Central to the conversational tone of the Utility Week Live Keynote conference are the round table debates which call on industry leaders to explore key challenges in select groups and then to report their findings back to peers in a plenary session.
The challenge of rebuilding trust in utilities, particularly energy companies, attracted vibrant debate on day two of the conference.
Key findings from the round table, where representatives from the big six, regulators, customer interest groups, consultancy and even law shared insight, included:
- The identification of an inevitable conflict between the voter and the consumer – one person, who will likely display “schizophrenic” beliefs about the trustworthiness of utilities dependent on which role they assume at any given moment.
- The is a failure of leadership in most organisations when it comes to modelling behaviours which are advocated in front line employees for rebuilding trust
- Recruitment processes must be improved and made more rigorous to reflect a “hire for attitude, fire for attitude” ethos.
Voter versus consumer
Discussion on this point left little hope for utilities seeking to rebuild trust.
With increasing political intervention in the market, round table participants saw utilities holding diminishing control over the way they are perceived by the public. They also observed that individuals often hold “schizophrenic” opinions about the trust worthiness of utilities dependent on whether talking from the position of voter or consumer and expressed doubt as to whether the findings of the Competition and Markets Authority – if they give the market a “clean bill of health” – will do anything to improve trust.
Political intervention was not the only source of the “contagion of reputational risk” however. With complex market structures where outsourcing and contracting is common, it was felt that the third parties represent a challenge to the ability of utilities to rebuild trust.
Participants welcomed suggestions from the morning keynote speaker Andrew McMillan, former head of customer service at John Lewis, that suppliers and contractors be held to account on cultural and behavioural measures as well as traditional service level agreements.
Peers also agreed that more could be learned from other sectors where outsourcing is successfully used without reputational damage to the customer facing brand – Amazon was lauded as a leader here.
Failure of leadership
It was acknowledged that leaders in many organisations are a weak link in the effort to rebuild trust.
While considerable focus has come to bear in recent years on training front line staff to display certain character traits and behaviours when interacting with the public, it was observed that there is little accountability laid on leaders to model these behaviours.
This was felt to be particularly true at a middle management, and in some instances senior management, level rather than at an executive or board level.
Getting recruitment right
Reflecting the adage “you can take a horse to water but you cannot make it drink”, round table participants observed that, while investing in training for staff can help to rebuild trust, if the wrong person is recruited the wrong results will ensure, regardless of training.
This conclusion reflected the advice of keynote speaker Andrew McMillan, former head of customer service at John Lewis, to “hire for attitude, fire for attitude”. However it was felt that recruitment processes in utilities are not robust in supporting this approach. Participants broadly advocated a review of HR policy and practice in the sector.