Louise Walsh, Chief Customer Contact Officer, Utilita

1. ‎What can we expect from your contribution at Utility Week's Customer-First Forum 2026?

At this year’s Forum, I’ll be focusing on what it truly takes to deliver fair, frictionless and emotionally intelligent customer experiences in an environment that is still volatile—operationally, commercially and politically.

I’ll be sharing practical insights from Utilita’s work with prepayment customers, vulnerable households and those on the sharpest end of rising debt, showing how data, behavioural understanding and well designed digital journeys can materially improve outcomes.

I also intend to challenge the sector to move beyond compliance-driven service models. Meeting the rules is not enough: the organisations that will thrive are those that intentionally design for dignity, transparency and trust at every touchpoint.

2. What are you most looking forward to hearing about at the conference?

I’m particularly keen to hear how other organisations are evolving their customer strategies in three areas:

- Debt prevention and early intervention
- The practical application of AI in customer contact
- Regulatory reform and customer impact

3. What are the biggest challenges facing your industry at the moment, in your opinion?

Three challenges stand out:

•    Persistent and widening affordability pressures

•    Growing expectations around customer care and protections
•    Legacy systems and operational complexity
 
4. Why is Utility Week’s Customer First Forum 2026 important to the industry and to you?

This Forum is one of the few spaces where the conversation moves beyond compliance into what great customer experience should look like for essential services.
 

Catharine Skinner, Head of Customer Insight, Cadent

What can we expect from your contribution at Utility Week's Customer-First Forum 2026?

We will bring the voice and sentiment of consumers into the discussion. We want to inspire and engage the industry using a customer perspective. Examples of what we can do to support consumers. Listen to what is best practice from others. 

What are you most looking forward to hearing about at the conference?

Reactions to the macro changes and how the industry is responding to changes in political, market and social factors that influence the public.

What are the biggest challenges facing your industry at the moment, in your opinion?

Public awareness on the net zero transition and the impact of the cost of living today on planning for the future. Clarifying the role of gas in the transition with alignment across utilities for resilience planning, for example, so customer impact is considered throughout the design phase. 

Why is Utility Week's Customer-First Forum 2026 important to the industry and to you?

We need to inspire each other on how we bring UK essential services forward during times of uncertainty. There are new solutions available all the time to customer problems, therefore how can utilities operate to best effect to provide energy and water in ways society values. People need confidence they can continue to rely on us, as natural resources become ecologically and geopolitically impacted.

Helen Adey, Director of Settlement Services, Elexon

What can we expect from your contribution at Utility Week’s Customer-First Forum 2026? 

I will be giving an overview of where we are with the implementation of Market-wide Half-Hourly Settlement (MHHS), the biggest reform to the GB electricity retail market since competition was introduced in the late 1990s and a key enabling reform for Clean Power 2030. 
As we move through the early life support phase, I’ll reflect on how MHHS is helping to unlock new flexibility products and services that can deliver better outcomes for customers. 
I’ll also be open about the scale of the change and the challenges involved, including the potential costs that need to be carefully managed as we move from system go-live into large-scale meter migration. 

What are you most looking forward to hearing about at the conference? 

I am looking forward to hearing how different organisations are designing for customer outcomes in practice, particularly how affordability and fairness are being addressed during a period of significant system change. 
Understanding how innovation, flexibility and customer protection are being balanced across the sector will be invaluable. 

What are the biggest challenges facing your industry at the moment, in your opinion? 

One of the biggest challenges is coordination across a very complex landscape, at a time when unprecedented levels of investment and change across the sector are needed.
This is particularly important around access to data and how it is used. 
Over the last four and a half years, Elexon has worked with more than 250 industry participants to reach MHHS go-live, and that level of collaboration will remain essential as we continue to migrate meters to the new arrangements through to May 2027. 
Using data effectively – to support vulnerable customers, enable great propositions and deliver system efficiency – while staying focused on Clean Power 2030, is one of the defining challenges for the industry. 

