Utility complaint management that answers every complaint inside the regulator's clock
Every complaint investigated, answered and closed inside the clock.
See one case, screen by screen ↓Complaints reach a utility by phone, email, letter, web form, social media and as referrals from the ombudsman. Each one starts a regulatory clock: in energy, eight weeks to a final response or a deadlock letter before the customer can go to the ombudsman; in water, a full written reply within 10 working days or a guaranteed payment. Today the contact is logged by hand, if it is recognised as a complaint at all, and the clock lives in a spreadsheet. Breaches surface when the customer goes to the ombudsman.
Each complaint is then investigated on its own. The handler opens the billing system, the meter-read history, the call recording and the notes, rebuilds the story and writes the letter from scratch. When one billing rule is wrong, the same fault is investigated forty times, the customers chase in the meantime, and too many letters do not tell them correctly that they can go to the ombudsman.
Estimated split for a typical billing complaint, in calendar days on the clock, handled by hand and with the solution.
Six specialist agents classify, link, investigate, price and draft every complaint; the handler signs every letter.
Lumina Utilities supplies electricity and water. On Thu 20 Aug 2026 Aileen Marsh of Harrowmere calls about her August bill of £684.20, built on an estimate. Today is Tue 13 Oct: her eight-week clock has 2 days left. Here is what happens, screen by screen, in the working solution.
Hannah starts with whatever is closest to its clock. The wall lays out 148 open complaints in six bands — past the clock 3, 0–2 days 7, 3–7 days 16, 8–14 days 27, 15–28 days 41, 29–56 days 54 — with the overdue edge on the left. Each case is coloured by the cause behind it, and the strip above lists the eight causes with their counts: Bills stay on estimates 41, Promised call-backs not made 23, Outage notices arrive late 17.
“148 open complaints, laid out by days left on the regulator’s clock · overdue on the left”
Incoming shows 12 contacts since 07:00 from phone, email, letter, web form, social and referrals; 9 are complaints. A post to @LuminaUtilities about no water pressure on Ashgrove Rd starts a 10-working-day clock. An ombudsman referral about a move-out bill gets its case file due in 5 working days. Arthur Penrose, 84, writes that the outage notice came after the power went off and his oxygen machine stopped: complaint, high, priority support.
“Read by the complaint classifier · every verdict can be overruled” — it never decides a customer is not vulnerable.
Hannah chooses Bills stay on estimates. Its 41 cases light up across the wall, from the 0–2 day band to the 29–56 day band. The banner explains the cause Voice of Customer found in 312 voices: customer meter readings set aside, so bills stay on estimates. Its owner, Gwen Atherton in Billing Operations, changed the read check on 9 Oct and rebilled all 41 accounts on 12 Oct.
“41 open complaints share one cause: customer meter readings set aside, so bills stay on estimates.”
Hannah presses Resolve on UC-26-08814. The investigator pulls the call of 20 Aug, finds three readings set aside and a call-back promised for 11 Sep that was never made, and confirms rebill RB-26-30418: £684.20 to £501.74. The redress calculator prices £262.46, within Hannah's £300. The letter writer drafts the final response, and the letter checker passes it 5 of 5.
The letter opens with her own words: “I sent you a photo of the meter in March, in April and again in June, and every time the bill still says estimated.”
The case shows the clock — day 54 of 56, due Thu 15 Oct — and every contact since March: three app readings set aside, the £684.20 bill, the call that raised the complaint, the call-back not made, her email of 21 Sep, “Nobody called me back.”, and the holding letter of 22 Sep. The cause matcher linked the case to CH-7F21 on 4 matching facts.
“4 facts match: estimated bills · app readings · set aside · lower than estimate”
The call with Jordan Pike plays from 02:14, where she says it. The meter reads for E19K 044712 show 18,204 on 2 Mar, 18,391 on 3 Apr and 18,702 on 4 Jun, each set aside at 21%, 19% and 17% below the estimate. Rebilled on her read of 18,941: 699 kWh too many × 24.86p = £173.77 + 5% VAT = £182.46 back to her.
Redress: £182.46 rebill credit + £50.00 goodwill for a reading set aside + £30.00 for the call-back not made = £262.46, paid within 5 working days.
