We’ve teamed up with electricity distribution company UK Power Networks and disability equality charity Scope to produce a series of awareness-raising films to help our people better support our disabled customers.
The aim of the videos is to give our colleagues a first-hand insight into the day-to-day lives of disabled people to give us a better understanding of how best we can tailor our services to support our disabled customers. By hearing directly from Scope’s storytellers, we hope to increase our employee’s awareness and understanding of how our work impacts our customers’ lives.
In the four three-minute films, we hear from Scope’s storytellers about the importance of routine in daily life, how we can help minimise stress and anxiety for our customers, as well as tips for communicating with a disabled customer.
We marked the launch of our new ‘How we can help’ film series with a webinar back on Friday 13 March, when we joined together virtually with Scope, UK Power Networks and colleagues from across the utility sector. We heard from Scope storyteller Emilia Okoye, who starred in the films, about the impact that utility work can have on daily life.
Our Head of Customer Service Maureen McIntosh said: Our engineers and Customer Service teams work really hard to support all our customers, particularly those in vulnerable circumstances or who need additional support. But it’s vital that we give our people the awareness and understanding to tailor our service and respond to what our customers need. This is why our partnership with Scope and these films are so important – we’re trying to bring our colleagues closer to our customers to build their understanding and provide a better service.”
Ian Cameron, Head of Customer Services at UK Power Networks, added: “We are proud to work alongside Scope and SGN, working together to maximise help and support for customers, in this case disabled people, by a series of films tackling the issues they may face.
“By working with Scope, in conjunction with SGN, we are ensuring operational colleagues such as engineers better understand and feel more confident in helping the disabled people they visit and can make their own contribution to removing any barriers to essential services.”
Mark Hodgkinson, Chief Executive at disability equality charity Scope, said: “The way companies interact with their disabled customers can have a massive impact on the lives of the UK’s 14 million disabled people. I hope these videos are a springboard to increasing and improving the experience disabled people have with utility companies. It’s vital we work across sectors to start addressing these challenges together to make a real difference for disabled people.”
Our film series is part of our ongoing collaboration with Scope. SGN and UK Power Networks are proud to be the founding member of Scope’s Utilities Membership, which is a group of the UK’s leading utility companies who have come together to address some of the big issues that disabled people face and are working together to enable utilities to better serve them as customers and employees.