Water & Wastewater Treatment Magazine
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/1223154
www.wwtonline.co.uk | WWT | XXXX 20XX | 19 In Focus T he new methods of evaluating cus- tomer service and experience have been well-signposted. A preparatory pilot year draws to a close on 31 March. Water companies have been redesigning their customer engagement strategies over the past few years to align with the regulator's incoming requirements. Still the new financial year officially ushers in the performance scores for the first time. Water utilities' effectiveness in serving and communicating with customers will be more sharply comparable against the scores of other water providers and performances of companies in different industries across the UK. The game is on to see who tops the list. "Obviously our ambition is always to be number one, but we recognise that every other water company is looking to do the same," says Steve Betteridge, head of developer services at Severn Trent, who oversees the company's response to the D-MeX challenge. "Certainly, we want to be in reward and certainly we want to be in the upper quartile." The regula- tor will produce league tables of C-MeX and D-MeX scores yearly. It will grant payments or impose penalties depending on utilities' performance against targets. Therefore customer service — which formed one of four key themes in Ofwat's regulatory Price Review 2019 (PR19) shap- ing the industry's seventh Asset Manage- ment Plan (AMP7) — has rapidly risen up water companies' roster of priorities. "It is a great opportunity for us to take internal permission to have a much broader conversation about how our or- www.wwtonline.co.uk | WWT | APRIL 2020 | 19 The customer challenge Ofwat is injecting a fresh note of competition into the water business with the new customer measure of experience (C-MeX) and developer services measure of experience (D-MeX) scoring regime beginning on 1 April. This article examines what the water companies are doing to respond to these challenges.