In March 2023 the UK government backed new plans that allows the water regulator, Ofwat, to take action against water companies that pay out dividends to their shareholders despite failing to meet required performance standards. Ofwat has previously been criticised for not doing enough to hold water firms accountable for polluting rivers and failing to repair leaks while dishing out huge sums to shareholders. Its new plans will help water companies demonstrate better stewardship. The changes require company boards to take account of their performance, for customers and the environment, when deciding whether to make dividend payments. It will also require companies to maintain a higher level of overall financial health, as well as providing greater transparency with customers and stakeholders.
David Black, Ofwat CEO, commented, “We hope the introduction of these new powers will focus minds around company board tables on the importance of responsible decision making and openness with customers and other stakeholders. And if that isn’t the case, we will act.”
With water companies now having to take their environmental and customer performance into account when deciding to pay dividends, it’s time they stepped up their customer engagement efforts. Behavioural science based customer engagement programmes like ours are proven to help water companies to:
Improve customer satisfaction
Through regular, genuine, personal and positive interactions with customers, water companies can effectively build trust and increase customer satisfaction. Making the effort to connect with customers doesn’t go unnoticed, as customers genuinely appreciate hearing from their water supplier and want to learn ways to reduce their water consumption and detect leaks.
However, it’s important to note that today’s digitally savvy customers have come to expect the kind of seamless and personal experience they receive from the likes of Facebook, Amazon, Google and increasingly their banks. Delivering hyper-personalised, omnichannel digital experiences must be a priority for water companies as customers consider this part of the “new normal”.
Reduce water consumption
Our customer engagement solutions use data science and behavioural science techniques to communicate insights directly to individual customers, to help them understand their household water consumption and behaviours and to motivate them to reduce their consumption through personalised tips and advice. Read more about how it works.
Increase the identification and resolution of leaks
Recent advances in intelligent water meter technology have improved the quantitative monitoring of water supply and consumption. Using smart meter data we can indicate high water consumption to individual household’s that might have a potential leak – encouraging customers to monitor consumption and helping water companies be proactive in detecting and fixing leaks.
Identify and support vulnerable customers
Relying on vulnerable customers to voluntarily put themselves on the Priority Services Register is not enough. We can help you to identify and support your vulnerable customers. We will take your customer data, combine it with open data, and using data science, we will profile your customers to help identify those that might fall into a vulnerable category – whether that’s because they are of pensionable age, disabled or chronically sick, have a long-term medical condition, a hearing or visual impairment, a child under the age of five, mental health issues etc.
Having profiled and segmented your potentially vulnerable customers, our customer engagement platform enables us to target individuals with personalised and appropriate suggestions designed to help them reduce their consumption and their bills, as well as advice on appropriate support measures that are available to them. Read more about how our customer engagement platform can help you support your vulnerable customers.
Increase your smart meter rollout
Increasing the rollout of smart meters across the UK is going to be essential to the delivery of a smarter future for the UK’s water supply. Our platform and customer engagement solutions are the perfect channel for water suppliers to educate and inform customers on the advantages that smart meters can deliver, such as negating the need to submit a meter reading, accurate bills, as well as reduced consumption. FAQs that customers have about smart meters can also be addressed, such as informing customers that installations are free; that their data is protected; or how to request a smart meter. Read more about how we can help ramp up your smart meter roll out programme.
How it works
For the last six years, Advizzo has been working with water companies across the globe, proving that our behavioural science based customer engagement programmes can achieve water use efficiency targets.
We have been running some of the largest experiments in reducing water consumption with customer engagement programmes. You can read about some of our recent projects on our case studies page, including our work with Anglian Water, South East Water, Yorkshire Water and Southern Water.
Are you ready to improve your customer engagement and service? Talk to us today to book a free demo of our innovative and successful customer engagement platform. We can’t wait to work with you!