Norwich-based energy consultancy Indigo Swan won the Customer Care award, sponsored by Greater Anglia, at the Norfolk Business Awards.
“From the outside looking in, no matter what we were doing in the background, all our customers and suppliers and partners saw that at Indigo Swan it was business as usual,” says MD James Groves. “I think we navigated the pandemic well and continued to provide what I consider to be world-class service at the most difficult time that any business has faced.”
The company was well-prepared for adapting to the conditions of 2020. “We found we could do our jobs efficiently and well when working from home,” Mr Groves says. “Within 24 hours of lockdown on March 23, we were sitting at home with laptops, cracking on and our service was not really impacted.”
What was the secret? A large part of it, he says, was the consistency with which the team delivered the same level of service to every customer. “We were very proactive, reaching out to our clients – especially in the hospitality and tourism sector - asking what we could do to help them,” Mr Groves explains. “Like a lot of businesses, we had to take a defensive position and we did put a few members of staff on furlough, but everyone that was here worked extremely hard.”
Indigo Swan was able to bring all staff back from furlough and has even recruited during the pandemic – including taking on a remote-working team member outside the Norwich area... a first for a firm that has always thrived on the closeness of the team.
“It’s a big part of who we are, a big part of our culture,” says Mr Groves. “It’s just been 10 months of being innovative and looking at different ways of bringing the team together, embracing the culture as it is now through Teams.”
Mr Groves says the team played a big part in the firm’s awards success. “Our head of marketing, Jamie Lloyd-Jones, did a fantastic job to bring the entry together. Aimee Konieczny, our head of client relationships, played a massive part in the interview process with the judges,” he says.
“Andy Kindleysides, our head of operations, and Tom Seppings, our head of client services, work tirelessly to make sure our quality and our service levels are met," he said. "Being in a service industry, it's absolutely vital to be nailing those KPIs on the quality-of-service side of things.
“We take great pride in winning awards,” he adds. “Getting the award is part of it, but it’s also just getting the confidence that you’re doing the right thing. You can think you’re doing the right thing, but this is someone else saying you’ve done a good job - and that means a massive amount.”
For more information, see https://indigoswan.co.uk/
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