Photograph courtesy of the Gloucestershire Gazette.
Pat Butler, of Knapp Road, Thornbury, was at home recovering from eye surgery when, on the morning of her 60th birthday, her gas supply was planned to be turned off for the day so that we could replace gas pipes in the area.
Pat explains: “That day I was feeling particularly sorry for myself – not only had I undergone major surgery after suddenly losing the sight in one eye but it was a milestone birthday and the gas was being turned off. I only mentioned my birthday in passing but what came next took me by surprise.”
Later that day Rob Thompson from Thompson Utilities, which was carrying out the work on our behalf, hand-delivered a birthday card which included a £50 voucher for a local restaurant.
Pat continued: “In this day and age you don’t very often hear about kind-hearted gestures like this – especially from utility companies. It seriously took my breath away and I was over the moon. When I mentioned the gesture to my neighbours we talked of the courteous manner in which the team worked – they are a credit to the company.”
Pat, along with her husband, two children and their partners, enjoyed a meal and she now has further tests to determine her sight issues.
Rob Thompson, team leader from Thompson Utilities, said: “We understand that turning off the gas supply can be an inconvenience to people and when we knocked on Pat’s door and learnt that it was a special day, we knew that we wanted to do something to say sorry.
“A restaurant voucher was our way of wishing her a happy birthday and we are thrilled that she had a wonderful time with her family.”
Our Programme Director Rob Long, who is responsible for our gas pipe replacement programme said: “As a company we work hard to deliver outstanding customer service and we always try and make sure that this is reflected in the contractors we work with too. We encourage our colleagues and contractors to use their own judgement with our customers and we’re delighted that Thompson Utilities went that extra mile to wish Pat a very happy birthday.”
We are carrying out multi-million-pound 30-year mains replacement programme, across Wales and the south west of England, which began in 2002. Old metal pipes within 30 metres of buildings are being replaced with new long-lasting plastic pipes with a lifespan of more than 80 years.
We provide the gas emergency service across Wales and the south west of England. If anyone smells gas, thinks they have a gas leak, or suspects carbon monoxide poisoning, they should call us on 0800 111 999 and our engineers will be there to help, day or night.
We are the leading utility for customer service. In July the Institute of Customer Services (ICS) published the latest customer satisfaction index score for the UK utility sector - placing utilities as the lowest of the 13 sectors of the UK economy with a score of 71.4.
Our results show that we are a monopoly gas utility business very much bucking the trend, with a set of customer scores that positions us amongst the leading companies of any sector in the UK, not just utilities.
We recently scored 91.8 – positioning us as one of the top companies in the UK. The UK all-sector average score is 76. A score of over 80 is classified by ICS as delivering world class levels of customer service, so we are even outperforming this category too. Indeed, a score above 90 gains a ‘Distinction’ rating from ICS, with only three other companies (and no utility company) across the UK achieving this classification.