Executive summary

British Gas is the UK’s leading energy supplier, serving more than 11 million homes and one million UK businesses. When British Gas ventured into the world of social media, they initially lacked a clear direction, guidance, and understanding of how to operate. But, they knew they wanted to rebuild trust in their brand by creating a helpful social customer care organization that facilitated meaningful conversations. To accomplish their goals, they onboarded Khoros Care.

British Gas didn’t initially realize the massive opportunity waiting for them — or the flood of customers who would engage with them — on social. They found that 74% of customers contacting them on social had already contacted British Gas through another service channel and, unfortunately, they had been failed by that channel. British Gas had to make sure that when customers came through social, the social team was the final contact. They knew they needed a scalable social care solution that could help them with both customer care and engaging key influencers. In the beginning, British Gas only had one person at a time responding to customers on social media for just six hours a day, and only if the call center was not busy or they weren’t needed on webchat. But it wasn’t enough, so British Gas onboarded Khoros Care to upgrade their social care efforts. Today, British Gas has a team of 16 full-time employees who respond to customers on social from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., seven days a week.

Khoros Care helped British Gas accomplish their goals of an effective social care team that can respond to customers and engage with key influencers. They aim to have fewer than 10% of contacts transferred out of the social team.

“We found that our customers don’t want an immediate response, they want the right response. Knowing this allows us to take the time to make sure we do everything for the customer.”

— Louisa Martin
Social Media Manager-Communities, British Gas