On 25 June, we’ll be congratulating the winner of the Unsung Hero category in The Energy Live Consultancy Awards 2015 (TELCA).
Today there are 13 special people that deserve recognition for making it on to the shortlist.
Thirteen is a peculiar number for an awards shortlist, but the TELCA judges thought each of these people deserved recognition.
So we thought we’d share some of the standout qualities in the entries to illustrate what makes these people so special to their customers and colleagues.
They are translators:
• “He helps customers understand the electricity industry and interpret their needs in industry terms.”
• “It is important that the customer is fully informed and they shouldn’t be overwhelmed with technical detail/words/terms or phrases if not appropriate and/or confusing. Nobody likes to be spoken to in acronyms!”
• “She has an amazing ability to take an extremely complicated subject and engage with customers at just the right level so they thoroughly understand what it is she is trying to relate.”
They are listeners:
• “Instead of being on the other side of the table and looking at solutions that make sense to her, she will sit with the client to understand the problem from their point of view and gain an insight into which solution will be best for them considering their business model and objectives.”
They are talkers:
• “His way is most definitely to talk to people, whether it be face to face or over the phone, as opposed to using the seemingly more and more customary way of communicating these days i.e. email, email and another email.”
They are problem solvers:
• “He recently solved a long-standing mystery by identifying which meter (from several at a single location) related to a unit that was waiting to be let, by preparing detailed meter reports and enlisting the help of a caretaker to validate them.”
They are knowledgeable:
• “He makes it his business to know what he needs to know. His knowledge of our market and therefore his job is unparalleled in my experience and he is the ‘go to’ person if anyone here has a query or a problem that they haven’t come across before.”
They help train new colleagues to be great:
• “Her ability to both share knowledge and convey this in a way that new consultants joining our business can grasp quickly. She has a nice easy going style and is a very good trainer and mentor for our new employees.”
They go the extra mile (literally):
• “A farmer in mid Wales was eager to complete the issues in connection with his energy contracts. Unfortunately his fax machine was broken. [Unsung hero] volunteered to take time from her weekend to visit his business personally to assist him in completing the forms and collect them.”
They never-say no:
• “Some of the feedback I have received from customers is that he never says ‘no’, he can always find a solution to a problem.”
They are nice people too:
• “Her open and honest approach also makes her clients relaxed and able to trust her.”
• “The laughter that excels from her office is enough to put a smile on anyone’s face.”
• “She also makes great cakes from time to time.”
Happy bosses:
These qualities helps these heroes keep their bosses happy as well as their customers. Many reported that thanks to their hero employees, customers stay for years and their own working lives were more enjoyable too.
“I say the same thing to myself every year at staff appraisal time – if everyone in the team was like him, my job would be a doddle.”
So without further ado, here are this year’s Unsung Hero finalists. Well done to each of them. They are an asset to the energy industry.
Diana Bebic, Alfa Energy
Debbie Francis, Catalyst Commercial
Katherine Moore, Cost Advice Services Ltd
Julian Zacharias, Energy & Carbon management
Justine Hodges, Focus Assured
Laura Middleton, Inenco
Martin Caldwell, Love Energy Savings
Jackie Hulatt, LSI Utility Brokers
Rishona Haigh, Neal Power Direct Ltd
David Cramp, Power Solutions
Lyn Barnes, Select Energy
Steven Campbell, Trident Utilities
Ruth McKibbin, UES Energy
