Measure of customer service

Supply Pipe Ownership - The Customer View

Reference: 14/CU/01/8
ISBN: 1 84057 748 7
Published Date: 06/01/2015

This report documents findings from independent research which looks at customers' views of supply pipe ownership, the extent to which they feel industry adoption is necessary and whether they are willing to pay for it.

A robust programme of qualitative and quantitative research was undertaken with householders and businesses (from SMEs to large businesses) across England and Wlaes. Private landlords, housing associations amd local authorities were also consulted. In addition, desk research was undertaken which directly fed into the design of the main research programme materials.

The report provides some valuable insights into customers' views and makes recommendations on what companies can do now to educate customers on the current supply pipe arrangement and their current supply pipe repair policies; provides guidance on what customers are willing to pay should the transfer happen and outlines the service customers will expect to receive.

Alternative SIM Measure: Implementation Plan

Reference: 14/CU/01/7
ISBN: 1 84057 739 8
Published Date: 04/09/2014

The objective of this report was to research whether an alternative Service Incentive Mechanism (SIM) survey could be introduced for the period 2015-2020 that supported Ofwat's aim to increase water company focus on improving customer satisfaction. The project defined and tested a simpler SIM survey for capturing customer views on the qualitative aspects of customer satisfaction. It also assessed the feasibility of replacing the existing quantitative performance metrics with a single metric of the total number of customer complaints. The project concluded that the revised survey would achieve Ofwat's objective, would also be less costly to operate and would provide a good comparative metric across water companies. A single qualitative metric of 'Customer Experience' should be used for the comparative SIM. The use of a quantitative metric of 'total complaints' was supported for the comparative SIM altough further investigation into the definition and recording of complaints was recommended.

Options for Refocusing SIM Towards a Measure Based Only on Consumer Satisfaction and Perception

Reference: 12/CU/01/6
ISBN: 1 84057 655 3
Published Date: 29/11/2012

The objectives for this research project were to: analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the current Service Incentive Mechanism (SIM); identify, evaluate and compare other qualitative and quantitative options; and recommend a preferred option and consider the regulatory and company impacts of introduction/adoption.
The project team recommended one option as the most viable for refocusing the SIM for the next regulatory cycle (2015-2020). It is an evolutionary approach which simplifies the current SIM metrics to focus on industry standard overall satisfaction measures of Service Quality, Customer Effect Score, Customer Experience and the Net Promoter Score for the qualiltative component. A single quantitative metric of the total number of complaints from all contact channels is also proposed.