Get to know Tamzin Hall, Head of Strategic Partnerships, and find out what makes her a Castle Water Expert.
Bio
- Name Tamzin Hall
- Occupation Head of Strategic Partnerships at Castle Water
- Ready to... speak to anyone. I love talking, building relationships, building connections, and listening to anyone who has an idea, query, problem, or solution! I believe communicating with customers, potential customers and colleagues help to make the world a better place.
- Passionate about... happiness; everyone deserves to be happy and to live a fulfilled life both at work and at home. I try to spread happiness (and laughter) wherever I go.
- Unpopular opinion... non-fiction books are the absolute best read! I believe they have been created to have notes and scribbles written on them by the reader (there are lots of people who disagree, including my husband!!).
- Guilty pleasure… buying new books! During the lockdown, my amazon driver has become my new best friend (although I cannot wait to walk into Waterstones again!).
- You may be surprised to know… I love playing the Saxophone. However, I am not sure my neighbours are that keen! (I am not very good at it!).
- Ask me about… Working with us, staying with us, how we can support you, how we can work with you, how you can switch to us, specialised support for multi-national and large organisations, your invoice, sustainability, additional services, and anything else water related!
Tell us about your role at Castle Water
I honestly believe I have the best job at Castle Water – I get to speak to people all day, every day! My days are full of meetings, phone calls, and conversations. Pre Covid-19, my meetings were face to face but thankfully due to the internet and video link, I can still get to see my clients and colleagues. Supporting customers with anything water-related; from identifying areas that need their attention, such as potential leaks, to supporting them with additional services and identifying opportunities and business development, as well as providing advice and help when needed. I love meeting new people and through speaking to my regular customers & partners, attending networking events, and speaking to potential customer’s, I get to speak to so many different people throughout my working week.
What are the most common reasons businesses have for switching water retailer?
Each customer type will have their own reasons for switching.
Most multi-site companies have multiple water suppliers and are looking to align and consolidate to just one supplier to enable them to save time and money on administration and bill validation. This in turn allows the customer to obtain data across their site portfolio, which supports them with their environmental and sustainability goals. By having all their consumption on one consolidated invoice, they can identify leakages easier, review their usage, and, with support from their Castle Water Commercial Relationship Manager, put a plan in place to reduce their water consumption.
I find a lot of Trade Effluent customers reach out to switch to us because of our industry knowledge and billing capability. We have extensive experience in supporting and working alongside trade effluent customers, providing expert help and advice, and ensuring their TE needs are met seamlessly. Customers within sectors talk to each other, and we are in a fortunate position to support, advise, and achieve results for our customers.
For SME’s, they are usually looking to switch if they had had a bad experience elsewhere; or if they have received a recommendation (I love receiving those calls!). Some SME customers will historically be billed by two retailers; one for wastewater and one for water. Again, customers want to consolidate two supplies into one – receiving and paying one invoice is much easier than two. Castle Water can do that.
Throughout my conversations with customers, I do find a common theme that is so important to every customer. Communication. A lack of communication is a big concern to customers and one of the main reasons they look elsewhere. Being communicated with, listened to, and made to feel valued through communication is paramount to their decision making when considering who to work with in the future. We are so lucky we can offer customers a range of communication channels into Castle Water, through our online chat facility, UK based telephone staff, and all the amazing staff we have across the company.
Why should businesses switch to Castle Water?
Customers are centric to everything we do. The support, transparency, dedication of the team, commitment to strive to be the best, combined with our industry knowledge means we work with our customers in effective ways. Our expertise with Trade Effluent, consolidated billing and market codes (to name a few), combined with our billing platforms and our customer portal, MyAccount, all enable customers to work with us quickly, easily, and efficiently, allowing them to focus their attention on other areas of their business.
Customers are looking for a retailer who is easy to do business with, one whose values align with transparency and honesty. Our MyAccount portal, instant webchat, blogs, and website all shine with these values – and are just some of the reasons customers choose Castle Water as their retailer. We are not precious – we share industry knowledge, help, and advice with anyone, even if their chosen retailer is someone else.
