Powergen takes its sales and telemarketing seriously and has set up responsible selling practices, including a range of professional accreditations and cold-calling protocols.

 

Responsible selling practices

ISO 9001:2000
In May 2003, we became the first energy supplier to have its sales process certified by the British Standards Institute (BSI) for ISO 9001:2000. This achievement gave our high-quality approach to our sales procedures - for both consumer and small business customers - an official stamp of approval. The scope of Powergen's registration covers providing electricity and gas from initial customer contact through to the acceptance or decline of the sales. In October 2003, we were audited by the BSI and successfully kept our certification.  

Association of Energy Suppliers

We belong to the Association of Energy Suppliers (AES) and have adopted the voluntary AES Code of Practice for the face-to-face marketing and selling of energy. This code has been developed by the AES in close co-operation with the Government, the industry regulator Ofgem and consumer bodies. The code covers recruitment, training, registration of sales advisors, consumer contact and consumer complaints and is audited by an independent Code Administrator, who gave us an unconditional pass in their July 2003 audit.  

Cold-calling protocol

Powergen is committed to supporting initiatives designed to prevent distraction burglary and joined the Pro-CBC (Professional Responsible Organisations Challenging Bogus Callers) group hosted by Devon and Cornwall Constabulary. We have adopted a five-step cold-calling protocol for our field sales staff. This involves getting customers to check the identification card, explaining that we have a free phone number so more checks can be made and inviting the customer to have a friend present during any sales conversation. We also supply our field sales staff with an A5-sized photo identification card to help the visually impaired.  

EnergySure accreditation

EnergySure is an initiative to promote best practice in energy selling and Powergen has adopted the policy that all field sales advisors must be  

EnergySure-accredited

. At its heart is an online database of approved energy sales people, which participating companies can use to make sure that employees are qualified to rigorous standards. This involves all sales advisors completing a specified standard of training approved by an external assessor and gaining provisional status. After a three-month probation, the sales advisor will be assessed for full accreditation status. The scheme then requires advisors to be reassessed every 12 months, but Powergen exceeds this by reassessing every six months.   EnergySure appoints an independent auditor to make sure participants attain the correct standards. Powergen was successfully audited twice in 2003.