‘Go Live’ may be completely foreign to many people. But it’s actually one of the most important processes within Customer Service Departments.
Surprisingly, few companies make this investment in their teams as the process can be time consuming and costly for the company. This view is often short-sighted, with managers not always recognising the opportunities it can bring. ‘Go Live’ calls not only protect a company’s income, but also influence and generate further revenue for the business going forward.
What is a ‘Go Live’ call?
For those that are not aware, ‘Go Live’ calls are completed with all customers on at least one, if not multiple occasions, on the approach towards a contract becoming live.
The principal role when working within a Customer Service Team is to talk with decision makers to make them feel safe, secure, and valued.
Not only do we ensure that the customer is fully aware of their upcoming contracts, but we also provide them with direct contact details, address any concerns, pick up enquiries and most importantly of all, identify as early as possible any potential barriers to these contracts going live.
While there can be several barriers to a contract going live, the largest of them all take the form of other brokers and consultancies who are quite prepared to put customers in financial and legal jeopardy by persuading them to breach their contracts.
The current state of affairs
While the current economy is such that many businesses need to make savings where they can, and gas/electricity bills may be seen as low-hanging fruit to achieve this, few in my experience are given a true picture of the risks associated with breaching business energy contracts.
Unscrupulous actors in this industry attract clients with amazing new prices, which seem (at least on paper) cheaper than the customer’s current contracts. But they are almost never accurate, based on incorrect energy consumption, and rarely come with any aftersales assistance or support. They will falsely convince the customer that they are not breaching their contract. The reality is that the unwitting customer will face threats of legal action and termination fees.
How is Northern Gas and Power different?
Our Go Live calls, along with the far more transparent sales processes employed by the company, provides a genuine and valuable service to a customer.
Protecting the interests of the customer is also protecting the interests of Northern Gas and Power.
By informing our customers of the associated risks which come with breaching existing contracts, we help to build a relationship based on mutual respect and a genuine desire to protect the customer as well as our business.
These conversations happen at the customer’s convenience and pace, and invariably lead to a much fuller understanding of their company’s wants, needs, and values.
In turn, this leads to the identification of new revenue streams from new sites, meters or even new customers who have heard only good things about the quality of aftercare and range of Additional Services at Northern Gas and Power.
By David Cole
“David is a former senior Police Officer who retired from the service in 2020 and has now worked with Northern Gas & Power for just over a year as the Customer Services and Key Account Team Manager. With a wealth of investigative and strategic experience David has managed teams both large and small in a variety of roles to meet the needs of the public and now the private sector. As a relative newcomer to the Energy Industry David has brought his considerable knowhow and enthusiasm into the role and developed/professionalised the team into the efficient model it is today.”