Each Octopus buyer will get a devoted assist crew. Meet the crew in our Leicester hub.
We all know how irritating it’s to be handed from individual to individual while you simply need assistance.
As an alternative of the same old maze of “please maintain whereas I switch you to somebody who would possibly really know one thing about this” we have created one thing fairly particular.
Once you swap to Octopus, you are given to a crew of vitality specialists (normally between 10-15 of them). Every crew is fully chargeable for a smaller group of shoppers, like a mini-business inside Octopus, with its personal ‘CEO’. Every with the coaching and instruments to deal with absolutely anything you want.
This implies while you name, you are not simply one other voice within the void, you are chatting with your crew.
Typically the identical pretty one who helped you final time.
To not toot our personal horn (after all, we’re not good) however the outcomes communicate for themselves. We are the UK’s most awarded vitality provider, with eight consecutive wins as Which? Beneficial Supplier of the Yr, a 4.8 star Trustpilot ranking, and a mean telephone wait time of round a minute.
Now, meet the superb Octopus buyer groups making all of it occur in Leicester.
Hello, I am Samsam from the advertising and marketing crew! This one’s private for me as a result of Leicester is the place my Octopus journey began, again once we have been nonetheless a scrappy startup crammed right into a tiny workplace. I had essentially the most fantastic time there earlier than ultimately transferring to different elements of the enterprise (Advertising and marketing and working the Octopus Vitality Equality Basis), and different elements of the world (Kenya, to be exact).
Leicester nonetheless holds such a particular place in my coronary heart, and in Octopus’s story. It is the place a few of our longest-serving legends acquired began, the place years-long friendships have been solid over Friday pub journeys, and the place that sensible startup vitality by some means nonetheless thrives regardless that the workplace now spans three flooring.
Becca, Elle and Brian are just some of the unimaginable individuals who make your expertise with Octopus particular.
Meet Becca, an Octopus OG
Becca’s been with Octopus for practically seven years, since August 2018, making her one of many longest-serving members of the Leicester workplace. She’s managed groups, coached specialists, helped arrange the Leicester gross sales crew, and earned the appropriate to inform new starters, “Again in my day…”
Most of us have been contemporary out of uni, full of massive concepts and idealism, and we simply wished to make folks’s days higher. It was chaotic and scrappy, however a lot enjoyable. We have been crammed right into a tiny room again then, and now the Leicester workplace takes up three flooring.
Becca
Some memorable buyer tales:
My favorite will all the time be an aged gentleman I supported early on. He had one of many first sensible meters and a few points with it. I used to talk with him weekly – generally simply to examine in. He’d all the time say, ‘Say hello to Becca for me.‘ I handed him over to my colleague Kay months in the past, and he nonetheless asks about me. He seems like our buyer.
Becca
We helped a mum whose daughter has complicated well being wants. We discovered a personalised vitality and payments setup that higher suited them and saved them fairly a bit of cash. These sorts of inventive, human-focused options are what I really like about working right here.
Enjoyable truth: All assembly rooms are named after Leicester landmarks or locations that have been particular within the early days. One’s even named after a pub the place the crew used to collect each Friday! One other room is known as after Lewis the canine, who used to go to every single day together with his proprietor. There’s additionally a bot on the corporate slack that shares a photograph of Lewis every time somebody provides him a shoutout on-line.
Meet Elle, Saver of Christmas and Radiator Professional
Elle joined in August 2022, and now she focuses on supporting Octopus’s most susceptible clients.
I really like making an actual distinction. One name that is all the time stayed with me was simply earlier than Christmas. A buyer was in severe debt, round three and a half grand, and he was dealing with court docket. His circumstances have been exceptionally sophisticated and troublesome, so I spoke with our social crew and we agreed to write down it off. I acquired to name him and inform him. He stated, ‘You have saved Christmas.’ That caught with me.
Not each name is kind of so severe although:
One name become a full-on radiator design session. The client requested whether or not to get black or white ones, curved or edged. She despatched me hyperlinks to web sites and every part. I acquired correctly into it. My crew heard the entire thing and known as me Radiator for every week.
I spoke to a blind buyer whose utilization was unusually excessive. It turned out he stored pigeons in reminiscence of his late brother, they usually wanted heating. I by no means anticipated to study a lot about pigeon racing, nevertheless it was fascinating!
Enjoyable truth: Elle’s been to the Galápagos Islands; “it’s so unspoiled, with palm bushes, blossoms, and tall cacti. It is surreal.”
Brian joined in March 2022 and has been closely concerned in studying and growth, coaching new starters and serving to signify Octopus tradition when the crew took over Shell Vitality.
It is most likely the longest I’ve ever been at one job, perhaps as a result of it is one of the best job I’ve had. Earlier than Octopus, I used to be a cinema supervisor combating to make workers really feel valued in a tricky surroundings. Coming right here and feeling genuinely valued was eye-opening.
A buyer as soon as known as after a cost left him stranded whereas his youngster was in hospital. He wanted the cash to remain close by, so we acquired it again to him that very same day. Once we get conditions like thus, it’s not about vitality or payments, it’s about being human.
‘A giant a part of our Octopus tradition is ensuring everybody feels they are often themselves and ask for assist with out worry. We’ve neurodivergent folks on our groups, and creating an inclusive, heat area is essential
Enjoyable truth: Brian is six foot 9! Additionally, he received the workplace Mario Kart match.
Folks go all out for birthdays, with balloons, playing cards signed by everybody. There’s an actual neighborhood really feel. It is relaxed however centered. Folks love amusing, and when it is time to pull collectively, we do.
Elle
A few of my closest pals are fellow crew leaders or ops managers right here in Leicester. We hang around outdoors of labor, play D&D on Fridays, recreation collectively, or simply chat. I carpool with one in all my greatest pals who’s an ops supervisor right here. It is a actually particular group.
Becca
Folks typically hang around after work on Fridays, particularly after household dinner. We have even had inter-office soccer video games with the opposite workplaces.
Brian
The Leicester workplace is splendidly numerous, celebrating completely different cultures and faiths collectively. There’s sip and paint periods, a month-to-month ebook membership, soccer matches, wellbeing bake gross sales that smash their targets, and even the occasional Mario Kart match.
The partitions characteristic murals with hidden work of workplace pets, and there is a view of the previous Leicester workplace painted on one wall, a candy nod to how far they’ve come.
I have been right here practically seven years, and I get to be that one who tells new starters, ‘Again in my day…’ And really feel such delight at how we have grown, and what number of clients we assist. I go searching now and assume, wow, look how far we have come.”
Becca
