The pay is good (mainly because they’re terrified of the union reps within their ranks) but the management are very clicky and if one don’t like you, they tend to all have a problem. Good career progression, if you manage to last 3-5 years you’ll see yourself with Atleast 1-2 promotions and leaving on Atleast a few more grand than you started on.

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Good place

Customer Service Advisor (Former Employee) - Swindon - 21 January 2023

It’s fast paced, and you must be able to handle constant changes as no day is ever the same, I feel breaks should be a little longer and pay and benefits are alright

Pros

Stable pay

Cons

Long hours hard customers

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Insights into Thames Water Utilities Limited

Based on 39 survey responses

Areas for improvement

Sense of belonging
Energising work tasks
Overall satisfaction

good place

Customer Service Advisor (Former Employee) - Reading, Berkshire - 20 October 2022

A company that truly cares about its employees rather than treating you like just a number. The management are down to earth and treat you like a normal person rather than as though they are above you.

Pros

fddd

Cons

dddd

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Awful place to work

Customer Service Agent (Former Employee) - Swindon - 16 August 2022

Unprofessional and awful management. Training was ok but I was called into a unprofessional meeting to discuss personal situations with my health which I felt like I was getting penalised for basically being told off for having doctor appointments (which saved my life). You get little to no support dealing with customers and the job says you’d be answering customers emails, letters and dealing with them on the phones. This is not true you spend all day everyday on the phones for your shift. You get told off if you spend more than 2 mins in the loo which you have to put yourself into a status for. The company track every status and you’ll be on call to a customer for as little as 10 mins before someone messages you asking why it’s taking so long. After call work you have to wrap up in 2 mins otherwise you get penalised for. I feel like there was no win win situation. There’s no training on how to deal with difficult and nasty phone calls and how that can effect your mental health. While I was there many people had been signed off for mental health reasons because of how it was working there everyday. Despite all the negative there are some lovely people but it is not likely you can trust them even if they seem friendly even the managers had drama out in the open.

Pros

Free drinks

Cons

Your own laptop so no sharing

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Horrible place to work

Customer Service Advisor (CSA) (Former Employee) - Swindon - 15 June 2022

Not a great place to work. Poor for mental health and shocking management. They act customer driven but it’s not like that. All selfish, avoid at all costs and please read the other reviews before applying for this job. It’s not an exaggeration, you’ll come home most days upset and drained. Lack of support, management only say certain things to ‘help’ because they have to, not because they care for you. And they act like they care for customer queries but they actually only care about you having a fast phone call and straight into the next call. referring the customer elsewhere always. And if you’re ill? Don’t even bother mentioning it, management getting their stats is more important than your physical and mental health. And IF you have days off ill, management will slag you off constantly, I heard it within my team daily

Pros

Nothing

Cons

Everything

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Just don't! Awful employers

Customer Service Advisor (Current Employee) - Swindon - 14 June 2022

Terrible training, terrible inept management target driven! Customer service doesnt matter, only manager's targets! High staff turnover and they wonder why....

Pros

Hours/shift pattern

Cons

Everything else

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Great place to work

Customer Service Advisor (Current Employee) - Swindon - 8 May 2022

Fantasise and fair place to work. Great support. All of the managers are great. Plenty of room for progression. Always understanding around home life.

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Fast paced

Customer Service Advisor (Former Employee) - Swindon, Wiltshire - 21 April 2022

Fast paced constantly taking calls one after the other. Management think they are something special and there is a massive belittling and bullying culture. Obsessed with stats and targets

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Fast paced but you get a lot of support

Customer Service Advisor (Current Employee) - Swindon, Wiltshire - 8 April 2022

Working in the customer service team in billing is bound to present a fast paced everyday work environment with calls you take being timed and the quality of your calls being monitored which is great for personal growth if you want to progress within the business. The more you know about all aspects of troubleshooting customer’s enquiries regarding billing, the more at ease you’d feel about handling calls.

Pros

Job stability

Cons

Processes can lack flexibility

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Clicky uncaring morale lacking company

Customer Service Advisor (Former Employee) - Swindon, Wiltshire - 16 March 2022

Unfortunately had the displeasure of working for Thames for about a year. The targets and stats I had to hit weren’t an issue I found I did really well in that area. My QM’s on the other had were very up and down the QM check list seems as if it is made to make people fail you feel useless and less than when you don’t get a 90% or above and management only care about what you would look like on paper. There is clicks and the chance of progression is minimal to none unless you know the right person so applying yourself and learning stands for nothing. Lost someone in my family while working there and when taking some time to grieve I was constantly called by the company pressured to come into work as we were very busy ended il being forced to get signed of for only two days to simply be left alone before it affected my mental health. All In all the staff at level 8 are the best. Everyone else is selfish.

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Chaotic place

Customer Service Advisor (Former Employee) - Agent - 6 February 2022

One day doing one job. Next another. Training is poor to non existent. Senior Managers say stats dont matter but then constantly ask you why not hit targets. Targets impossible to reach. Change mind daily. Workers very nice, friendly, clean. Offer to hybrid work. But beyond that moral was not good.

