"I joined British Gas in March of 2002. My first job was taking calls from customers who were moving home and needed to sort out their energy accounts. Luckily I'd had really good training to help me cope. I quickly made friends with people in my team, and really enjoyed what I was doing. My manager made sure he was always on hand if I needed help, especially in my early weeks.
"I was really impressed that everyone gets their own
development plan at British Gas. It's the first job I've ever
had where my manager takes time to talk to me regularly about
how I'm doing. There seems to be an image out there of
call-centre work being a dead end. And I'm sure some
companies are like that. But at British Gas I've found
everyone to be really keen to help me get on.
In fact just 6 months after starting I got promoted. My manager
even helped me with my application for the new job. I was given
the chance to work coaching new starters to the company, easing
them into the business.
As well as looking after the teams day to day needs I helped
them develop really good customer service skills. We do this
by listening to a selection of calls people take and giving
helpful and encouraging feedback.
I had the chance to pass on the things I had learned to the
new starters and really understood some of the challenges the
new people were facing. A new job is always stressful, and
I was really pleased to be able to pass on some of the things
I'd learnt in my early days with the business.
British Gas has got lots of offices up and down the country.
After building up my coaching skills I was able to work on
a special project which meant I travelled around some of our
offices to give training to staff across the country. It was
really good fun, but hard work.
This really spurred me on, and I knew I wanted to work full
time in our training department. So I kept an eye on what jobs
were coming up, and in 2005 joined the training team full time.
We often introduce new products and services for customers.
My job as a trainer was to make sure that everyone had the
right information and skills to do their jobs. I had to really
understand our business and be able inspire and motivate the
staff I worked with.
Now I'm working with a team of specialists where we
concentrate on really helping to improve our customer service.
I'm still keen to progress further and know the business
will be right behind me.
As you can tell, I have always had lots of support and encouragement
during my time in the job. The six years have flown by and
I've enjoyed all the challenges! It really is a great
place to work and I'm happy that I have achieved so much
in the last 6 years. It's been hard work but rewarding
and lots of fun".
