Say cheese Michelle – you passed the pizza test!

Michelle Casteel was all smiles after her customer service was put to the test and she passed – by finding a pizza restaurant.

The Lanes Group planner was asked by a mystery caller if she could advise where to buy a pizza, and she immediately got onto Google and gave an answer.

She didn’t know that the call was set up by Lanes Group Technical Director Andy Brierley as he sat in a conference room with 150 others at the launch of Thames Water’s customer service programme, Here for Customers.

Delegates at the event at Twickenham Stadium discussed what would happen if someone phoned a Thames Water call centre and asked, not about their water bill or a blocked drain, but where to buy a pizza.

Andy said he was sure the Lanes Group wastewater maintenance personnel at the new Customer Service Centre in Slough would help the caller, and offered to put them to the test, there and then.

It was Michelle who picked up the call. The mystery caller said his wi-fi was down, so could she recommend a place to find pizza. Everyone was impressed when Michelle, straight away, gave the directions and advice he needed.

She said: “For a few seconds I thought it was one of our engineers making a joke, but as soon as I realised it wasn’t I said, of course I can help. Why not? It only takes a couple of minutes, and it’s all part of good customer service to respond professionally to unusual enquiries, and I get a kick out of helping customers.

“I know that area of London very well, so I was able to guide the caller to lots of places to get a pizza. When I was told afterwards what the call was really about I was pleased I helped, but I wouldn’t have done anything else.

“I was pleased for Andy as well. It would have put him on the spot if I had responded differently!”

Andy Brierley said: “I was quite calm as the call went in because I was confident anyone on our excellent team would handle it perfectly. We’re very busy working with Thames Water colleagues to help 1,000 customers with drainage and sewer problems every day, but we’ve still got time to do people a quick favour.”

The call to Michelle was recorded and will now be used in on-going training to demonstrate what excellent customer services sounds like.

As a thank you, Andy gave Michelle an extra paid day’s leave, a big bouquet of flowers – and a pizza, what else!

The Here for Customers programme puts customers at the centre of everything Thames Water does, because customers are the company’s most important asset.

Lanes Group has fully-embraced the concept. Key customer service skills include good communication, effective team-work with colleagues, to support the customer journey, and a readiness to help, whatever the enquiry.