Utility Week

26 | 8TH - 14TH NOVEMBER 2019 | UTILITY WEEK Operations & Assets I was happy to be part of the Smart Customer Service Panel at the Utility Week Congress 2019, giving my perspective as chief executive of MOSL, the market operator for the non- household (NHH) water market. There is always a challenge when we talk about "smart" technology in the water industry. Sitting on a panel with rep- resentatives from water and energy, it struck me that we still have a long way to go in terms of innovation and the demand-led services we o‰ er to customers. As one audience member observed, there was a lot of talk about the issues we face within utilities, but less talk on how we plan to actually resolve them. We spoke about the introduc- tion of smart metering and its Supporting vulnerable customers is both an industry and social challenge that requires collaboration. Industry could be missing out by not letting customers become part of the service solution. Vulnerable customers Matt Cole, Head of customer vulnerability, Npower Water Sarah McMath Chief executive, MOSL L iving without heat, power and hot water is something that most in Britain think has been consigned to history. Scratching the surface just a little in communities with high levels of fuel poverty, or at the are heading towards. But even though the coin slots might have gone, if you prepay for fuel, run out of money to top up and can't get help, then the e‰ ect is the same. The lights and gas will go out frighteningly soon. Customers running out of money for fuel – or self-discon- nection as us industry types call it – is a real issue for many. Citizens Advice talks about more than one million people self-disconnecting a year, and Ofgem recently consulted on new standards to harmonise the support that can be provided. But let's be honest – very few households decide to self- disconnect. It's not a choice: there's simply too much month le" at the end of the money, and logically fuel goes before you stop buying food for yourself or your kids. Well-managed budg- ets can suddenly go astray when an unexpected but essential bill lands on the doormat, or there is a delay in money being paid into the bank, or perhaps worse. A few years ago Npower developed the "Fuel Bank" to provide emergency same- day support to people in this situation. They didn't need to be Npower customers, but just to have been referred by a commu- nity partner, such as the Trussell Trust, which was trying to get them back on an even keel. A £30 gi" credited directly to the meter gets the lights relit that day. In the four years since Chris- sie and her young son Charlie impact on customers. Where the energy market has intro- duced smart metering across its networks, albeit to a mixed response from its diverse cus- tomer base, the water industry is still grappling with the basics of metering – from locating and reading a meter, to getting veri˜ able data into our central systems in order to provide cus- tomers with more accurate and timely bills. And this is just one aspect of the long, and o" en complex, journey water ˜ rms go through in their e‰ orts to provide good service to their customers. Fur- ther complications come when we look at the ownership of meter reading in the NHH water market since the introduction of competition in April 2017. Outside of utilities, we are continually seeing examples of innovative customer service o‰ erings. The likes of Amazon, provid- ing next-day delivery on the majority of its stock, and Netš ix, giving viewers on-demand TV in their home through the app and across di‰ erent devices and accounts, marks a step in the right direction for demand-led customer service. But what are utilities doing to keep up? Although the NHH market is still relatively immature, what we have yet to see in the two-and-a-half years since it opened is meaningful posi- tive disruption. Disruption in terms of service propositions, for example, for lower vol- ume users, and disruption in terms of harnessing technol- ogy to provide customers with a seamless experience. And, even more importantly, greater access to data so that they can make informed decisions about who they choose to supply their services – whether that's water, energy or broadband. Consumers are a lot more informed and technology-savvy than they were 20 or 30 years ago. Not only should we be meeting their demands for more seamless and data-led services, we should also be tapping into the potential for them to become part of the service and the solution. Getting good quality data into the market is essential if custom- ers are to see the bene˜ ts of accurate and timely bills based on true consumption data. As it stands, meter reads can only be put into the market's central system by retailers who supply water and wastewater services to the customer. But what if this was opened up to customers? What if custom- ers could access their meter, upload a photo of a reading to a dedicated app and input that data directly into the system? Not only would this allow more data to get into the market at the touch of a button, but it would put customers in the driving seat. Water customers would also be able to track their consump- tion, potentially leading to great water e¢ ciency savings. Innovation and "smart" tech- nology must always play a role in 21st century customer service, but true disruption comes from thinking outside the box. That means asking why we do some- thing the way we do, and if it's not working or seems illogical, ˜ nding ways to improve it. wrong end of the multiple dep- rivation indices, tells a di‰ erent story. Fi" y-pence slot meters to pay for electricity and gas feel a million miles away from the smart future we as a country

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