News
Shaun Burnett joins as customer and brand experience director
Aug 12, 2016 by Spark
Following news of a management buyout at independent energy supplier Spark Energy, the specialist gas and electricity provider to the lettings and social housing market throughout Britain, has announced a key addition to its leadership team as it focuses on customer experience alongside growth.
Shaun Burnett joins the Scottish Borders-based company as director of customer and brand experience, and completes Spark’s senior team.
Burnett’s previous post was as senior marketing manager at British Gas, and prior to that he was head of marketing and communications at Lothian Buses, a company which handles 300,000 passenger journeys every day.
Over his career, Burnett has worked in senior marketing, customer and communications roles in a range of sectors including energy, public transport, financial services, FMCG and electronic security.
Spark Energy CEO Chris Gauld said: “Shaun brings very specific talents to the mix in our leadership team, which now has all the capabilities we need to tackle the next stage of our growth.
“It might seem that we have brought Shaun in solely because of his recent senior position at one of the Big Six energy suppliers, and that is certainly important. But his work at Lothian Buses is especially relevant as we look to double our customer base while continuing to reduce costs, remove hassle and improve the experience of tenants right across the UK. Our new digital platforms create huge opportunity for our teams and our customers and this is a key area for him to drive forward.
“Shaun’s development of the Transport for Edinburgh branding strategy and, critically, the creation and implementation of an industry-leading digital, mobile and multi-channel strategy are particular highlights for us. The app alone had 30,000 downloads in the first month.
“All of this experience will be invaluable to the opportunities that Spark faces right now. The latest quarter’s Ofgem stats again show us outperforming all of the Big Six and the average of the independents, resolving more customer queries in 24 hours than each of those benchmarks. We have much more to do and our digital platforms can deliver another step change.
“Both the industry and consumers need independent companies to compete with the big suppliers, we’ve invested heavily in customer experience, both in terms of frontline staff and technology. Shaun, with his unique customer focus and transformative approach, is the final piece in the jigsaw.”
Burnett said: “This is a massively exciting time to be joining the team. Spark is an ambitious company, a growth company and one with a genuine customer focus in a difficult market. I’m very much a passionate customer champion and my determination to continually challenge us to be better every time is why I’m here; to take experience and satisfaction for our customers to the next level.”
Burnett joins other recent appointments in continuous improvement director Callum McCosh, energy services director Steve Storey and commercial director Ian Crowther who alongside director of people and culture John Hawkins, financial controller Mark McKenna and Director Legal and Regulation Debbie Harding are charged with doubling the size of the business following the recently-announced management buyout (MBO) bid by CEO Chris Gauld and CFO Hamish Osborne.
CEO Gauld added: “We now have over 300 staff, are about to recruit again substantially and to deliver on our commercial and service promises for the year to end June.”