Nine letters are waiting, and two need a look. A deadlock letter to Gareth Kitching was drafted without telling him about the ombudsman; the letter checker added the paragraph and holds it for Hannah. Maureen Hollins's redress of £420.00 is above Hannah's £300, so it goes to Tomasz Wren. Hannah signs the 7 that pass every check.
“The draft did not tell the customer about the ombudsman. The letter checker added the paragraph; look at it before you sign.”
Causes lists the eight problems Voice of Customer found, each with its voices, owner and fix status. For CH-7F21 the fix is done: a reading more than 15% below the estimate used to be set aside without telling the customer. From 9 Oct it goes to a person, and the customer hears within 2 working days. 2,870 readings had been set aside since 1 Feb.
“Resolve all 41 together — one letter per customer, each with that customer’s own words, readings and rebill. Tomasz Wren signs the batch.”
The investigator verifies the rebill on every account and finds each customer's words in their call, email, web form or post. The letter writer drafts 41 letters, every one passing 5 of 5 checks, with £7,074.69 of redress and none above the handler's £300. The batch goes to Tomasz for one signature, and one fix closes 41 complaints.
“Tomasz Wren signed · 41 letters sent · 41 complaints closed by one fix”
Rafael sees deadlines for the next 14 days, the 3 cases past the clock and why, and complaints answered inside the clock by quarter: 89.4% in Q1, 91.2% in Q2, 96.5% in Q3 and 98.8% in Q4 so far. The clock keeper drafts the Q3 return: 1,284 complaints received, 1,239 resolved or deadlocked within 8 weeks, 37 referred to the ombudsman, £71,340 redress paid.
“Live from 1 Jul 2026. Target: 100% answered inside the clock.”
The same complaints, seen by the five people who own them — what their week looked like, and what it looks like now.
Six specialist agents classify, link, investigate, price and draft every complaint; the handler signs every letter.
Reads every contact on every channel, decides whether it is a complaint — any expression of dissatisfaction with the service — sets category, severity and any priority-support need it can see in the words, and starts the clock at the time the contact reached the utility. It explains every verdict in one sentence a person can check.
Compares each complaint with the open causes from Voice of Customer and links it when at least 2 facts match — service, the thing that failed, how it failed, place. Otherwise it leaves the complaint unlinked and checks again as new voices arrive.
Gathers the bill history, the meter reads and how each was used, the call recordings and transcripts, tasks and notes. It finds the customer's own words and records the time or record number for every fact.
Takes the rebill difference from Billing Operations, adds goodwill and guaranteed payments under redress policy RP-3, and marks who may approve the total.
Drafts the final response, holding or deadlock letter in plain words: what went wrong, what was found, what has been put right and what is paid, quoting the customer and citing every fact. The letter checker then runs five checks — evidence cited, ombudsman signposted, redress within authority, plain words, the right clock and letter type.
Keeps each complaint's clock from its receipt time, warns the handler at 7 days and the team lead at 2, forecasts deadlines for the next 14 days and builds the quarterly complaints return from the case record.
Signs every letter; team lead signs batches. The agents propose; a named person decides.
Ask in plain words. Every answer cites its source — the case record, the call, the billing and meter data or the complaints code.
Why is Aileen Marsh’s bill wrong?
Her three app readings, on 2 Mar, 3 Apr and 4 Jun, were set aside because each was more than 15% below the estimate, so the August bill of £684.20 used an estimate of 19,640. On the call at 02:14 she says she sent a photo three times. The rebill on her own read is £501.74, £182.46 less. With £50 goodwill and £30 for the missed call-back, the letter offers £262.46. It is due Thu 15 Oct.
Which complaints breach this week?
3 are already past the clock and 23 more are due within 7 days. Of the 7 due in the next 2 days, every one has a letter drafted and waiting for your signature, Aileen Marsh’s among them.
What would fixing estimated bills close?
41 open complaints share that cause, out of 312 voices about it in 90 days. Billing Operations changed the read check on 9 Oct and rebilled all 41 accounts on 12 Oct. Resolving them together would send 41 letters with £7,074.69 of redress, none above your £300.
Does every letter tell customers about the ombudsman?
