How customer and stakeholder insights turn industry feedback into action and shapes service delivery

At its best, customer and stakeholder engagement is a source of insight, innovation and progress. By listening and understanding what matters most to customers and stakeholders, organisations can strengthen services, set clearer priorities and make decisions that create lasting value.

For Xoserve, that approach has developed over a number of years. Since around 2018, we have moved from being predominantly process-led towards a more customer-centred model, building a deeper understanding of different customer groups, their roles in the gas market and the pressures they face. The results are reflected in customer satisfaction. 

Earlier this year, Xoserve achieved its highest customer satisfaction score to date, at 84.2, following sustained improvement in recent years. The result demonstrates the progress made in putting customer understanding and engagement more firmly at the heart of service delivery. 

How we gather and use insight 

Xoserve gathers customer and stakeholder insight through several complementary channels, including annual and quarterly satisfaction surveys, day-to-day customer engagement and consultation built into strategic initiatives, business planning and the change lifecycle. Together, these channels provide both structured evidence and a continuous view of customer priorities and experience. 

Where insight relates to a particular service, it can be shared with the relevant service manager and incorporated into action plans, service improvements and change consultations. Broader themes are taken forward through the Customer Engagement Team and strategic programmes. Xoserve’s deep knowledge of the gas sector also provides a holistic view across the market, helping identify where an idea or improvement raised by one customer could deliver wider benefits for others. 

Turning feedback and insight into service improvement 

Xoserve’s current Service Enhancement Programme is a practical example of how we turn feedback into service improvement. The programme grew out of customer workshops originally held as part of Project Trident – Xoserve’s programme to modernise and future-proof UK Link, the central data service platform that underpins Britain's retail gas market. Those sessions identified a broad range of pain points in how customers interact with Xoserve. While some related directly to UK Link, many did not. Further analysis showed that a number of these issues could be addressed independently of the wider technology programme, leading Xoserve to establish the Service Enhancement Programme through its business planning process. 

Customer input continues to shape what happens next. Through the monthly Service Enhancements Working Group, a broad range of customers review and reprioritise the issues identified, helping Xoserve focus investment and activity on the areas that matter most to customers. 

The Programme is deliberately incremental. Rather than waiting for one large-scale transformation, Xoserve can consider shorter-term improvements alongside longer-term technology and process solutions. Customers can trace where pain points originated, what response has been proposed and what discussions and actions follow. That transparency helps demonstrate that engagement is meaningful and builds confidence that stakeholder input is informing real decisions. 

Business planning provides another strong example of engagement and insight delivering positive outcomes. Xoserve has progressively strengthened engagement throughout the planning cycle, capturing customer views and sentiment and feeding that insight into Business Plan drafts. Successive rounds of consultation have enabled Xoserve to test proposals and refine them in response to stakeholder feedback. The process has evolved significantly over recent years, with greater transparency and ongoing consultation contributing to improved confidence. It demonstrates how structured engagement drives effective decision making. 

Understanding different stakeholder needs 

Xoserve’s experience shows that effective engagement must be meaningful for different audiences. Through regular engagement with distribution networks and gas shippers, organisations receive relevant information and opportunities to shape discussions. Importantly, a stronger focus on the ‘Voice of the Customer’ has helped Xoserve better understand the needs, priorities and business models of Independent Gas Transporters (IGTs), strengthening relationships and supporting improved service delivery. 

Structured representation is another important element. The Contract Management and Change Management Committees include representatives from distribution networks, transmission, Independent Gas Transporters and different shipper constituencies. Representatives act on behalf of their wider constituency, helping ensure different market perspectives inform discussion and decision-making. 

Building trust through periods of change 

During periods of significant industry change, continuous engagement becomes even more important. Different stakeholder groups will not always have the same priorities, so the ability to gather insight, understand competing perspectives and show how that input has influenced decisions is critical. 

Xoserve’s experience demonstrates how customer and stakeholder insight can be translated into action - helping shape priorities, improve service delivery and support more transparent, evidence-led decision-making. 

These capabilities are part of the expertise Xoserve brings to the wider partnership with Encodar and Talan as it develops its proposal for the future Gas Network Code Manager, helping ensure stakeholder views remain key to how priorities are set and decisions are made.