Get to know Industrial & Commercial Wholesale Specialist, Michael Wilson, and find out what makes him a Castle Water Expert.

ManBio

  • Name Michael Wilson
  • Occupation Industrial & Commercial Wholesale Specialist
  • Ready to... put my knowledge into practice to provide support to my colleagues at Castle Water and our customers with any Wholesale issues they have.
  • Passionate about... helping customers raise and resolve issues with their Wholesaler, supporting continuous improvement at Castle Water, Italian food, Football (Heart of Midlothian) & binge-watching The US Office.
  • Unpopular opinion... Dwight Schrute is the best character in The US Office.
  • Guilty pleasure… Eastenders 100%.
  • You may be surprised to know…I have played the bagpipes at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo.
  • Ask me about… anything to do with Bilaterals and Wholesale.

Tell us about your role at Castle Water

I joined Castle Water in 2018 as part of the Crown Commercial Service team. I recently moved into my new role as the Industrial & Commercial Wholesale Specialist. I am here to provide support and pass on my knowledge to my colleagues in the Industrial & Commercial (I&C) team at Castle Water, as well as to provide vital training on this topic. I am also here to assist customers with any complex Wholesaler issues they have and ensure they are raised correctly with the relevant Wholesaler. I also ensure that all Wholesalers respond to us in a timely manner and that the work completed is correct. To sum it up, my role is to make it as easy as possible for my colleagues and Castle Water customers to raise any meter, supply, or leak issues they may have with their relevant Wholesaler.

Tell us more about the Bilateral process and what our customers can expect when we submit one on their behalf to the Wholesaler

I am here to help all our I&C customers with any issues that have been escalated to us, such as broken meters, “missing” meters, leaks & leak allowances, disconnections, and many other general queries, where we need the Wholesaler (who owns the water network) to carry out work or change data recorded in the central market systems (CMS). This is done by Castle Water submitting a “Bilateral” form on your behalf – a Bilateral is a formal service request in a prescribed format. It is my job to ensure we have submitted the correct Bilateral form containing the correct information to the Wholesaler, and that the Wholesaler fixes the issue promptly. If the time taken goes over the Service Level Agreement I am here to chase up the Wholesaler for answers on behalf of our customer.

Tell us about ongoing training for Castle Water employees?

At Castle Water, we offer a wide and varied range of training opportunities to our employees. These range from Excel, Time Management, and Business Writing courses to MBA Essentials courses with the London School of Economics. We are always identifying new training opportunities to help develop our workforce.  We are developing support for professional qualifications for some areas, for example in Finance, IT, and HR, and have a small cohort of managers progressing with MBA’s.

We also employ Customer Service, Business Administration, and IT Modern apprentices, helping them gain new skills and qualifications whilst working full time.  We are proud of our track record with Apprentices: 95% of our Apprentices remain in the business post-qualification, and in September 2020 we took on a further 10 Modern apprentices, all of whom are working well towards their qualification.

What is the easiest way customers can ensure their bill is up-to-date?

Submit regular meter readings on our website using the self-serve buttons or on MyAccount, our customer portal. Customers who sign up to MyAccount can access their account whenever they like and can submit meter readings as well as having the ability to view and download all their invoices.

How are you making a difference for Castle Water customers?

I work with each team to assist with complex queries in any way I can. No query is too big for us.

  • If a customer has a broken meter, we can raise this with the Wholesaler to repair it.
  • If a customer finds a leak, we can provide as much help as we can to get this fixed for them. You can find useful information on how to identify who is responsible for repairing the leak here. If it is the Wholesaler’s responsibility, we can raise this on the customers’ behalf to get the leak repaired.
  • We can submit leak allowances on customers’ behalf.
  • If a customer is requiring a disconnection, we can also raise this with the Wholesaler to carry out this work.

As well as the above, I provide refresher training to my colleagues in the I&C team. I am also here to ensure that Wholesalers action all issues within the allotted time scale and take relevant actions to ensure we get the correct response for our customers.

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