The Power of Connection: Elevating the Customer Experience

In late 2024, NRG celebrated the sixth annual Customer Experience (CX) Awards. These awards honor employees across our organization who exemplify our mission to power a brighter future together for our customers. Categories include recognition for being empathetic, insightful, innovative, and collaborative, key drivers of how we create a world-class customer experience. The prestigious CX Impact of the Year Award is given to colleagues who go above and beyond in all four categories.

We are thrilled to share that the 2024 award has been given to Renee Roach and Kyla Sanford in recognition of their innate understanding of customer needs and commitment to strong relationships. We sat down with both of them to talk about what customer experience means to them, their role with NRG, and the award.

Renee Roach, Manager of Key Client Services for Texas, distinguishes herself through her exceptional dedication to her customers. She works with large commercial customers and brokers, mainly in the government sector. Renee's role involves issue resolution and proactive account monitoring to preempt potential problems, thus building trust with her clients. Her commitment to providing a white-glove service was crucial when she averted a significant financial issue by identifying and acting upon a potential phishing scam, saving a customer millions of dollars. This act of vigilance, the trust she holds with customers, and her attention to detail underscore why she deserved the CX Impact of the Year award.

Renee’s philosophy centers on effective communication, understanding that the essence of customer service is knowing your audience and their needs. This mindset, coupled with her honest and straightforward style, fosters deep loyalty among her clients. Renee's belief in continuous education and efficient communication exemplifies her commitment to customer focus.

Renee's journey in the power industry began in the 1980s at the former Houston Lighting and Power, where she worked in customer service. At the same time, she earned her Bachelor's of Business Management from Letourneau University, a goal she set for herself to reach by the age of 40. Her career progression saw her move to Reliant in 2001, and then to NRG, where she is admired for her tenacity, integrity, and the ability to lead with empathy — qualities identified by her mentor and inspiration, Pat St. Martin.

Outside of work, Renee is a proud native Houstonian. She has been happily married for 34 years, celebrating her commitment with her husband by renewing their vows every five years. Together, they rescue dogs in the Houston area and are deeply committed to animal advocacy causes. Renee enjoys relaxing with brain-teaser games, and crafting with her trusty Cricut machine, hobbies that reflect her pursuit of precision.

Kyla Sanford, Process Manager for Incident Management & Process Improvement, plays a pivotal role in ensuring the smooth operation of our systems for our residential customers. Each day, Kyla works to identify production issues within the customer account management system. Whether it's a pricing error, a regulatory change, or missing customer correspondence, Kyla addresses the immediate issue, then digs into its root cause to prevent recurrence. Her approach to problem-solving is holistic, involving collaboration across teams and embodying her philosophy that if you’re going to talk about a problem, you should always have a solution.

For Kyla, there is simply no problem too large to fix, and the word "can't" isn’t in her vocabulary. She believes every individual within a company has the power to influence processes and outcomes. By building a strong network across the organization that she can reach out to with questions and requests for help, Kyla ensures responsiveness and expertise in resolving customer inquiries. Her ability to unite teams in proactive resolutions helps thousands of home customers, and was the key factor in her nomination for the CX Impact of the Year award.

Kyla initially honed her communication and advocacy skills in the financial sector while working in a collections call center. She applied this experience when moving into the energy industry, making connections and learning everything she could about NRG’s products and systems as she progressed. Naturally curious and inquisitive, Kyla believes in the importance of listening to and learning from our best resource – our customers.

Kyla pursued degrees in Business Management and Marketing from the University of Phoenix, balancing her studies at the time with being a new mom. At home in Oklahoma, Kyla is an avid bird watcher and loves spoiling her senior dog. She enjoys listening to mental health and psychology podcasts, which support her role as an NRG mental health first aid advocate. She is inspired by her children, whom she credits with encouraging her love of learning, deepening her empathy, and building her accountability.

At NRG, we believe that our customers are the true winners when our employees are supported, encouraged, and recognized for their contributions. We succeed as a company because of our dedicated teammates, and it is our honor to recognize the accomplishments of Renee, Kyla, and all our nominees and winners. Thank you for inspiring us every day and for everything you do to support our customers!