In simple terms, our customers are at the centre of all we do, we are honest and transparent and are committed to supporting and helping customers with all their water, waste and trade effluent needs.
What would you say are the main benefits Castle Water offers customers?
We provide our customers with a transparent, honest, and dedicated service. We listen to our customers and are committed to providing them with the service they deserve and easy platforms for them to service their accounts with clear transparent invoicing. Knowledge and expertise are available through our website, and information on tap when they need it. We have a fabulous team of staff, all of whom have our customers at the heart of all we do.
The main benefits Castle Water offers our customers are our knowledge, our staff, our invoicing, our platforms such as the online chat facility, and our commitment to our customers.
How are you making a difference for Castle Water customers?
I offer customers, potential customers, and partners the opportunity to discuss anything water-related in an open forum. I provide support, advice, and collaborations with the right people across the business and throughout our relationships with our external partners. Supporting customers to understand their bills, ensuring queries are resolved as quickly as possible, identifying and building relationships with new customers, and providing solutions to their needs.
Part of my role is also to identify and help customers move across to Castle Water, helping them to save time and money by working with us. My knowledge of the market, knowing how we can support customers and understanding what sets us aside from our competitors allows me to make a difference to our customers.
With many businesses 'working from home', how have you adapted your approach to ensure high a level of service to Castle Water customers?
Flexibility and a greater understanding that customers are also working from home and nothing is what it was. Being understanding when children appear in the background, dogs bark, cats jump in front of the screen, or doorbell’s ring has been central to successful homeworking over the past 10 months. Having a conversation with the 4-year-old son of an MD client of mine, whilst embarrassing at first for him, was so much fun for me! Letting the customer know that it is OK to have children in the background, and if they want to say hi to the person their daddy is speaking to, why not!
Compassion, empathy, and patience are three of the main approaches I have used this year. Finding solutions to abstract situations and simply supporting people through this time is key. Understanding why processes take longer, why meetings constantly moved, and how water-related concerns have shifted is paramount to continuing to provide a high level of service. Here at Castle Water, we have been extremely lucky in what we offer our customers.
Throughout this past year, we have shown how agile and flexible we are, our website is updated regularly with market knowledge, help, and advice, we can send invoices via email, we have an online chat facility, we have an amazing MyAccount portal. We make it easy for customers to pay us and do business with us. Supporting customers with their water needs and helping to ensure they have one less thing to worry about has been on the top of my agenda.
How do you ensure a tailored approach to Castle Water customers?
Every customer is unique, every business is unique and everyone we communicate with within a business is unique. Understanding and viewing each account and customer as an individual but at the same time being able to draw on industry knowledge, knowledge of the customer and their sector is a great starting point.
I find as I navigate through my working week, every conversation is different, and by going into conversations with no preconceptions, yet fully prepared the conversation is a smooth and engaging experience with the right outcome for all parties. I find by asking lots of questions and listening to the answers, as well as the answers behind the answers, I can tailor my response accordingly.
Castle Water has so many options to help and assist our customers, finding the right solution from our toolkit of knowledge and support is easier when we really know the customer and their needs. I am thankful I love asking questions, it makes the process seamless.
What advice would you offer businesses that are keen to improve water efficiency to achieve sustainability goals?
Take regular meter reads, know your consumption, know your sites, know your individual sites water needs. Reach out if you are keen to improve water efficiency; we work with some amazing partners who offer innovative and transformational water efficiency services.
Empowering your customers to be water efficient is an effective route for businesses to achieve sustainability goals. It also shows your customers your commitment to sustainability, talking about it is one thing, but customers love to see the proof of what you are saying. An example of this can be seen via notices in hotel rooms. The signs that ask customers to reuse towels, rather than expecting clean ones every day. This empowers customers to reuse towels, save water, electricity, help the environment, and has a positive impact on the hotel’s sustainability goals.
