Customer Liaison Performance Analyst
E.ON

Dan S

0:00:02 My name’s Dan S. I’m a performance improvement analyst for Central Networks. I look at the customer liaison activity, which is the complaints side of the business and looking at what can be improved, looking at processes and procedures etc to see how we can give a better customer service to the customers.

00:00:16 Usually the most common one is people off-supply. You know, they’ll call in and say, ‘why are we off supply?’ Complaining why they were off-supply and the reasons behind it. There are various other complaints that come in as well. However, most are people off-supply because that’s what Central Networks is about: keeping people on-supply.

00:00:34 I guess I was just like any other kid at school. You know, just wanted to not go to school and enjoy playing football. I always had dreams of being a footballer when I’m older. Never thought I’d ever be working in an office back in the day because I was quite interested in the leisure industry and I did a diploma in leisure studies because that was the avenue I wanted to go in.

00:00:53 The particular turning point was when I went travelling to New Zealand because I was quite happy, you know, I was a bar manager at that point and I was quite happy working in the leisure industry and I could my career going in, managing maybe a pub one day or something like that. And going to New Zealand really changed my outlook on life and made me realise there’s a lot more out there and, you know, you don’t have to concentrate on the one avenue that you’re doing. If you’re unhappy in your job, there’s plenty more ways that you can go.

00:01:19 Just to pay for work while I was over there, I ended up working in an office and that was the first time I’d ever worked in an office and I enjoyed it. it was a job that I applied for when I was out there for the sole reason that I needed money. No other reason behind it. So I took it and, you know, that has put my career where it is today. So I do look back, I wouldn’t be here today if I didn’t go travelling back in 1997.

00:01:44 When I came back to England, to get a job I just took a normal office job and progressed through there. It’s always been office-based. There’s been a section in my career where I’ve been out in the field and I wanted to learn about the operational activity that Central Networks is involved in, and I did that on purpose. So when I can progress to a managerial position, I would have the knowledge of the network and the operational side of the activity as well.

00:02:08 I think there’s a lot of people in the world who go to a job they don’t enjoy and they do it because they have to earn money. And to go to a job that I thoroughly enjoy, you know, I do class myself as quite lucky to have this position.

00:02:20 In five years time, I’d like to see myself probably in the next step up in the management ladder that I am now, wherever that may be. I mean I am quite driven so that I’m in the avenue now of management and the next step up would be probably the senior management role. That’s where I’d look to be in about five years time.

00:02:39 Yeah. I think having a good work-life balance is really important in the role that I do because on a daily basis you are dealing with customers who are complaining. So to be able to leave work at work and go home and enjoy the activities that you enjoy doing is really important. I’m a very close to my friends and I find that’s very important in my life and in many people’s lives so. Keeping in touch, going out, seeing them, as well as doing things with my partner, you know. They’re the kind of things I enjoy doing.

00:03:08 I do think my father was quite inspirational on certain things, especially when it comes to work, because he had a, you know, a decent job when we were growing up, earned quite a bit of money and then he got made redundant. And just to earn ends meet, he was working in a temping job in a factory and I look at my father and I do look at that and think, you know, he did what he had to do for us and I find that quite inspirational.

00:03:35 I think I’ve learnt there’s a lot of diversity in life and, you know, you need to open your eyes and really see where you want to go, and not to just kind of move around slowly in life, you know. Take life in your hands and progress and make life what you want it to be.

ENDS