Northumbrian Water – New Website Launch

Part 1: Refresher

Top 10 Ambassador Principles

These are the core principles of being a NWL/ESW ambassador. They should be at the forefront of your mind as you answer every question:

1. Are you addressing the correct region? Remember, you’ll be dealing with customers from Northumbrian Water AND Essex and Suffolk Water, who sometimes require different information and links. The first thing to do when you receive a query is to check the region.
2. Have you understood the customer question? Providing the customer with too much information isn’t helpful. Always read and understand the customer question fully so you give the most helpful response. If you don’t understand the question or it’s not very clear, request more information so you can give the customer a specific response.
3. Have you understood how the customer’s water is measured? This is really important so always make the effort to understand whether a customer has a meter or not, because the answer that you give them is often different depending on how they are charged.
4. Have you checked online first? Always make sure where possible that you provide customers with an online way to resolve their issue. Always make sure that the relevant links are provided in your response to make it easy for the customer.
5. Have you constructed a personalised response? Every customer question is unique, so that means every response should be unique. Use the knowledge to your best advantage, but make sure you acknowledge the customer situation in your opening and closing.
6. Have you amended the template properly? Avoid cutting and pasting – always amend the template to the context.
7. Do you know when to use a build-on appropriately? You should only use a build-on where it is relevant and helpful – make sure you recognise when a build-on is needed and if so, what to say.
8. Have you got it right? Northumbrian Water/Essex & Suffolk Water have different teams to deal with BILLING queries and OPERATIONS queries. It’s important that you understand which of these the customer’s issue relates to, so you can direct them to the best option or team to help. For example, there are different numbers for each team with different opening times, so it’s important you get this right.​
9. If you’re not able to help, have you explained why? If you have to redirect the customer to the Billing customer services team, please always make sure you explain that their issue requires account access and you don’t have this because you’re a customer ambassador. It’s important the customer understands this – managing expectations makes for a better customer experience.​
10. Have you given the customer a chance to offer their feedback? Offer the customer a chance to submit some feedback on your response. Make this a personalised and fun suggestion, so it doesn’t look like an automated request. However, this is not appropriate if you have redirected the query or are dealing with a serious issue such as something highly distressing for the customer or of sensitive nature, such as the death of a loved one. Please use this sensibly.

What exactly is considered a REDIRECT?

REDIRECT is another word for ‘Direct to Customer Service or Other Channel’​.

Any query that ultimately must be resolved by calling NWG or using a call back form is considered a REDIRECT.

Example of a REDIRECT:

Q: My payment is due the 10th but can I pay the 12th?

The customer must call in, even if you provide additional helpful information on making a payment, as if this is related to account information.

Example of a NON-REDIRECT:

Q: How do I read my meter?

You provide information on how to read your meter, but you also include the NWL/ESW phone number in case the customer wants NWL/ESW to read it.

What hasn’t changed?

• Much of the content on the site is the same.
• The site URL will still be nwl.co.uk and eswater.co.uk but the links you used to use may not be accurate anymore.
• We’ve changed all the links and updated the knowledge base for the new website, which you’ll gain access to shortly.