Water utilities and rural fibre providers don't have much in common on paper. One moves water through century-old pipes under strict regulatory oversight; the other is racing to lay fibre and connect homes across the hardest-to-reach parts of the country. But talk to the teams responsible for customer experience at either, and you hear the same problem: the moments customers actually see: an engineer at the door, a missed appointment or a follow-up call, are the moments that decide whether the relationship holds.

At our latest Vynners Community masterclass, we heard how two very different organisations are tackling that problem with the same tool: Agentic Video Intelligence. Chris Morris, Strategic Planning Manager at Gigaclear, spoke about redesigning the installation journey. Leigh Jenkins, Customer Services Manager at Northumbrian Water Group, spoke about closing the loop after an engineer leaves the site. 

Both conversations point to the same conclusion: in critical infrastructure, a single interaction is enough to redefine the customer experience.

Gigaclear: putting the power in the customer's hands

Gigaclear serves 600,000+ rural communities across England, where full fibre installation is notoriously complex. Unlike urban builds, rural installs face bespoke challenges: long driveways, gated access, and diverse terrains like block paving.

Previously, a high rate of Aborted on Day installs occurred because site complexities were only discovered upon arrival. This led to:

• High Costs: Wasted visits and engineer time.

• Customer Frustration: Further delays for underserved communities.

• Environmental Impact: Unnecessary carbon emissions from journeys across the 26 counties we serve.

Rather than adding more surveys or more site visits, Gigaclear saw an opportunity with Vyntelligence to shift from a reactive to a proactive model by digitally seeing the site from the customer's eyes before any equipment left the warehouse.

"We're sort of the first UK retail provider to use video agentics and to put the power in the hand of the customer."

Chris Morris, Strategic Planning Manager at Gigaclear

Customers now receive a text with a link to capture short guided videos of their homes and preferred installation routes using just their smartphones. No app, no training needed as Vyntelligence’s Agentic AI then analyses the footage, summarising key information and automatically assessing installation complexity. The results surprised even Chris's own team.

"The quality of the videos they return is fantastic. The engagement is fantastic and it shows a real willingness from the customer to engage with us, discuss the route with us, show us the route."

Chris Morris, Strategic Planning Manager at Gigaclear

Gigaclear engineers and contractors now prepare more effectively, cutting down unnecessary visits, reducing costs, and ensuring smoother, faster connections for rural households and businesses.

More than 53% of customers who receive the video link take the time to film and return one, with zero incentive offered. Around 80% of returned videos include the customer talking through what they're showing, not just silent footage which is a strong sign of the personal engagement the process creates. 

That single piece of visibility now lets Gigaclear's team triage issues, dispatch the right crew the first time, and avoid sending engineers out blind. What began as a residential installation tool has since expanded into business-to-business jobs and router relocations, with health and safety and compliance use cases next on the roadmap.

Northumbrian Water: Closing the loop after the visit

"We know the majority of our customers love it. That's a really, really tangible benefit."

Leigh Jenkins, Customer Services Manager at Northumbrian Water Group

Northumbrian Water's engineers usually have everything they need on site, but the gap comes after they leave. If a customer wasn't home, or wasn't the person who originally reported the issue, communication often broke down into a paper calling card or a vague follow-up call. The visit was done; the customer was often still in the dark.

Leigh’s team changed the game by pioneering Vyntelligence ‘video calling cards’: a short, personalised video recorded by the engineer explaining exactly what was found around or at the property and what happens next.

"I like to describe this as kind of the water industry equivalent to sending your vehicle in for a service and then you get that really rich update about the state of your vehicle from your service technician. We're trying to implement that in the water world."

Leigh Jenkins, Customer Services Manager at Northumbrian Water Group

The trial started with just 5 engineers. A year on, it's running at around 50 technicians per area, scaling to between 120 and 150 nationally, with each technician delivering roughly 7 to 8 video calling cards a day. A dedicated customer survey rated the videos in the mid-to-high 80% range on both "extremely easy to access" and "really useful."

The benefits go beyond the immediate interaction. The videos have become a searchable evidence base from asset locations, site condition history and more that speeds up response on repeat visits years later.

Northumbrian Water is now building on that momentum with a second use case: letting customers submit their own videos to report issues on the network, helping the team diagnose problems remotely before deciding whether a visit is even needed.

Different worlds, the same echo

Different industries, different starting points: fibre installation and water repairs, but Chris and Leigh arrived at strikingly similar conclusions. Start with a clear problem, rather than the technology. Move slowly, prove the case at a small scale, and bring stakeholders in early. Trust your frontline teams to use their own voice rather than a script. And let the results, not the pitch, do the convincing.

As Chris summed it up when asked ‘what's at risk of being lost as these processes go digital?’

"A side product and a byproduct of the videos we receive back is actually the willingness of customers to communicate with us in itself. They actually talk to us on those videos about 80% of the time. Most of the videos we get back the customers are having a little chat and I find that fantastic. You know, that to me says we can use digital and we can use AI but actually it still is that personal feeling and that personal touch, and we actually quite frequently ring those customers back if there is an issue, something we need to discuss with them further, and say thank you very much indeed for talking us through the problem."

Chris Morris, Strategic Planning Manager at Gigaclear

At Vyntelligence, we're proud to help teams like Gigaclear and Northumbrian Water turn a single video interaction into faster resolutions, stronger trust, and a growing bank of operational knowledge that keeps paying off long after the job is done.

If a single video interaction could change how your customers experience your service, we'd like to show you how. Get in touch to see Vyn® in action.