LONDON: British Gas is hiring more than 350 service staff and has pledged to spend £50m to make life easier for its customers after more than 300,000 of them defected last year.
The UK’s biggest household energy supplier said it would recruit the new staff immediately in Manchester, Leeds, Cardiff and Edinburgh. Centrica, British Gas’s parent, said the extra spending over three years showed the commitment of new chief executive, Iain Conn, to make customer service better.
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British Gas lost 368,000 customers last year, ending 2014 with 14.8 million residential accounts. The company reviewed its customer numbers at the end of the year and found it had overestimated them by 110,000.
Centrica said British Gas’s customer numbers stopped falling in the first three months of 2015 after it cut prices but that it needed to make things easier for consumers in order to hang on to their business. British Gas wants to reduce call times, give out better information and make it easier to use its website.
Conn, who took over in January, said: “Customers tell us they want excellent service when they deal with their energy supplier. We’re making a substantial and long-term commitment today, which will help us achieve that goal. In addition to new jobs, the £50m will fund significant investment in training and new systems to improve customer service.”
The business lost 62,000 contracts for boiler maintenance and other services in the first quarter, taking the number of service accounts to 7.9 million. The company hopes the increased investment in residential service will take the pressure off this division.
Centrica and other big energy companies are under political and regulatory pressure over their treatment of UK energy customers, reflecting public uproar over high household bills.
