How we helped Shell Energy reduce customer complaints and save money

Background

Sigma Connected’s partnership with Shell Energy began in 2019, when we were selected to deliver customer services from our contact centre operations in the UK. Just over a year later the energy supply market was in turmoil and a large number of suppliers were forced to cease trading. 

The knock on effect from this was Shell Energy taking on new customers fast, as they were transferred from those suppliers who had gone out of business. To meet this sharp increase in customers, while keeping customer service standards high and complaints low, new agents needed to be onboarded and trained as quickly as possible.

The solution

We rapidly set up a team within our operations in Cape Town, South Africa – 100 seats in a very short amount of time. But even with an increase in agents, they were still spending all their time answering the many incoming enquiries. The result? Occupancy levels that were way higher than we would have liked. At Sigma Connected, we believe that agents need personal time between calls both for their wellbeing and for their own personal development, learning and upskilling. Consequently, high occupancy almost always leads to burnout, higher attrition levels and low tenure. And with low tenure comes less experience and knowledge, and less positive outcomes for customers driving more inbound calls. It’s a virtuous circle that benefits nobody. 

We approached Shell Energy’s leadership team with evidence from other contracts where we had successfully addressed this kind of situation.  

We were lucky in the fact that Shell Energy did not take much convincing. They are a business with similar people values and customer focus to us. They supported us with removing barriers to solving customer queries with internal teams and worked tirelessly to solve long standing issues the team presented to them all of which allowed our people time between calls – time to take a break and to be taken off the phones to learn. Shell Energy knew that to right-size the call centre now would lead to a better outcome in the future. 

Results

Lower occupancy levels 

We started adding extra resource in October 2022 when occupancy levels were as high as 96%. As you see from the graph, the occupancy level soon dips down, as there was now capacity for people to take a breather and to upskill. 

Lower attrition  

Then, once occupancy went down, so did attrition – from 9-13% to as little as 2%. Agents could see they were being looked after, being invested in, and trained properly. And the longer people stay, the more knowledge they gain about the client and their customers, and are therefore able to help them quicker and more effectively. 

Higher first contact resolution  

We saw first contact resolution (FCR) go from around 50% up to 75% as agents grew their experience and skills in resolving calls the first time. The result of which is fewer customer complaints and, ultimately, less resource needed down the line.  

Cost savings  

The improvement from 51% FCR to 76% meant that we could now reduce the number of FTEs back down again by 16%, which equated to a cost saving of c£1.35m per annum. 

Shell Energy is rated number 1 in complaint handling 

The reduction in complaints resulted in Shell Energy achieving the highest spot in the Citizens Advice customer service ratings, for the lowest number of complaints.