Why is Utility Week’s Customer-First Forum 2026 important to the industry and to you?

Utility Week’s Customer-First Forum offers a critical customer-centric view across the whole system – not just suppliers, but code bodies, network companies and across electricity, gas and water. That breadth is vital. 
For me, it’s an important opportunity to connect major system reforms like Market-wide Half-Hourly Settlement with real customer outcomes. 
As we continue to migrate meters at pace – with over a million already transitioned and around 80% expected to be accepted into new arrangements by October 2026 – it’s essential that collaboration across the industry remains firmly anchored in delivering tangible benefits for customers. 

David Ritchie, Director of Customer Experience & Operations, SSE Airtricity

What can we expect from your contribution at Utility Week's Customer-First Forum 2026?

A practical perspective on how we’re reshaping customer operations at SSE Airtricity, to be more modern, joined-up and genuinely customer-first. I’ll share honest examples, lessons learned, and how we’re balancing digital innovation with human service

What are you most looking forward to hearing about at the conference?

I’m most interested in how peers are balancing customer expectations with affordability, regulation and operational complexity. Real-world examples of simplification, not theory, are what I value most.

What are the biggest challenges facing your industry at the moment, in your opinion?

Rising customer expectations, cost pressure and regulatory change are all converging at once. The challenge is delivering better, more empathetic service while fundamentally redesigning how we operate.

Why is Utility Week's Customer-First Forum 2026 important to the industry and to you?

It creates space for open, practical conversations about customer experience that go beyond slogans. For me, it’s a chance to learn from others, share what we’re doing at SSE Airtricity, and collectively raise the bar for customers across the sector.

Simone Torino, Senior Adviser – AI Strategy, Cadent

What can we expect from your contribution at Utility Week’s Customer-First Forum 2026?

A practical, customer-centered view of how AI is being introduced into customer operations — focusing less on technology hype and more on trust, transparency, and real outcomes for customers and frontline teams.

What are you most looking forward to hearing about at the conference?

How different organisations are balancing innovation with responsibility — particularly how customer needs, vulnerability, and public trust are being embedded into operational and digital decisions.

What are the biggest challenges facing your industry at the moment, in your opinion?

Maintaining customer trust while navigating rising expectations, regulatory scrutiny, cost pressures, and rapid technological change, all at the same time.

Why is Utility Week’s Customer-First Forum 2026 important to the industry and to you?

Because it creates space to step back from delivery pressures and focus on what “customer-first” really means in practice — not just in principle, but in the decisions we make every day.
 

Andrew McMillan, Former Head of Customer, John Lewis

What can we expect from your contribution at Utility Week's Customer-First Forum 2026?

I would like to encourage those attending to go back inspired to do something really groundbreaking for the sector

What are you most looking forward to hearing about at the conference?

I’m always interested to hear how others are facing the challenge of delivering consistently excellent customer experience

What are the biggest challenges facing your industry at the moment, in your opinion?

Maintaining business confidence through what are unprecedented times of financial and political instability

Why is Utility Week's Customer-First Forum 2026 important to the industry and to you?

The Forum provides an excellent opportunity to focus exclusively on the customer for a day, away from operational distractions and hopefully to share some learning

Thea Hutchinson, Director, Ofwat

What can we expect from your contribution at Utility Week's Customer-First Forum 2026?

Reflections on how the water sector can do better for customers, which is the focus of the current reform of its regulatory institutions, which creates both opportunities and challenges.

What are you most looking forward to hearing about at the conference?

I'm looking forward to hearing from a range of sectors and disciplines on what improving customer service looks like.

What are the biggest challenges facing your industry at the moment, in your opinion?

I think that the greatest challenge for the water sector is rebuilding customer trust. And that's not just the companies, it's also the institutions, including regulators.

Why is Utility Week's Customer-First Forum 2026 important to the industry and to you?

I think these discussions are invaluable for challenging ourselves and getting outside views to reframe our own perspectives. We can then take them away to do even better for customers, which is why we're all attending.