Pros

Clean office. Kitchen facilities. Coffee bar with sandwiches, hot food. Was canteen but not open as Covid. Might now be open

Cons

Middle of industrial estate, Hard to reach with no car, Very difficult with no training. Nobody seems to care if not trained but expect you do to your job, Changing jobs all time to roles never done, toxic management

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Don't work here

Customer Service Advisor (Former Employee) - Swindon, Wiltshire - 17 January 2022

Other review sum it up pretty well management are only in it for themselves don't really care about there team.Colleagues are what make the job but constantly being micro managed and toxic management make it horrible lasted 2 months and left Training was great then thrown onto your team and show completely different work and expected to know it without help

Pros

Colleagues pay

Cons

Shift patterns Management Training

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Toxic culture. Management hasn't got a clue what they're doing,

Customer Service Advisor (Former Employee) - Reading, Berkshire - 23 December 2021

It seemed like a good place to work at first until you realise how bad the Management is. The environment is toxic, everybody talks behind eachothers backs, the pay is not in line with other departments who do less work. Complaints and bullying get covered up, you also get treated to and spoken to ltke a child by some managers.q

Pros

Wfh, Easy job

Cons

Management, pay, stress

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Not the job I applied for

Customer Service Advisor (Former Employee) - Swindon - 11 December 2021

Just don’t do it, you’ll regret it and there is a big issue with mental health and people being told the job is one thing and it is something completely different.

Pros

None

Cons

Everything

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Steer clear

CSA - Customer Service Assistant (Former Employee) - Swindon, Wiltshire - 26 February 2021

Don't be fooled by the salary, Thames Water don't care about you as an employee. They prioritise unrealistic targets over the wellbeing of the employees who make them, and the customers. Training was all good, we were told to put the customer first no matter what, and take our time with their queries and investigate what you can... However, when we got onto the floor, we were basically told to hurry up the call, we were unable to take breathers between calls without it negatively impacting you someway. It got so stressful to the point I had more bad days than good, and got overwhelmed very easily as a result. Support network is a joke, they're only interested if your call is over 20 minutes, just to save their backsides figure-wise! Otherwise all we have from them is them saying "use the intranet", yet I thought their job was supposed to be helping us? Also we weren't trained in specific things and yet were expected to know absolutely everything! Also feels like theyre spying on you to the point you can't breathe! As someone with a learning disability, I found the support network shockingly barbaric. This the most pressurising and mental health draining job I've ever been in and I wouldn't recommend it to my worst enemy. No wonder there's such a high turnover! Don't be fooled by "putting the customer first", it's all a con!

Pros

Mon-Fri, break entitlements, free coffee, pay

Cons

Pressurising, damaging to mental health, lack of support, useless senior management who dont give a cr*p, everything else

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Cannot Fault Anything!

Customer Service Advisor (Current Employee) - Reading - 7 October 2018

Great management, great opportunities to progress within the business, best training I've received in a job role, great working hours, brilliant salary, and a fantastic work environment.

Pros

Salary, hours, management, work environment

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Lovely interview, but don't be to friendly

Customer Service Advisor (Former Employee) - Swindon, Wiltshire - 5 July 2018

I was interview here the other week. Interview was great, I had feedback that as positive from both fellow interviewers and members of staff. Unfortunately I did not get the position because "Although you showed good customer service skills your answers where to long and therefore we feel you would not make call times" Because I was nervous and passionate I lost the chance. This was after explaining in my interview I understood targets etc. So, over all the company seem great but they are more willing to employ a fake smile reading from a script than a genuine people person. Be warned, keep your answers short.

Pros

Good pay

Cons

Lack of opportunity at the start to learn

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Fun, pay benefits - but poor management

CUSTOMER SERVICE ADVISOR (Former Employee) - Reading - 22 June 2018

Working in the Operations Centre meant that there were always opportunities for overtime, which meant pay packets could be significantly greater when putting in more hours. Sadly, the management was pretty poor. People were being employed simply because they were relatives of managers working there - a policy I believe to be unfair. This also creates quite a damaging work atmosphere. Many people felt that those employees were treated differently. In some instances, disciplinary action was given to other employees as if they were still in school. Pay is good. But you will feel as if you are back in the classroom.

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ok place to work

Customer Service Advisor (Former Employee) - SWindon - 4 June 2018

I found it to be a stressful place to work. Targets seem to be the order of the day, your success of failure depends to much on whether a customer may be having a bad day or not.

Pros

No real pros

Cons

Too cut throat

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Great public service employer

Customer Services Advisor (Former Employee) - Kembrey Park - 21 May 2018

Hard work but rewardingLots of chances to learn about account management, customer services, debt collection and other in-house subjectsGood social scene and friendly place to work

Pros

Great all round opportunities

Cons

Changing water industry

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Enjoyed my 6 weeks there

Digital Customer Services Agent (Former Employee) - Reading - 11 April 2018

I was part of the Social Media team for approximately 6 weeks and thoroughly enjoyed being a part of a new team. I only left due to the travel as it would take me up to 4 hours in total to travel which was the element affecting me. I enjoyed working there and found my colleagues approachable and I would recommend this role to other people.