Reliability, hubs and customer service

An interview with Osprey's Head of Marketing

Plugged In interviews Dora Clarke for Smart Home Charge

Dora Clarke

Hot on the heels of launching their new charging hub in Croydon, and an impressive showing in a customer satisfaction survey, Smart Home Charge catch up with Osprey’s Head of Marketing Dora Clarke to find out the key behind their success, what they think of Gridserve, and ask how safety concerns at charging locations can be addressed.

It’s not easy to be a success in the world of public charging. Between the usual complaints of lack of infrastructure, poor reliability and substandard customer service, you could forgive marketing teams for settling with a target of “damage limitation”.

Yet, Osprey has set its sights much higher than that and is set to truly take flight thanks to a multi-million investment to expand its network with the aim of having 1,500 rapid chargers across 150 rapid charging hubs by 2025.

Reliability and responsiveness

It’s also a network already popular with EV drivers judging by the latest Zap Map survey which placed Osprey third when it came to customer satisfaction.

It’s a result that Head of Marketing Dora Clarke is very proud of, especially given Osprey (previously Engenie) underwent a rebrand not that long ago. So, how has this rapidly growing operator kept the punters happy?

Our growing size certainly helps. The bigger your network coverage is the more likely it is people will remember your brand. There is increasing recognition that Osprey Charging locations are associated with retail or Marston’s pubs and we have built up a lot of trust that those sites will work. Ultimately, it comes down to reliability.

Dora Clarke, Head of Marketing for Osprey

There is that word again. Reliability has become a key issue for EV drivers of late or at least the calls for improvements to charging hardware and customer service have become louder.

While expansion is certainly still needed, the UK has arguably reached a tipping point where the bigger question is “Will the charger I’m heading to work?” rather than “Is there a charger nearby?” at all.

Dora explains while there are a lot of technical issues that can occur between the charging hardware, the back-end operating system, and the car, customers really aren’t interested in this detail.

After all, what is more frustrating than not being able to charge? Not being able to charge and not being able to contact the operator about it, that’s what.

Dora says Osprey focuses a lot of time and money on solving the technical gremlins but it has also prioritised a customer service team that can offer round-the-clock support to drivers.

We’ve spent a lot of time bringing in in-house expertise and building a relationship with the hardware manufacturers so we can solve those technical issues, but the key for Osprey has been to be responsive to our customers.

Dora Clarke - Head of Marketing & Communications

Read the full feature on Smart Home Charge.

Dora Clarke

Dora is Osprey's Head of Marketing. With over a decade of professional experience in marketing and communications, Dora has been at Osprey since 2018. She led the company’s re-name and brand growth to the well-known and trusted public charging network Osprey is today. Prior to Osprey, Dora was the communications lead for Electric Vehicles at Meridian.

Dora's work at Osprey
Dora Clarke

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