And the winner is...

Green Energy UK Crowned Customer Kings, Winner of Winners 2010

Following an exhaustive judging process that drew on the expertise of Simon Nixon, founder of online price comparison site Moneysupermarket and SimonSeeks.com,  Real Business’ Charles Orton-Jones, Tricia Philips, business, careers and finance editor for The Daily Mirror, and Cisco’s own David Critchley, Director  of UK SME and Commercial division, the winners of Customer Kings 2010 have been decided.

The award was fiercely contested, but it was decided that the winner of winners for Customer Kings 2010 is Green Energy UK (www.greenenergy.uk.com)

Green Energy UK is a green energy supplier founded on the ethos of supplying “green and renewable electricity to homes and businesses that want to make a difference”. The Customer Kings judges were extremely impressed with the Green Energy UK entry and thought that the company’s efforts both in environmental preservation and customer focus were extremely praiseworthy.

The judging panel felt that Green Energy UK had taken a number of measures in focusing their customer service; most notably:

  • Giving away up to half of the company to the customers. The first 100,000 customers to join Green Energy UK receive 400 shares in the company
  • Green Energy UK was the first utilities company to offer a hybrid tariff as well as a pure renewable tariff, offering customers a choice depending on their budget
  • Green Energy UK runs regular “health checks”, contacting customers to encourage them to send regular meter readings. This can even be done via text message of MMS picture message from a mobile phone
  • An online customer area enables customers to view their meter readings along with current and previous bills while giving advice on reducing their energy use, reduced energy consumption targets for next year and progression graphs to make sure that customers are heading in the right direction
  • Every customer speaks to a real person rather than automated phone systems. This two-way relationship is echoed by Green Energy UK’s bi-yearly customer survey and encouraging regular feedback through customer newsletters

Commenting on the achievements of Green Energy UK, Cisco’s David Critchley said:

“Green Energy UK has focused all efforts on putting their customers first and they are clearly paying off. By creating a subtle blend of technological innovation and more traditional customer service methods, the company has built strong customer relationships through regular contact with each of their customers, all supported by a clear incentive scheme. It’s really encouraging to see that such a successful company has made its customers the focus of its business.”

Winners and highly commended

For a full list of all Customer Kings 2010 and those entries that were highly commended, download the Real Business magazine supplement here

Customer Kings research

To find out what 1,000 UK SMEs had to say about the economy, their hopes and fears for 2010 and more, please download the Customer Kings 2010 research report here

The shortlist

To see all of the entries to this year’s Customer Kings awards that qualified for the final shortlist, click here

CUSTOMER KINGS 2010 - THE SHORTLIST

CUSTOMER KINGS 2010 - THE SHORTLIST

The judges have ruled...

Stage one of the judging for this year’s Customer Kings has come to an end. The judges, Simon Nixon, founder of online price comparison site Moneysupermarket 'and SimonSeeks.com, Cisco’s David Critchley, Real Business’ Charles Orton-Jones and, Tricia Philips, business, careers and finance editor for The Daily Mirror each gave their views who they felt were the strongest entries.