know, specific specific people that we can go to. So whereas customers will ring in and they'll go through to a generic, you know, number where they've got to press an option and they end up stuck in this circle of pressing numbers. We they don't have to do any of that. They just pop us an email or give us a call and then we'll take it off them. We'll liaise with us contacts at those suppliers and we'll get them much quicker resolutions than that what they could get if they were, you know, going into that awful, those systems of doom.

SPEAKER_01 15:22

Sure. And I can imagine that you know, that human interaction they have with you and the staff that you've carefully handpicked is something that is you know, you want to provide, but it's a premium. And I understand, you know, some of the services you've identified, well, maybe they could be served through a customer portal. So when did this come about? When did the customer portal go live?

SPEAKER_00 15:41

We just launched our customer portal actually last week, and we've put a lot of time into making a perfect because it sounds very basic, doesn't it? A portal, everybody's got a portal, haven't they, these days? You know, most companies have one, but we have spent a lot of time making sure that it's the creme de la creme of portals because, like you mentioned, we work with charities, and some of those are big charities, but lots of them are small charities and and things like village halls and scout groups and things like that. And a lot of the people that work there, they're just you know retired, you know, people that with no yeah, exactly. And they don't know how to use computers and do super technical stuff. So what I wanted was a portal that anybody could use. And actually, through when I was testing it, I got my 10-year-old son to test it for me. So I said, Oh, where do you think you would click if you wanted to do this? Where do you think you would click if you wanted to do that? And he was able to navigate it as a 10-year-old. And I thought, if my 10-year-old can navigate, then it's that's the seal of approval, it's ready.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

And what sort of services are you hoping now you can get customers to look at through the portal?

SPEAKER_00 16:56

So at the minute it's very simple things. We customers can now go on there, they can view their contracts, they can view their rates, they can make any changes on their account to us. So they don't have to ring us up anymore if they need to add somebody onto the account or if they want to, you know, change some of their billing preferences, they don't need to ring us or email us, they can just log on in a couple of clicks, submit that to us, and it's all taken care of. They can raise support tickets to us on there, they can download reports if they want to show in their portfolio. So very simple stuff at the minute. And we are let's, you know, let's see how it goes, let's see what the customers say, and we'll build it out if there's an appetite for that. But I think it's really important that we never want something like a portal to seem like a like a like a blocker to customer service because ultimately uh human interaction and people is what we've built our brand around. So we're very careful when it comes to anything technology that it's there as it's there as a support if you want it, but ultimately if you want to speak to us, just give us a call.

SPEAKER_01 17:58

Well, I think it's really important, you know, voices like yours remain loud in organizations because as silly as it seems, that piece you just mentioned around we built our brand around the human interaction, it gets lost in the corridors over time, unless somebody's there kind of reminding. I just saw a really interesting case with Southwest Airlines where a management company have come in and said you've got to change X, Y, or Z in the way you do things. And fundamentally, it's destroyed their point of difference and really put them as no better than anyone else. And I think that's the things you've got to kind of try and remember, isn't it? Now, you mentioned something that's a very simple thing to say, but I'd imagine it took quite a bit of time to do. And you said, like in raise tickets. So we're talking about this portal doesn't exist in isolation, it is integrated in some form with your other system. So, so how much of a challenge was that? Because you know, bringing two entities together, it can be quite daunting for organizations. Did you at any time think we do this this more than we need to do? Or did you find that actually it was a much easier process doing the integration than you thought it would be?

SPEAKER_00 19:03

I'll be honest, that's the integration side of things, that's an IT. Fair enough, fair enough. So to me, it was no problem, but I'm sure our uh IT person would say different. But ultimately, if it's benefits the customer, then it's worth doing, isn't it? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

And it does work seamlessly. If I raise a ticket, it goes through to the right place on the system and therefore it gets picked up as it would have done if I called up.

SPEAKER_00 19:28

Yeah, yeah, 100%. It's super seamless, everything integrates really well. And I personally have spent hours, maybe even days, testing it every single workflow and making sure that it's perfect. And if there was anything that I thought, no, this could be better, I made sure that it got changed. So I've personally been involved in every step of making sure that it's perfect.

SPEAKER_01 19:50

Brilliant. Well, I mean, it's important because obviously I guess the challenge is that if it goes wrong, customers reject it, and then you've got twice as many calls coming in, haven't you? And you know, and if you've got this kind of badge of honor, which is you're trusted, then actually, regardless of whether it's a phone call or an app or any other digital interface that you introduce, the assumption is I can trust this, and that's why you need to do the hard work before it actually goes live, isn't it? Really? So yeah, let's come on to that trust then. So so talk me through that. This happened towards the end of last year. What particular awards were this you were nominated for?

