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People & Opinion Utility Week community UTILITY WEEK | 16TH - 22ND DECEMBER 2016 | 7 South East Water South East Water has appointed Zoe McLeod as the new independent chair of its Customer Challenge Group. She succeeds Roger Darlington, who served in the post for five years. McLeod specialises in policy, communications and regulation issues, and has more than 10 years' experience championing customer concerns, with emphasis on vulnerable groups. She is currently an associate with the charity Sustainability First, and was previously a member of Ofwat's expert advisory panel. Association of Decentralised Energy Ed Davey and James Heappey have been appointed vice- presidents of the Association for Decentralised Energy (ADE). Davey was energy secretary under the coalition government from 2012 until 2015 and is currently the chairman of community energy company Mongoose Energy. Heappey was elected as the Con- servative MP for Wells in 2015 and was a member of the Energy and Climate Change Committee until it was disbanded in October. The two will join Labour shadow energy and climate change minister Alan Whitehead as vice- presidents of the ADE. EXECUTIVE APPOINTMENTS As retailers clamour for a share of the English water market in April, we will inevitably see greater discounting as suppli- ers aim to keep up with their peers. Of course, pricing will be high on most customer's wish lists, but keener prices will not be the only outcome of a competitive market. The need to differentiate, especially in a low-margin marketplace, will drive increased innovation and improvements in customer service. We have invested heavily in continually improving our customer experience because we believe this will be a key differentiation factor come April. In a competitive market, poor customer service will quickly result in lost revenue, with customers choosing to Speaker's corner Jo Dow, chief executive, Business Stream vote with their feet. But adopting a "customer-first" approach can help win and retain business. Utilities are generally not renowned as customer service leaders. So, in our drive to improve we have looked outside the industry and benchmarked ourselves against the very best of the best, including the likes of John Lewis, Amazon and Lush. We are implementing some guid- ing principles to help raise the bar from a service perspective and to create a more personal- ised, emotional connection with our customers. Our hard work and invest- ment is already paying off. Our latest independent customer research showed an improve- ment in customer satisfaction across all segments with a stepped increased in SME cus- tomer satisfaction. We are not standing still though. Our aim is to get it right first time for every customer and we are continuing to invest to achieve that aim. Innovation is another key area in which we have refocused and invested. With so much competition we've had to differ- entiate ourselves in the market, by providing a broader service offering to complement our core provision of water and wastewa- ter services. Since competition was introduced in Scotland, our portfolio has grown to include an extensive range of products and services, designed to help customers with all their water needs. That increased choice can only be good for custom- ers. England's business com- munity should expect to enjoy similar innovation come April, with solutions more tailored to their operational and business requirements. So, in short, while we are looking forward to the oppor- tunities that competition in England will bring, we're also ready to tackle the challenges. We'll be working to deliver the best customer experience we can provide, while continu- ing to invest in new products, services and technologies. As the market leader in Scotland with eight years' experience of competition under our belt, I'm confident that if we continue to put our customers first, then we will capitalise on the opportunities the new market brings. Jo Dow is speaking at the Utility Week Water Customer Conference on 18 January 2017 in Birmingham. For more information, visit: events.utilityweek.co.uk/ water International development char- ity WaterAid has been having a bit of fun with some of the com- munities in which it works in Nepal and Madagascar, setting them the Mannequin Challenge. Everyone from babies to builders in two rural villages in Brevato, Madagascar and Mahankaal in Kathmandu dis- trict, Nepal rose to the challenge of freezing for the camera in two light-hearted films. WaterAid communications and fundraising director Marcus Missen said: "Behind the fun of these films is an important mes- sage that we can't afford to stand still in our quest to bring water to everyone, everywhere. "The need for clean water unites us all, breaking down the barriers formed by the borders, cultures and kilometres between us. We are all united because we are all made of the same stuff – water." Watch the video from Madagas- car at: https://youtube/NCapnuEJoU4 Watch the video from Nepal at: https://youtube/bT5A-HldNng WATER Communities rise to the Mannequin Challenge