Customer Consulting helps the water industry improve levels of customer satisfaction

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} The Ofwat consultation document – ‘ Protecting consumers, promoting value,safeguarding the future’ – sets out proposals for regulations help todirectly correlate standards of customer service with cash for water utilitycompanies. A key part of these proposals is the establishment of a ServiceIncentive Mechanism (SIM).   Under the Ofwatproposals, water companies would be rewarded for providing ‘good customerservice’ by being allowed to raise prices by up to 0.5 per cent and penalisedfor ‘bad customer service’ by being forced to reduce prices by up to one percent. Ofwat is still in discussions with the industry as to how theproposals will be implemented and, currently, it is unclear as to whether thescoring will be in absolute or relative terms.   Welcoming these proposals, Simon Rustom , managing director of the customer andchange management company Customer Consulting Ltd (CCL) said: “Applying theseregulations to a water company turning over £1bn could see its income rise orfall by some £75m or more over five years.”   Buildingon previous experience in the water and other industries, CCL has developed athree year project to help water companies improve levels of customersatisfaction. This   process starts with afact find to clarify where improvements can be made, the gaps between currentand best practice and how to consolidate all projects that impact the customerexperience into a clear road map showing what, why and how the customersatisfaction can be improved.   Themajority of the work is delivered through water companies’ internal resourcesbut CCL provides a three year framework to review, refine and support theimplementation to ensure the results are achieved.   CCL’sexperience in other industries, such as rail, shows that a consistent andstrategic approach can yield sustainable improvements in customer service andsatisfaction. Initial modelling has shown that the return on investment in thewater industry should be significant, said Rustom.   The Ofwatconsultation document – ‘ Protectingconsumers, promoting value, safeguarding the future’ – outlines a service incentive mechanism.   This new approach, designed to encourage waterand sewerage companies in England and Wales to improve the quality of service they provide, is scheduled to be introducedfrom April 2010. It will replace the current incentive mechanism, the overallperformance assessment (OPA), which has been used since 1996/97.   The serviceincentive mechanism will form one element of the package of incentives thatcomprise the determination of price limits for companies for 2010 to 2015.   “At present, the water and sewerage sectors in England and Wales consist of 21 monopolycompanies,” said CCL’s Rustom. “Apart from large business customers, mostcustomers are unable to choose their supplier.   “Given this lack ofcustomer choice, Ofwat acts as a substitute for a competitive market. It seeksto ensure that the monopoly companies identify their customers’ needs, deliverservices designed to meet them and continually try to improve those serviceswithin the price limits it sets.   According to Ofwat, there are a number ofreasons why a new approach to measuring and incentivising customer service isneeded. Among these is that, although most consumers are generally satisfiedwith the basic aspects of the service they receive, some six per cent ofconsumers are dissatisfied   In addition, many of the current OPA measuresfocus on companies’ reliability and response times. They do not measure thequality of the company’s response.   Moreover, therecently published Cave report and Walker review both supported the need for a new incentive mechanism that focuses moreon the customer experience. They also made recommendations that would changethe structure of the industry and extend customer choice.   “ A key principle of good service isthat a company should meet its customers’ expectations and, where it does notdo so, quickly put the matter right,” said Rustom.   “Within the water and other industries, we knowthat many customer contacts could have been avoided by getting things rightfirst time. Dŵr Cymru, for example, recently estimated that about a quarter ofits written complaints were avoidable.”   For further details of CCL’sapproach to customer satisfaction, contact Kathy Duxbury at CCL on +44 (0) 1908441012 or email kathy.duxbury@customerconsulting.com   End About Ofwat   The WaterServices Regulation Authority (Ofwat) is the economic regulator of the waterand sewerage companies in England and Wales and works with a wide range of other stakeholders. These include the waterquality regulators (the EnvironmentAgency and the DrinkingWater Inspectorate ) and the ConsumerCouncil for Water .   Ofwat was established to make sure that the companiesprovide household and business customers with a good quality service and valuefor money. It does this by: keeping bills for consumers as low as possible monitoring and comparing the services the companies provide scrutinising the companies’ costs and investment encouraging competition where this benefits consumers   If a companyfalls short of what Ofwat or customers expect, Ofwat takes the action necessaryto protect consumers’ interests. This may include legal steps such asenforcement action and fines.   About Customer Consulting Limited   Customer Consulting Ltd (CCL) is a specialist customer and changemanagement company. It helps organisations to optimise their return oninvestment in customer management - especially contact centres andcustomer-orientated information and technology.   Its vision is to demonstrate that abest practice approach to customer management delivers sustainable businessgrowth. CCL aims to deliver acombination of insight, intellect, wisdom and pragmatism - combined with a realunderstanding of people - to achieve commercial results that are beyond thenorm. Using a joint project teamapproach, CCL offers advice and support to help companies develop and implementcustomer strategies that produce results.   With its 100 consultants averaging 20 years experience, CCL helpsbusiness leaders and their teams – including those at Aviva, BUPA, South WestTrains and Orange – to activate their internal resources and ensure measurable success.   Further information from:   KathyDuxbury, Customer Consulting, 00 44 (0) 1908 441012/ 00 44 (0) 7976 405779; kathy.duxbury@customerconsulting.com Bob Little , Bob Little Press & PR, 00 44 (0)1727 860405; bob.little@boblittlepr.com

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