SWG will be expanding its infoCentre on Giessen's market square from March 2011. An additional floor will provide more space for customers, employees and service. A detailed presentation of the project took place yesterday at the SWG headquarters; in addition to the Technical Director, Reinhard Paul, the Giessen architects Gesine Schmidt and Matthias Weismüller, the Head of Technical Services Klaus Etzelmüller, the Head of the Mobile Centre Anne Müller-Kreutz, the Head of Energy Advice and Customer Service Michael Rösner were also present.
With 100,000 customer contacts every year, the infoCentre has reached the limits of its capacity as the first point of contact for questions on energy issues and local transport. After the renovation, there will no longer be long queues, but there will be additional space and therefore more discretion in customer advice. "The new storey will not only solve these problems, it will also ensure that the building blends in better with the surrounding façades, giving Giessen's market square a more uniform appearance overall," explains Klaus Etzelmüller, who is planning the conversion of the building at SWG together with Giessen architect Gesine Schmidt from schmidt|weismüller Architekten. The most important thing is that the various departments no longer have to share floors, which gives them more space for their advisory work with customers. Stadtwerke Gießen also wants the building to be at the cutting edge of energy efficiency. "We often advise our customers to take energy-saving measures in construction, so of course we have to be up to date ourselves. That's why we will upgrade the energy efficiency of the building in accordance with the current criteria of the Energy Saving Ordinance," promises Klaus Etzelmüller.
SWG board member Reinhard Paul sees the expansion of the infoCentre in the heart of Giessen as a clear commitment to a service-oriented and, above all, fair approach to regional energy supply: "With our free energy consultations, exhibitions and close integration with local transport services, we are putting together a package that no other competitor in Giessen could offer." SWG offers a comprehensive range of energy-saving advice for all SWG customers at its customer centre. In addition to renting out electricity meters and providing tailored energy-saving advice, SWG's experts also organise the optimisation of heating systems for their customers from a single source as part of their enerGIeßen energy service offering. These services are to be expanded further in the long term. "Thanks to our infoCentre, we can solve our customers' problems directly on site, simply because we are actually on site and not just a number in the telephone directory," says Reinhard Paul, explaining the advantages of the personnel-intensive consulting concept. In the area of mobility, the SWG customer centre has also been adapted to the increased demand from passengers by providing more space on the ground floor. Here, customers will continue to receive free information on connections and can obtain comprehensive advice on the range of tickets for occasional travellers or the conclusion of an annual travelcard contract at favourable conditions.
For a genuine municipal utility with deep regional roots, this advisory expertise is not only the right approach strategically, but ultimately also a commitment to the population. In an increasingly complex world, people must not be left alone with their difficulties, but must be provided with specific expertise and assistance - for example, to help them cope with rising energy prices in the long term. The immense number of contacts at the infoCentre shows how high the need for advice currently is. Although the municipal utilities are constantly improving their energy purchasing and in-house generation, the other half of the possibilities lies in the energy expertise of the consumers themselves. This is where SWG's advisory concept, which is largely supported by the infoCentre, comes in. This is why the expansion of the building is one of SWG's main concerns for 2011.
The construction work on the SWG infoCentre is scheduled to take around 18 months and is therefore too extensive to be carried out during ongoing operations. For this reason, Stadtwerke Gießen is temporarily relocating the various departments - and thus also the contact points for customers - to other buildings: from 17 January, the mobility centre and customer advisory service will be located in the premises of the former Gießener Anzeiger sales outlet at Schulstraße 7. The opening hours will continue to apply: Monday to Friday from 9am to 6pm and Saturday from 9am to 2pm. The mobility centre can be contacted on 0641 708-1400 or by e-mail at mobizentrale@stadtwerke-giessen.de. Meanwhile, the energy advice centre is moving to the former offices of Barmer Ersatzkasse at Marktplatz 8, where it will be available to customers from 19 January. In any case, the contact option remains the same: the energy advisors can still be contacted by telephone on 0641 708-1177 or by e-mail at energieberatung@stadtwerke-giessen.de.
Here you will find a presentation with photos and plans.