This month, we shine the spotlight on Annette Welch, our dedicated Business Development Director with 15 years in the industry! Annette's dedication to excellence and her skill in handling intricate issues are pivotal to our achievements. Let's celebrate Annette's career and her crucial role in advancing our goal of providing top-tier energy solutions.

➢ How long have you been in the energy industry and what’s one piece of advice you would give to someone new to our industry?

I’ve worked in the energy sector for 15 years and have seen many changes and dealt with huge challenges most recently the chaos of the Covid 19 pandemic and the 2022 Energy crisis initiated by Russia invading Ukraine. Every element of what we do is getting increasingly complex but one thing that hasn’t changed is the importance of good old fashioned customer service. Listening carefully to understand a clients business, problems, and priorities is key. Explaining a clients options with clarity, managing expectations and then keeping them updated during the implementation phase is key to our business’s success. As most of our business at Here’s the Plan comes to us by direct referral, I think we are pretty good at this and I’m proud of our Team who all work so hard to help our clients.

➢ What is the best advice you’ve ever received?

“Perfection is the enemy of productivity”- I can’t remember where I read that but its very true and I apply the 80:20 rule to most of my life.

➢ What’s one activity you complete on behalf of clients that would surprise people of its difficulty?

Anything customer service related with most energy supply companies is getting more and more difficult to achieve. High staff turnover and lack of training at almost all suppliers makes our job really difficult at times. We do lots of clever things at Here’s the Plan but saving clients from having to engage directly with their supplier is often the most appreciated and commented on.

➢ Tell us about your portfolio, what industries do you work with, what type of supplies do you manage?

I don’t have an actual portfolio and job involves engaging with new clients and enquiries. I’m a very nosey person so I love to get out to see clients and learn all about their businesses. I’m also a bit of a foodie and particularly enjoy any food or drink related site visits- one week I managed site visits with a crisp factory, a bakery, an ice cream factory and a distillery - that was a great week! I enjoy complex problem solving so I usually have a pile of paperwork on my desk and a stack of on ongoing complaints in my inbox. I know a little bit about a lot of things but rely on the account managers and technical team to keep me right and deliver the great customer service we pride ourselves on.