News

BEING late once out of more than 9,000 appointments last year was a big deal for Guernsey Electricity.

The first missed appointment in more than two years meant the company fell just short in one of its guaranteed service standards – scoring 99.99% instead of the target 100%.

It was one of just three instances - out of more than 17,000 that were covered under the guaranteed standards in 2006 - where Guernsey Electricity did not meet its agreed performance target last year.

However managing director Ian Watson said the overall figures demonstrated that Guernsey Electricity was continuing to provide an excellent service to customers.

‘When you consider that we provide electricity around the clock, 365 days a year to more than 28,000 local homes and businesses, I think this clearly demonstrates what a consistently good job our staff are doing,’ said Mr Watson.

‘To have just three failures out of more than 17,000 is pretty good by anyone’s standards.’

Guernsey Electricity’s guaranteed service standards set out the company’s agreed response times for rectifying faults and responding to customer requests and enquiries, as well as performance criteria for other areas such as keeping customer appointments.

In its last financial year, which covered the 12 months to 31 March 2006, the company recorded a perfect record in all 12 guaranteed standards. Mr Watson said that is the level of service which all Guernsey Electricity staff were now aiming for.

‘Obviously where customers are concerned we are aiming for 100% all of the time. That is how high we have set the bar for ourselves,’ he said.

The Guaranteed standards mirror the performance criteria set by OFGEM, which regulates electricity suppliers in the UK, but with much tighter targets. A compensation payment is automatically triggered whenever one of these is not met.

As well as the missed appointment, on one occasion the company was unable to repair a service fuse within the stipulated three hours. As a result, the company achieved just over 99% success for this standard.

Ironically the third compensation payment arose after the company was late with one of these first two.

The company achieved a perfect 100% record in all of its other guaranteed service standards.

The company also has eight overall services standards, which do not trigger compensation payments but provide additional key performance indicators. In 2006, the company exceeded all its targets for all of these.