Not yet. One deadlock letter in today’s list was drafted without it; the letter checker added the paragraph and is holding it for you. Every final response and deadlock letter must say the customer can go to the ombudsman free of charge within 12 months.
13 screens from the working solution, on its sample data. Pick one to see it large.
Clocks, redress authority, letter rules and causes are settings. Changes are versioned and need regulatory compliance to approve.
| Setting | Default | Choose from |
|---|---|---|
| Energy · final response or deadlock | 56 | calendar days from receipt |
| Water · written reply | 10 | working days · £20 paid if missed |
| First warning · red alert to the team lead | 7 · 2 | days left on the clock |
| Clock starts at receipt on every channel | On | including social media |
| Redress authority | £300 · £1,000 | complaints handler signs alone up to £300; team lead up to £1,000; above that, the customer care manager |
| Ombudsman signposted in every final and deadlock letter | On | letter rule LR-4 |
| Plain words · languages | Reading age 11 · English, Welsh | holding letter at 4 weeks if not resolved |
| Link to a cause · resolve together | 2 facts · On | matching facts needed; resolve together needs a fix confirmed by its owner, and the team lead signs every batch |
Every figure is labelled: a target the solution is built to, an estimate, a typical published result, or a proven one.
“demo” = seen in the working solution, on its sample data · “target” = the design goal, measured in the live solution · “estimated” = our estimate · “typical” = published figures (E Source repeat-contact research — $9.54 a repeat call, $2.3M+ a year at large utilities, 90% satisfied when resolved first time against 59% after a call-back; Ofgem decision, 2024 — £378,512 paid to 1,395 customers plus £2M to the redress fund for complaint delays). Regulatory context: Gas and Electricity (Consumer Complaints Handling Standards) Regulations 2008 (8 weeks); the water Guaranteed Standards Scheme (10 working days, £20). Lumina Utilities and the people, places, accounts and records named on this page are fictional — characters and sample data in the working solution.
Software that takes a customer complaint at an electricity or water utility from the first contact, on any channel, to a signed final response inside the regulator's clock. Utility Complaint Management adds six agents that log each complaint, link it to its cause, investigate the bill, meter reads and call, price the redress and draft a cited letter. The complaints handler signs every letter.
The investigator reads the bill history, the meter reads and how each was used, call recordings and transcripts, tasks and notes, and records the time or record number for every fact. It has read-only access and never changes a bill or an account; rebills stay with Billing Operations.
The clock starts when the contact reaches you, on any channel including social media. The clock keeper places every case on the wall by days left, warns the handler at 7 days and the team lead at 2, and forecasts deadlines for 14 days. Water written replies run on their own 10-working-day clock. No agent can extend or pause a clock.
Yes. Letter rule LR-4 tells the letter writer to say the customer can go to the ombudsman free of charge within 12 months, and the letter checker tests every letter for it. In the sample, a deadlock letter drafted without it was caught, the paragraph added and the letter held for the handler to read.
The cause matcher links each complaint to the cause Voice of Customer found behind it. When the cause's owner confirms the fix, every case it caused is answered together — each letter with that customer's own words, readings and rebill — and the team lead signs the batch. In the sample, one billing fix closed 41 complaints.
The complaint classifier flags any priority-support need it can see in the words, such as medical equipment or young children at home, and a handler calls within 1 working day. It never decides a customer is not vulnerable, and never discards a contact.
Yes. Agents never send a letter, pay, change a bill or extend a clock. The handler signs every letter, redress above £300 goes to the team lead, every verdict can be overruled, and changes to clocks and letter rules need regulatory compliance to approve.
The Agentic Solution Engine builds and deploys it from your requirements and documents — your complaints code, letter templates, redress policy and a sample of past complaints — and it goes live once every quality gate has passed. We will walk you through it on your own complaints first.
A bilingual inbox turned into resolved cases, with no re-keying.
1-min demoContact Center Agent AssistCited answers while the customer is still on the line.
1-min demoMove-In Move-Out ProcessingEvery final bill on a real meter read, and the deposit back in 2 days, not 3 weeks.
1-min demoWe'll run Utility Complaint Management on a sample of your own closed complaints.