Improving the customer experience of a water company

What is shaping water

Water research covers households, utilities, purifier brands and development programmes. Access, quality, reliability and trust in the source decide how people use and pay for water.

• Many households combine several water sources
• Trust in water quality drives purifier adoption
• Utilities are judged on reliability and billing

A regional water and sewerage company, working in England. Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.

Organisation

A regional water and sewerage company

Sector

Water

Team engaged

Market Research

Services

Quantitative research, Online surveys, Data analytics & dashboards

The company’s customer satisfaction scores were below regulatory expectations, especially after supply interruptions and billing disputes. It needed to know which parts of the experience drove dissatisfaction.

• Deliver on the brief: improving the customer experience of a water company.
• Understand the views, needs and behaviour of customers a month.
• Produce results that can be compared across groups and locations.
• Set up a repeatable measure the client can track over time.

The work focused on 3,000 customers a month.

• customers a month3,000

Audiences we typically reach in water

HouseholdsUtility customersPurifier buyers and ownersCommunity water committeesWASH programme beneficiaries

Coverage: England. Market: United Kingdom.

• United Kingdom

A structured quantitative design, so results could be compared across groups, locations and time.

1. 1Brief
2. 2Post-contact surveys
3. 3Driver analysis
4. 4Monthly dashboard
5. 5Insight

We surveyed customers shortly after contact, by email, SMS or telephone, about how easy it was to get help, how well they were kept informed and whether their issue was resolved. Driver analysis identified the most influential factors, and results were reported monthly by contact type and region. Open comments were coded into themes, which helped explain the numbers in customers’ own words.

Quantitative researchOnline surveysData analytics & dashboards

customers a month

3,000

• Online respondents were drawn from verified panel members who matched the screening criteria, with quotas on key profile attributes.

• The online survey was mobile-friendly and offered in respondents' languages.

• Digital fingerprinting and duplicate checks
• Attention, speed and straight-lining checks
• Review of open-ended answers
• Logic and range checks on the final data
• Work carried out under our ISO 20252 quality procedures

• Cross-tabulation by key groups and locations
• Significance testing on the differences that mattered
• Driver analysis to find what most influences the outcome
• Interactive dashboard for ongoing tracking

• Updates during supply interruptions and first-contact resolution of billing queries mattered most.

Keeping customers informed during problems was as important as fixing them.

• The company introduced proactive SMS updates during incidents and empowered billing agents to resolve common issues on the first call.
• Share the findings with the teams closest to customers so they can act quickly.

What we recommended, and the client put into practice

• Satisfaction scores improved steadily over the following year.

• Insight report and management presentation
• Cleaned data file and data tables
• Interactive dashboard

• Continue the routine and review results every period.
• A natural follow-on question: how do households source and store water?