The adviser remembers when a straightforward meter reading could sit between two difficult calls. There was work to do, but also a familiar task that ended cleanly. Now, the Bristol employee says, more of those requests are completed elsewhere. The next person on the phone is often someone who has already tried another route.
'They aren't starting from the beginning,' the adviser said. 'They are starting from being fed up.' The employee, who asked not to be named because they feared consequences at work, described moving between billing disputes, payment concerns and customers unable to explain why earlier contact had not resolved their problem.
Brightmere's digital assistant Nell handles questions through webchat and the app. The supplier has also introduced tools that produce call notes and assess aspects of conversations. Advisers interviewed for this article did not dismiss the technology as a whole. One said automatic notes meant less typing and more attention to the person speaking.
That employee said the hardest part came when a conversation needed patience but their own screen still presented measures of performance. Another described searching for words that would sound caring to a person while wondering how the software would read them. These are staff accounts, not an independent test of the scoring system.
The Energy and Customer Services Union has challenged the use of automated empathy scores. Regional officer Maxine Doyle said members wanted to know how scores were produced and how they could dispute an assessment. 'People can accept feedback on a conversation,' she said. 'They need to be able to understand the feedback and answer it.'
Brightmere said technology supported colleagues and did not remove the need for managers' judgement. A spokesperson said advisers could raise questions about their scores and that the company was discussing concerns with the union. The supplier did not provide the scoring method or an example showing how a difficult call would be assessed.
The advisers' accounts differ in other ways. One said the new tools were useful but implementation had felt hurried. Another thought more consistent review could challenge weak service that had previously been missed. Both wanted difficult customer circumstances to be understood when a conversation took longer or ended without an immediate answer.
Last month's incorrect Nell messages about payment plans added another kind of conversation: explaining what the company would honour after its assistant had offered misleading reassurance. An adviser described reading the previous exchange before speaking. 'The notes help,' the employee said. 'But the person still needs you to listen to what that answer meant to them.'