Dee Valley overhauls customer engagement strategy

Dee Valley Water has overhauled its customer engagement regime with an eye on using the improved feedback to shape its PR19 business plan.

Feedback will now be provided on a “regular and daily basis” rather than during less frequent and bigger pieces of work commissioned specifically for the price review as a result of Dee Valley’s partnership with customer engagement specialists Rant and Rave.

The move comes as Ofwat continues with the principle for PR19 that the water companies should “own” their business plans, developing them to meet the wants and needs of their customers.

Dee Valley Water head of customer service Wendy Jones told Utility Week: “We will be using this feedback, amongst other feedback, to shape our PR19 business plan.

“We’re hoping we will be aware of what we need to build into the business plan and what we need to address because of the regular feedback from customers.”

The first changes have already been implemented to Dee Valley’s billing team, with a dedicated member of staff being employed to deal with feedback and to introduce improvements based on customer comments. The full feedback channels will be in use from 24 September when the email channel goes live, joining the SMS engagement currently in operation.

Jones added that as well as helping to shape the company’s next business plan, the comments are already being used to improve customer service.

“This direct feedback is already helping us shape how we work with customers. If there are any issues, we can ring a customer back, get them into positive dialogue, and then implement the changes so we don’t repeat those issues again.”

Similar changes to how the company engages with customers are set to be rolled out to Dee Valley’s network inspector teams and to its staff who assess the water quality in its region in the coming months.