Tracey Jones

Your full name and job title:

Tracey Jones - Customer Vulnerability Community Advisor

Tell us a little bit about you:

I live at home with my husband, teenage daughter and two cats. I love spending time with family and friends and am kept very busy playing taxi to my daughter, who has a very full social calendar! I have a passion for musical theatre, going on holiday both in the UK & abroad and volunteer for my local Rainbow and Brownie Girl Guiding Group. I also enjoy being involved in charity work and have raised money over the years for many different charities.

What’s a typical day at work for you?

My role as Customer Vulnerability Promotions Advisor has evolved and adapted into something that means I can now support customers and organisations either face to face or virtually.

Through establishing new contacts and maintaining relationships with existing ones, such as Housing Associations, Debt Advice Agencies, Charitable organisation and DWP, I’m able to provide support via our “REACH communities together” programme. The REACH programme enables organisations to offer their clients and service users advice on ways to save money on their water bills, clear arrears and obtain practical support via our Priority Service Register.

I also support our customers directly at community support groups, Foodbanks, Job centres etc. and call referrals.

What do you think makes you good at your job?

I have a passion for helping customers. I love to build relationships with customers and colleagues from other organisations and get real job satisfaction from knowing I’ve made a difference to someone’s life or situation.

Tell us about your proudest achievement at work:

There are so many times when I’ve been able to help a customer and provide them with support, which has then eased some of their concerns and financial pressure

One particular example was in the run up to Christmas, a customer had recently lost his wife and had a young family. The customer was struggling financially and had some arrears on his account. He was on our standard rateable value charges - I was able to apply our HelpU tariff to his account which reduced his ongoing charges and applied our Customer Assistance Fund to address his arrears. His final words to me were “Thank you, you saved Christmas”