Press information issued on behalf of:
Customer Consulting Ltd
500 Avebury Boulevard
CENTRAL MILTON KEYNES
Bucks
MK9 2BE
Web:
www.customerconsulting.com
18th
February 2010
Customer Consulting develops methodology to help the water
industry improve levels of customer satisfaction
The Ofwat consultation document - 'Protecting consumers, promoting
value, safeguarding the future' - sets out proposals for regulations
help to directly correlate standards of customer service with cash
for water utility companies. A key part of these proposals is the
establishment of a Service Incentive Mechanism (SIM).
Under the Ofwat proposals, water companies would be rewarded for
providing 'good customer service' by being allowed to raise prices
by up to 0.5 per cent and penalised for 'bad customer service' by
being forced to reduce prices by up to one per cent. Ofwat is still
in discussions with the industry as to how the proposals will be
implemented and, currently, it is unclear as to whether the scoring
will be in absolute or relative terms.
Welcoming these proposals, Simon Rustom, managing director of the
customer and change management company Customer Consulting Ltd (CCL)
said: "Applying these regulations to a water company turning over
£1bn could see its income rise or fall by some £75m or more over
five years."
Building on previous experience in the water and other industries,
CCL has developed a three year project to help water companies
improve levels of customer satisfaction. This process starts with a
fact find to clarify where improvements can be made, the gaps
between current and best practice and how to consolidate all
projects that impact the customer experience into a clear road map
showing what, why and how the customer satisfaction can be improved.
The majority of the work is delivered through water companies'
internal resources but CCL provides a three year framework to
review, refine and support the implementation to ensure the results
are achieved.
CCL's experience in other industries, such as rail, shows that a
consistent and strategic approach can yield sustainable improvements
in customer service and satisfaction. Initial modelling has shown
that the return on investment in the water industry should be
significant, said Rustom.
The Ofwat consultation document - 'Protecting consumers, promoting
value, safeguarding the future' - outlines a service incentive
mechanism.
This new approach, designed to encourage water and sewerage
companies in England and Wales to improve the quality of service
they provide, is scheduled to be introduced from April 2010. It will
replace the current incentive mechanism, the overall performance
assessment (OPA), which has been used since 1996/97.
The service incentive mechanism will form one element of the package
of incentives that comprise 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 monopoly companies," said CCL's Rustom. "Apart from
large business customers, most customers are unable to choose their
supplier.
"Given this lack of customer choice, Ofwat acts as a substitute for
a competitive market. It seeks to ensure that the monopoly companies
identify their customers' needs, deliver services designed to meet
them and continually try to improve those services within the price
limits it sets.
According to Ofwat, there are a number of reasons why a new approach
to measuring and incentivising customer service is needed. Among
these is that, although most consumers are generally satisfied with
the basic aspects of the service they receive, some six per cent of
consumers are dissatisfied
In addition, many of the current OPA measures focus on companies'
reliability and response times. They do not measure the quality of
the company's response.
Moreover, the recently published Cave report and Walker review both
supported the need for a new incentive mechanism that focuses more
on the customer experience. They also made recommendations that
would change the structure of the industry and extend customer
choice.
"A key principle of good service is that a company should meet its
customers' expectations and, where it does not do so, quickly put
the matter right," said Rustom.
"Within the water and other industries, we know that many customer
contacts could have been avoided by getting things right first time.
Dwr Cymru, for example, recently estimated that about a quarter of
its written complaints were avoidable."
For further details of CCL's approach to customer satisfaction,
contact Kathy Duxbury at CCL on +44 (0) 1908 441012 or email
kathy.duxbury@customerconsulting.com
End
About Ofwat
The Water Services Regulation Authority (Ofwat) is the economic
regulator of the water and sewerage companies in England and Wales
and works with a wide range of other stakeholders. These include the
water quality regulators (the Environment Agency and the Drinking
Water Inspectorate) and the Consumer Council for Water.
Ofwat was established to make sure that the companies provide
household and business customers with a good quality service and
value for 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
company falls short of what Ofwat or customers expect, Ofwat takes
the action necessary to protect consumers' interests. This may
include legal steps such as enforcement action and fines.
End
About Customer Consulting Limited
Customer Consulting Ltd (CCL) is a specialist customer and change
management company. It helps organisations to optimise their return on
investment in customer management - especially contact centres and
customer-orientated information and technology.
Its vision is to demonstrate that a best practice approach to customer
management delivers sustainable business growth. CCL aims to deliver a
combination of insight, intellect, wisdom and pragmatism - combined
with a real understanding of people - to achieve commercial results
that are beyond the norm. Using a joint project team approach, CCL
offers advice and support to help companies develop and implement
customer strategies that produce results.
With its 100 consultants averaging 20 years experience, CCL helps
business leaders and their teams - including those at Norwich Union,
BUPA, South West Trains and National Express Group - to activate their
internal resources and ensure measurable success.
Further information from:
Kathy Duxbury, 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