SPEAKER_00 20:25

So we were shortlisted for a number of awards. Forgive me, I can't remember off the top of my head all of them, but we won Most Trusted. And the year before that, we won Best Customer Service Me. Uh, we also at the Energy Awards last year won TPI, like third party intermediate of the year, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:44

The one I saw, yeah, exactly. Yeah. And you know, I mean, this is in utility brokerage, it's a competitive market. I mean, not everyone is doing the sector you're doing, but I guess you were up with others who are doing different sectors, would that be right?

SPEAKER_00 20:56

Yes, yes. There's lots of there's lots of brokers. It's a very, it's a very saturated, you know, it's a very saturated business type, and there's lots of brokers out there. So to win is no small fee, and we're super proud. And I think brokers get a bad name as well, especially in the energy industry, because there's a lot of naughty ones out there. And people, you can get tired with the same brush. So, yeah, for us to win awards like this that make us stand out and show that we are one of the good ones, it is great. It is really great.

SPEAKER_01 21:28

And you mentioned earlier when we first spoke about it that it was good for those in the business. Just talk me through that because one of the things that we recognize is that when we achieve something, we should celebrate it, whether it's a small game for our customers or something that our colleagues have recommended and it resulted in a better outcome. So, how important has this been to recognize? Because within your team, you probably feel like you're doing a good job. And you just say we trust pilot scores coming back, you've got a healthy response from customers to say we value what you do. But sometimes it's when you step outside. side of your world into the bigger, you know, badder world of you know the sector, such as utility brokerage, then you kind of find out, are we a small play, you know, are we kind of you know overthinking how good we are here? So how did it feel to be there against, you know, the best of the best and still come out on top? What did that mean to the staff?

SPEAKER_00 22:20

I can't describe how happy it makes them. We are, we have like a group chat, like a company chat, and everyone sat there waiting for to find out whether we won or not. And it's just such a good energy in the office the next day. Everyone's so proud and there's just this, you know, this buzz in the office when we win these things because the pe they really do care, employees really do care. You know, little things like when we get a trust like a five star trust pilot review, everyone in the office is like we've got another one because we genuinely care. And I love that about utility aid and that's something that I've as long as I'm here I really want to protect that that energy and that passion because it's it makes us so different. It really does.

SPEAKER_01 23:03

Well it can get forgotten. I mean you can forget to kind of on on that loop the assumption is if something's gone wrong we've got to close it and go back to the customer and say we fixed it. But actually if something's gone well we've got to go back to those who created it and remind them that you did a good job and do more of the same please. So it's it's really important that you keep that spirit going. I also love what you say as well because you're in the business of helping charities the fact that you allow staff to take days off to do extra volunteering the fact that kind of you anticipate they're going to be doing things in the community are there other ways in which utility aid support the sector you're in further as well?

SPEAKER_00 23:40

Yeah so we've actually just launched our utility aid foundation which is essentially some from every contract that is signed through our national charity tender we put some money into a pot and the supplier puts some money into a pot and then we have a committee who meet and we distribute those funds to help the customers that we work with which is just amazing. And again all of our staff absolutely love it because we just love doing good things because I think you know we are a business we do we do exist to make money but it's so much more than that for us. We all have a purpose and we all want to do as much good in the world as possible. So so yeah we're really proud of that.

SPEAKER_01 24:18

And that's a fabulous thing. So those utility companies probably wouldn't have thought they wouldn't have had a vehicle to support the charity unless you came together as a foundation and said we put in, you put in and then the charity gain again beyond what they thought they were going to get. So it's sort of you know coming to you not only gets an efficiency in terms of time management and savings but actually now they're getting something that you ask any charity they would say the first thing they want is some more funds please you're actually able to raise them some small funds and make a real difference to their wealth. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 24:49

It's really cool yeah it is and it's and it makes us really it makes me really proud to to be a representative of utility aid and it's even little things like when I joined utility aid in in covid it was a really difficult time for everybody. Utility aid were sending masks you know PPE to organizations who needed it. So it's little things like that just are so normal for us that you know when people say to me what is it you guys do that makes you different because it's so normal to us I'm like oh what do we do? But it's little things like that. You know we send if we've customers tell us that they're having operations and things we'll pop them cards and things like that handwritten cards and it's just ever it's so deeply embedded within our culture that it's just so normal to us.

SPEAKER_01 25:34

Well that comes from that very first decision you made which is to bring the real the right sort of people in yeah because you have to have it running through your bones to kind of be in service of others and to be in a not just you know empathetic in as much as I know what you're going through but to actually care enough to think empathy only works if you act upon it. And as you say there to actually just recognize getting a card through the door from you utility aid you know it means we listen to the conversation that we had with you on the phone you know we we took action on the back of it. It's not always about just taking action about the transactions it's about recognizing the person beyond the contract that you have which is really important. Well I'm really interested to know maybe you can reveal or maybe you can't what's going to happen next what are the things that you're thinking about you know in terms of where you can go next because it feels like as you rightly say all of these are just small pieces that when you bring it together it's a significant impact.

