Blog takeover with Castle Water Expert: Catriona Bell

Bio

• Name Catriona Bell
• Occupation Head of Water & Energy Sales at Castle Water
• Ready to... provide customers, however big or small, with advice and the benefits and means of Switching to Castle Water.
• Passionate about... continuous Development – myself, my team and the company. Elephant Conservation, wine, and rugby.
• Unpopular opinion... the TV show Friends is overrated. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good show – just overrated.
• Guilty pleasure… blasting ABBA, really loudly.
• You may be surprised to know… I have a degree in War and Society.
• Ask me about… staying with / switching to Castle Water, quotes, and tariffs and how Castle Water can support and add value to your business.

Tell us about your role at Castle Water

As part of the Sales and Business Development department, I manage one half of the Sales team for customers in England. I predominantly focus on Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) that are looking to switch to or stay with Castle Water, but work closely alongside the Bid and Proposal team, who manage sales for Industrial and Commercial customers. I work alongside the Marketing team in the development of customer campaigns that offer competitive online quotes and manage the sales process. Our current campaign is ‘Our Best Deal Yet’.* Additionally, I manage the Onboarding of new customers, whether single site or large multi-site portfolios, ensuring that our customers are switched efficiently and smoothly. I'm on hand to support the business on non-default tariffs and all things contracts.

How important is good communications to your team?

Since the move to working from home, communication is more important now than ever before. If anything, I think that the Lockdown and the necessity to move to working from home forced the team to improve our internal communications

My team is split into two, with one half managing Sales and the other Onboarding; we need to maintain clear communication paths between the two to ensure our customer is receiving the best user experience from start (quote) to end (Onboarding). Being unable to simply walk to your colleague's desk to check whether they are supporting with a specific customer or quote has encouraged us to be more open with communication, and we've developed some really useful trackers and processes to ensure there is no duplication of workload or a customer isn't getting flooded by too many email or calls.

Good communication is really important, as we need to ensure our messages are clear to customers and ensure they fully understand the quote we have provided and what the different charges relate to. The water market is still relatively young, especially compared to our Energy counterparts, and we often find that customers reference Energy terminology, so we need to ensure we spend the time to clearly explain how the quote is calculated or what the contract terms are – it needs to be kept simple. During Lockdown, I've found that it's equally important to communicate about non-work-related stuff in order to break up the day and add some normalcy – a fun fact or brain teaser usually does the trick.

What is the most common question that your team is asked and what answer would you provide?

The most common question is probably, “This customer is looking to switch to Castle Water, please can you provide them a quote?”

Of course, the answer is, “Yes”.

In the first instance I would advise any colleague or customer to get an instant quote at castlewater.co.uk/quick-quote. All the customer needs to do is enter their Postcode and contact details, and they’ll receive an instant quote online. If the customer would like to accept the quote, then they can also sign up online via DocuSign. We have a new campaign running, ‘Our Best Deal Yet’, where the customer has the options of two quotes based on length of contract. The tool is quick and easy to use and means the customer can complete everything in one place.

Why should businesses switch to Castle Water?

Our Values underpin everything that we do, and perhaps the most important one is Honesty. There are no hidden costs at Castle Water, and we are very clear with how our rates are calculated and the difference between Wholesaler and Retailer costs.

Castle Water have the experience to support our customers and their needs. We have been serving customers in England since 2016 and entered the open market alongside its deregulation in April 2017, we have grown with the Market and understand its simplicities as well as it’s complexities. We have the industry knowledge to service customers of all sizes and industries whether you are a city centre hairdresser or a complex industrial manufacturer with Trade Effluent. We can offer customers expertise ranging from Water Management Services such as Automatic Meter Reading (AMR), Water efficiency advice and Water Audits to complex billing requirements including Trade Effluent and Consolidated Billing. Unlike other Retailers, we are wholly independent and have an excellent track record of working proactively with Network Owners to give our customers the best service at the fairest price.