Get customers on your side

If we want to build a resilient future for water services, we need more positive engagement and collaboration with everyone impacting the water cycle.

Beyond the focus on resilience at PR19, water is becoming more and more recognised as a global risk to the future wellbeing of society. We cannot ignore, or write off as bad luck, events such as sudden cold snaps, prolonged hot spells or extreme downpours. They are happening too often.

Water companies need to continue to build resilience, but we cannot expect them to act in isolation. It is going to take a focus on more positive engagement with customers and wider stakeholders to create the collaboration and active participation needed.

Creating a live universe of information

We often don’t know what information we have access to and whether we need it, but a wealth of information exists at our fingertips. And whether we think we need it or not, as soon as we get access to it, we want more. If we can create content that presents “in-the-moment” information, it becomes engaging.

If we really want customers to engage and change their behaviour, we need to give them up-to-date information in the here and now. Social media is a channel, but this tends to be ad hoc and in response to an event. Presenting it as an ongoing stream and in a consistent format drives familiarity and greater understanding. It also builds a picture of reality: if this is the situation, we do this, and you do this, and this happens. A realisation of cause and effect will change behaviour.

The need for authentic content

The extent of plastic contamination in our oceans and its impact on wildlife provided authentic content in that particular environmental battle. What if we were able to provide similar, authentic content about what’s happening in the water industry?

In the automotive sector, when a customer takes their car to get an MOT, the mechanic will take a video showing the underneath of the car, or of how much the tyres or brakes are worn. This video is sent to the customer before any bill is presented, allaying any fears about being “ripped off”.

If we were to do the same in the water industry we might think differently about how we value water in our everyday lives and how much we are prepared to pay for it. This type of content also breaks down the “us” and “them” barrier, showing what water companies do through the people doing it.

If consumers are going to change their behaviour, they must see the value in doing things differently. They also need to see for themselves that others are doing it.

There is a broad spectrum of consumers, each with their own drivers. At on end of the spectrum we have “active eco-warriors” who make compromises to help the environment. At the other we have “super savers”, motivated by financial savings. Everyone else is somewhere between the two.

Campaigns need to play to the needs across all this spectrum. But this is only part of the story. More powerful messaging comes from customers telling their own stories. It’s not about directly recruiting customers to do this, but more authentically it’s about providing the facilities for customers to upload their experiences to the water company’s website or tagged to social media streams. The more this happens, the more engagement and consensus to “do your bit” is built.

Creating a community exchange

We also need to think about how we engage communities and key stakeholders in the water cycle. Much of what is being done is limited to discrete groups and lacks visibility.

A great example of where real change happens through collaboration is where networks or “community economies” are created. Water companies could lead this effort by creating and hosting a community exchange, not just pushing their own agenda, but allowing others to add content about initiatives they want to promote, with an opportunity to request support and resources.

We must be better at anticipating the challenges we have as an industry and demonstrating that we are better prepared for them – particularly for an industry being affected by more frequent and extreme weather events. Any empathy or goodwill customers have towards their water company soon disappears when they are hit with burst pipes, flooding or water restrictions.

Whenever we have an extreme event we can some off as appearing to be on the back-foot. Apologies are posted, accompanied by messages of what the company is doing to reduce the impact on customers. What if we were better at selling the same messages upfront? By doing this we are more likely to create goodwill, so when services are impacted, customers appreciate that as much as could be done was done.

Public trust and perceptions about water companies are driven by many factors. Transparency about financial structures, profits, returns to investors and what they charge customers are all areas under scrutiny. Many of these areas are under the spotlight, not only by regulators, but also by politicians.

No matter how efficient and well managed they are, there will always be a spectre hanging over water companies. In extremes – when resilience counts – much of what they do is dictated by the availability (too little or too much) of a finite natural resource and consumer demand for a product society cannot live without.

We need to reduce waste and increase efficiency, so the industry needs to elicit more positive support and make calls for action targeted at consumers. In the same way policymakers have responded to support the war on plastic, they should support engaging society to build a resilient water future.