Customer Service Recognition Day

07 October 2022

WOW! This week’s National Customer Service Week (NCSW) celebrations are coming to a close today and it’s time to recognise the individuals and teams who have gone above and beyond, those people who have had a significant impact on your customers.

This year rather than focussing internally, we want to celebrate those team members who have served our team as real customers in our domestic lives and have delivered truly memorable service for all the right reasons. Our selected winner comes from an insurance company who served me whilst I was isolating with Covid.
I’d contracted Covid, having met up in London on a work reunion with some colleagues from 20 years ago and had been feeling really rough for a few days. Meanwhile my eldest daughter had passed her driving test and we needed to change the car insurance policy to convert her from a provisional driver to fully qualified. Having contacted my insurers at the time, I was advised that our premiums would INCREASE by a whopping £2,760 per year! It was time to find a new insurer!

Part of the reason was we drive a large 1.6 engine, seven-seater which we’ve had for over 10 years and bought when the kids were all little and we needed three car seats. So, we decided to buy a much smaller run-around and get her insured on that instead. We had become a two-car family, so I set off to investigate multi-car insurance and went online as I had a really sore throat and cough and wasn’t feeling up to talking through endless options.

I found a solution but when I clicked through to purchase, the website insisted that our seven-seater was a van not a car. I tried all sorts online, but finally resolved that I was going to have to call as this was by far the best value for money insurer. I connected through to the agent and explained I had Covid and apologised in advance for coughing. I then had the most memorable (for all the right reasons) call of the year.

Courtney at Hastings Direct was fantastic! She was calm, organised and clear with the information she requested and provided. I didn’t have to repeat any of the information I gave her whilst she looked across all of the different policies and options, she was polite and calm when I explained I had a better deal for the second car and went on to remind me to come back next year and check again as with a year’s experience, the premiums should be lower and a multi-car policy may be available. We quickly wrapped up a sale for the main car insurance and I’ve already put a note in my diary to call Courtney next year!

As a second nomination, I’d also like to recognise Saira Perwaiz at Barclaycard’s Commercial Digital Team. For two years, on and off depending on my level of patience, I have been battling with Barclaycard to get them to add my new card to my online account accessed by my email address. I had been told countless times, by countless Barclaycard employees, that I needed to create a new email address to access my commercial credit card account online. This made no sense. I only have one work email address and I didn’t want to create another one just for the purposes of logging into my online account for Barclaycard, there’s a whole host of business costs associated with having an email address that I didn’t need to incur.

About a year ago I was finally put through to Saira in the Digital Team who confirmed my suspicions that, in fact, my existing email address could be linked to my card and online account. She set about making this happen. Working together we identified and eliminated a couple of potential obstacles and then she doggedly pushed her internal teams to actually do what they say they’ve done (when they hadn’t) to get my account linked. She’s been thorough and patient when I’ve needed to vent my frustration.

Saira’s determination and commitment to making things work properly and for championing her customer within the business, has saved Barclaycard Commercial from losing my account (for now). I’d love Barclaycard Commercial to recognise her for championing customers and not letting her business fail through poor service.

Elaine Lee