SPEAKER_00 26:28

So what's bubbling away behind the scenes that you can share with us that you're thinking about doing next we're obviously we help a lot of we help 4,500 not for profit organizations, but we that's just the tip of the iceberg we want to help as many as we can one of the things that we're looking at as a business is right how can technology help us how can AI help us can it help us or is it the right decision? Is it not the right decision? Because what we're always looking to do is make sure that we keep the cost to serve as low as possible. So if technology is the right way to do that then that's absolutely something we're going to explore. So that's something we're really interested in but I'm excited but hesitant with things like that because I never want like I said with the big portal I never want anything to be a blocker to customer service. So I I'm we're it's not something we've rushed because I've seen a lot of organizations rush into implementing AI and things like chatbots and things like that. And actually it's just so frustrating as a consumer to like I just want to speak to a person. So I've been very measured and very I've not rushed into to anything like that, but it's something that I'm exploring because any extra channels to support I want to explore whether that's something that our customers are interested in. So that's something that we're looking at.

SPEAKER_01 27:44

Excellent well I think you know as you put it there you're what you're interested in is something that helps the customers this may or may not be the right thing and therefore having a healthy cautious approach feels like you've got a good leadership in place as well rather than rushing you as some organizations we interact with are forcing AI through because it's there and then stopping to reflect afterwards do we need it? Should we be using it? Is this the right solution for the problem we're trying to solve but it sounds as if the way you guys go is much more about understanding how can we make the best of this and then deciding to do it in a diligent and detailed way so that you don't have a single customer say what's going on here's like a you know and that that must be you know that you've worked in telecoms before it's different isn't it I mean it's not this it's not that same sort of environment this is a very special environment where you get the permission to to move like that.

SPEAKER_00 28:41

Do you feel that yeah I think with utility aid I'm very fortunate that we have a great leadership team and we all work really well together to make sure that everything we do is the right thing for the customer. So there's never any pressure to do something just purely to improve numbers on a sheet we we never want to make assumptions about what customers want and we never want to do something just to tick a box or to to get a little bit more money. Things like that just are not how we operate. So everything we do is making sure that is this what customers actually want is it going to help the overall service is it in line with our brand so there's yeah absolutely there's never any rush but I I can't speak it might not be the same in other energy brokers I don't know utility aid really is quite special.

SPEAKER_01 29:30

So so I don't know industry wide whether they're as fortunate as I am but I think you have an ethos you have a culture which allows you to be like that you know the curiosity the celebration you know that the two things you want to make sure is this right you know you give them the permission to ask and to go and find the answers to that. And secondly you want to be proud of everything you do. So it's not just a case of good enough will do. And I think you know that does set you apart. That's amazing. Well I mean listening to this podcast there will be other CX practitioners there will be clients in organizations like manufacturing telecoms but also because of the customer experience World Games we support over 30 charities in that there will be individuals out there who work for not for profits and NGOs. So if any of those have listened to this and thought this is I've you know I've not come across this type of service before can they reach out to you Kaylee? Is that okay?

SPEAKER_00 30:21

Yeah yeah so they could if they go onto our website utility-aid.co.uk our numbers there in big blue letters and you can give us a call and you'll speak to a human and yeah we'll look after you.

SPEAKER_01 30:33

But they'll take you through what this what the offering is and how it can work for you sort of thing.

SPEAKER_00 30:37

Yeah yeah there's no pressure there's no pressure selling there's no nothing like that. You can have a a a genuine conversation tell us what you're struggling with. If you're not feeling loved by your current energy broker tell us what your pain points are and we'll let you know what we can do and you can then make a decision are we a good fit for you?

SPEAKER_01 30:53

Brilliant and others may have listened to this and been really inspired. You know you clearly are someone who sees the value in celebrating and being progressive rather than you know when you were even talking at the beginning it's about finding pain points to make them better not kind of you know everything's doom and gloom and that's reflected in kind of your tone and your posts on LinkedIn and other channels. So if individuals want to follow you or just connect with you just to kind of recognize what you're doing is LinkedIn the best way to do it?

SPEAKER_00 31:20

Yeah they can connect with us on LinkedIn they can connect with me personally on LinkedIn and as well all of the leadership teams are very visible in social media and all of our personal names and job titles are all over our website so we're very visible and easy to if people want to connect with us we're very we don't hide we're you can see who we are.

SPEAKER_01 31:39

Well brilliant I mean we're talking about charities which is kind of you know they're there to help make the pieces of society which aren't working better. We're talking about utility which can be a very dry topic but it felt anything like that in this conversation because of your upbeat approach. So thank you Kelly for your time thank you for the work you're doing and the way that you're kind of inspiring the others and making a significant difference and continue to do that with utility aid and you know it feels like this is probably just a dress rehearsal for something very big you're going to do in the future. So I do wish you all the best with that and if anyone wants to connect you heard if you're a charity or an NGO go to the website if you'd like to follow Kaylee just to kind of hear her inspirational posts then do so as well but for now I'll thank you and wish you all the best for the future.

SPEAKER_00 32:24

Thank you Christopher thank you for having me