Nell, Brightmere Energy's new digital assistant, has gone live on webchat and in the supplier's app. Launched on 20 October, the service is intended to answer common account questions outside as well as during staffed hours. Customers can ask about balances, payment dates, meter readings and moving home.
Brightmere presents the assistant as another route to service rather than a replacement for every conversation. Its customer information says people can ask for an adviser when a question needs investigation or personal attention. The launch is part of the company's broader investment in customer-service technology.
Chief Technology Officer Kwame Asante said Nell was designed to handle straightforward requests and make handovers clear when somebody needed a person. Asked how Brightmere would judge its progress, a spokesperson said the company would review customer use, the quality of answers and how conversations moved between digital help and advisers.
The company did not publish a resolution rate with the launch. That leaves a gap between the list of tasks Nell is intended to support and evidence of what customers experience in practice. For now, households have the service itself and the company's description of its limits to work from.
Digital service consultant Jonah Larkstone said an assistant could be useful without being able to deal with every request. 'There is nothing inherently wrong with a system saying it cannot do something,' he said. 'The frustrating experience is being sent back to the beginning, or being offered the same answer after you have explained why it does not fit.'
Larkstone, who is not working on Brightmere's programme, said suppliers should look at completed journeys rather than isolated exchanges. He described a balance question as different from a dispute about how that balance had arisen. The same short opening message could lead to either, depending on the account behind it.
Brightmere said customers would be told they were speaking to a digital assistant. It also said conversations could be reviewed to improve the service. Asked about sensitive circumstances, the spokesperson said advisers remained available where the situation needed individual consideration and customers could request a person.
The launch follows the arrival of automated call notes for Brightmere advisers at Filton. ECSU has asked questions about how new technology will change work, while management has said its tools are intended to support staff. Brightmere has not announced a reduction in adviser roles as part of this week's launch.
Nell is now accessible through channels customers already use, which should make it easy for households to try. The harder question will come when somebody starts with an ordinary task and discovers that their account is less ordinary than the opening menu suggested. Larkstone said the handover in that moment was where he would begin looking.