Wave is an award‑winning water retailer serving non‑household customers across the UK. As a business that prides itself on service quality, transparency, and responsiveness, the company expected its technology partners to uphold the same standards. 

But Wave’s existing customer experience platform was making this increasingly difficult. System limitations slowed down email handling, navigation between tools was clunky, and updates frequently broke critical workflows. The impact wasn’t catastrophic, but it created a steady erosion of efficiency, trust, and team morale. 

“You’d be working on something for a customer and it would vamoosh into thin air.” - Lissa Wood, Director of SME Customers 

The tipping point came when Wave experienced a prolonged outage. With no way to reach their provider and no clear recovery timeline, the organisation felt exposed. 

It became clear: they needed a partner who would match their integrity, accountability, and commitment to customers. 

Seeking a partner, not just a platform

From the beginning, Wave’s criteria went beyond technical capability. They wanted a strategic relationship - one where both sides challenged each other, shared values, and worked collaboratively. 

Puzzel stood out early. The engagement felt natural, open, and transparent. Instead of a traditional sales cycle, Wave found themselves on a guided exploration of what the platform could do. This alignment built confidence across the business, especially since Wave gave their advisors the opportunity to be involved with the decision-process. Over 50 advisors voluntarily joined a live demonstration session - an unprecedented level of interest. 

“It didn’t feel like a heavy sales process. You were selling the product on its merits rather than convincing us around commercials.” - Rich Tate, Director of Digital 

Their enthusiasm became an important signal: the frontline team was ready for change, and Puzzel was the right choice. 

Implementation: Smooth, collaborative and confidence-building

Wave and Puzzel worked against ambitious timelines, beginning implementation in May and going live in October. Despite the scale and pace, the transition was remarkably steady. 

Training sessions were well‑paced and responsive to feedback. When one session surfaced issues with language settings that made the team nervous, Puzzel fixed it immediately. Challenges with a third‑party payment integration caused a delay, but Puzzel’s team stepped in and accelerated resolution. 

Throughout the rollout, one theme stood out: accountability. At no point did Wave feel left on their own. 

“I’ve done a lot of technology migrations… I haven’t done anything quite as quickly as we did this one. To not have any detrimental impact on customers or our people is pretty good.” - Rich Tate 

Most impressively, the migration generated no dip in call handling performance—the first time they had ever navigated a major systems change without performance decline. 

Early results and operational improvements

The impact of Puzzel was felt almost immediately. 

• Reliable, Modern Customer Journeys
  Callback queuing became an unexpected success. One customer even commented that they expected a long wait, only to receive a call back within three minutes. Even though Wave rarely has long waits, the option itself reassures customers. 

• Stronger Insight for Leaders and Individuals
  Real‑time dashboards and improved visibility have empowered planning teams, team leaders, and now even individual agents. This supports Wave’s value of accountability by helping staff understand and own their performance. 

The Power of Conversational Intelligence

Wave’s excitement around Conversational Intelligence has only grown. Even in early adoption, the platform is validating hunches, surfacing trends, and giving managers the ability to dive into problem areas instantly. 

“It’s powerful to get factual confirmation of what we’re seeing. The ability to dive straight into a hot topic is amazing.” - Lissa Wood 

Beyond efficiency, the technology is influencing culture. Wave has always used quality assessment as a supportive tool - not a punitive one. Conversational Intelligence strengthens that philosophy, helping the organisation move toward a vision where advisors proudly share excellent calls and learn from real examples of “what amazing looks like.” 

Team Sentiment: The Most Positive Response Yet

One of the most remarkable outcomes is employee sentiment. Having inherited multiple legacy systems in the past, Wave’s leadership has never heard this level of positivity from frontline teams about a telephony or CX platform. 

People are excited - not only about what the system can do today but what it can unlock next. 

A Partnership Set Up for the Future

Puzzel’s evolving roadmap, combined with on‑site visits and ongoing optimisation discussions, has reassured Wave that they’ve chosen a partner committed to continuous improvement. With Conversational Intelligence scaling, chatbot optimisation ahead, and new features like Live Summary on the horizon, the company sees the next 6–12 months as a period of meaningful capability gains. 

Wave’s endorsement of Puzzel is wholehearted. In fact, they’ve already recommended the platform to multiple organisations across different industries, actively taking reference calls and sharing their experience. 

“The why for me is the people… you’re so aligned with our values.” - Lissa Wood 

For Wave, the “why” is simple: the partnership works because the people, approach, and technology align perfectly with their values.