Thames: ‘Growing PSR is getting the basics right’

Last month Thames Water changed how it registers customers for its priority services. By updating its legal basis for acquiring and holding customer data to ‘substantial public interest’, friends, family members or carers can now add someone to the company’s priority services register on their behalf. Peter Cotton, priority services manager at Thames, explains how the company plans to support even more customers in the future

We provide life’s essential service and we aim to keep taps flowing every day of the year but sometimes when things go wrong, it helps to have extra support measures in place for our customers who need it most.

Being medically reliant on water, having a physical disability or mobility issues are some of the criteria for customers who wish to join our priority services register (PSR) – a free service which aims to deliver bottled water to customers’ doorsteps during an incident, provides advanced notice of planned works which could affect their supply and tailored communication services.

There are currently 84,000 people on the PSR and our plan is to increase it to 410,000 customers by 2025. To make this ambitious goal a reality it’s clear we need to do more to understand which of our customers may need our help.

We’re now registering customers under substantial public interest, allowing third parties like relatives, carers and charities to add someone on their behalf. Customers joining the register prior to this had to give explicit consent by signing their name and/or ticking a box, which can be difficult if they have a disability or chronic illness.

We recently informed all customers of this change and to ensure the right checks and balances are in place, we’ll continue to engage directly with customers that are added to the register to ensure we are accurately catering for their needs.

Our regulators (the Information Commissioner’s Office and Ofwat) are supportive of this project and are in favour of data sharing practices between utility companies. Water companies need to catch up in this area as data sharing agreements for priority customers are already in place between energy suppliers – and the distribution network operators (DNO), which we are aiming to join as a water sector.

Recruiting new people to the PSR goes hand in hand with getting the basics right. Over the past year, we’ve been hard at work updating our systems to improve the customer experience for our priority service customers.

We’ve just completed the biannual check in with customers on the PSR to make sure their details are still correct and up to date. This involved sending out over 84,000 emails and letters to our customers and we’ve invested in a new automated process for our webforms which means customers can now fully self-serve to register, update their details or remove themselves from the PSR.

It’s also important we improve how we communicate with current PSR customers so we can meet their needs. Working with our language translation service, LanguageLine, and Deaf groups, we’ve recently piloted and introduced the British Sign Language (BSL) app into our support services for Deaf customers.

The app gives our customer representatives live face-to-face access to a BSL interpreter using a handheld device or a laptop. The app is activated during visits to Deaf customers’ homes to enable more inclusive and accessible communications.

Around 900 people on the PSR are registered deaf and these customers will benefit by having immediate access to an interpreter rather than waiting two weeks for a home appointment.

Moving forward, collaborating and forging new partnerships with NHS trusts and third sector organisations will be crucial in raising awareness of the support services we offer.

Recent CCW research has found fewer people are aware of water companies’ priority services, which makes these partnerships even more important for connecting with hard-to-reach customers.

Over the last year we have partnered with the Renal Association and the National Kidney Federation to encourage people living with kidney disease to sign up for the PSR and to improve our protocols for supporting these customers. We’re also piloting a project with Age UK Berkshire, which aims to help up to 500 service users a year sign up to the register.

Priority services are an extra helping hand for customers who need it most.  We’re changing the way we record people’s details on the PSR, to ensure we can better meet our customers’ needs and by working with our customers and their supporters, unlock more opportunities so we can help even more customers in the future.