For the third year running, Northern Powergrid has secured a place in the UK’s Top Companies for Customer Service, being shortlisted for 2020.

The company, which powers everyday life for 8 million people across the North East, Yorkshire and northern Lincolnshire, secured the honour after its contact centre participated in the UK’s largest and most respected ‘mystery caller’ UK benchmarking programme.

Every year hundreds of companies from sectors including insurance, banking, energy, transport and retail enter the programme which is designed to independently assess the contact centres customer service skills. Between August and October of 2019, the electricity distributor’s contact centre team, based in Penshaw (Tyne & Wear), received 100 mystery shopping calls.

Following the independent assessment, Northern Powergrid received news that it was again recognised as one of the UK’s Top Companies for Customer Service. The team will find out on 23 January 2020, at a special customer service awards gala dinner, its overall position.

All of the information gathered through the mystery shopping calls enables Northern Powergrid to effectively train, develop and coach colleagues so they can provide a polite, friendly and helpful service to its customers.

Chris Morris, Northern Powergrid’s customer service delivery manager, said: “We're extremely proud to have been shortlisted for the third year in row. This achievement is excellent recognition for the team and demonstrates the hard work they do, day in day out. It’s also great news for our 8 million customers across the region.

“Every day our contact centre team supports customers with their questions about the region’s power network and our services. Their commitment and professionalism to make every contact count is the key to this accomplishment and we're looking forward to celebrating their success."