“Fjordkraft wins Customer Service Award 2023 in Energy Class, despite downsizing”

– The challenge was to reverse the trend and make people happy with Fjordkraft again.

This was stated by the Fjordkraft manager Magnar Øyhovden to BA in February. He took over the chief’s chair in the autumn. The company had for a long time had the Consumer Council on its back, and experienced customer flight due to reviled variable agreements and negative press reports.

Recently, there was also the news that the company has to downsize.

But on Thursday, the company was able to collect a milestone: During an award in Oslo, Fjordkraft walked away with the Customer Service Award 2023 in the energy class.

The award is presented by SeeYou, a company that measures customer satisfaction in various industries.

Will be tested

In competition with 12 other electricity sales companies, the Bergen company scored the best after having its customer service mapped through random samples – so-called “mystery callings”.

Here, unsuspecting customer handlers are questioned by professional testers from SeeYou to be measured on how they handle various types of enquiries.

– The selection takes place by us contacting the electricity company’s customer center 25 times over the course of four months and pretending to be customers. We judge the company solely on the performance and competence of the customer service agents, says Jan Sverre Reboli Paulsen, who is responsible for the award.

Factors such as price, and whether the company actually delivers as agreed, are therefore not considered in the competition.

Paulsen in SeeYou believes the tests show that the energy industry has maintained good customer service, despite a troubled year.

– High electricity prices and an electricity subsidy that is difficult for many to understand means that those who call the electricity company are in a different frame of mind now than two or three years ago. It is sometimes very busy. Nevertheless, we see that it is easier to get answers than it was a year ago, so it seems that the companies have strengthened their capacity, says Paulsen.

In the justification, the jury writes, among other things, that Fjordkraft is overall the best at receiving, welcoming, dialogue, solving and closing the inquiry.

– Fjordkraft is doing the best overall, and from the figures it looks like they are doing a very good job, he says.

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Responds

Around 90 employees work at Fjorkraft’s customer centre, which is therefore the country’s best, if we are to judge from the award.

– It is incredibly cool that we, as the market leader, win such a test. It shows that we have quality in our entire team, says Irene Fauskanger who is director of Customer Service at Fjordkraft.

The company received over one million inquiries during last year.

– So they have been a huge blow, and it is impressive how the employees have handled it. We are talking about a group that has a high level of knowledge in many different fields, and that delivers time and time again, says Fauskanger.

On Friday, the day after the award in Oslo, Fjordkraft announced that 25 positions in the company would be cut. The company has previously decided to go from five to two locations for customer service.