8 | SEPTEMBER 2018 | WWT | www.wwtonline.co.uk
Eyes on the prize
The Talk: interview
A
s Northumbrian Water Group
embarked on its 'unrivalled
customer experience strategy' in
2016, a three-day innovation sprint set
about answering a question: How might
the company make customers' lives easier
and work smarter as a business?
The sprint participants had been
exploring ways to improve customer jour-
neys and were discussing the fact that,
when people called to report a problem
such as a suspected leak, the company
would usually have to send a distribution
technician (DT) out to the property, which
took seven days on average.
"Then somebody came up with a bril-
liant idea," Northumbrian Water customer
director Claire Sharp says. "They asked:
'What if we could see inside customers'
homes?'"
The Utileyes app – which
allows Northumbrian Water
Group technicians to view
potential problems inside
customers' homes and
elsewhere remotely – was
recently named Customer
Service Initiative of the Year
at the 2018 Water Industry
Awards
By Robin Hackett
When one of the participants men-
tioned a video-sharing tool that had been
used at Northumbrian's Information Ser-
vices 2015 Conference, the potential was
clear: customers could download an app
and, using the camera on their device,
allow the DTs to make a 'virtual visit'.
Northumbrian began work on making
the idea a reality and, while an initial
plan to make use of a pre-existing app
had to be aborted due to data protection
issues, the company was able to develop
its own so'ware successfully.
The Utileyes app was launched in July
2017 and, in its first year, the company
was able to virtually validate in excess of
400 leaks.
"Every visit that we do virtually saves
us at least £50 in terms of a technician go-
ing out, and clearly it's massively quicker
The app allows a 'virtual visit' to take
place to the customer's property
