Customer Contact Matters: Insights from Water Matters 2024
Water Matters report – what are the findings telling us?
It has been a few months since CCW published Water Matters 2024 back in May. As the longest-running in-depth survey of water customers, this research gathers a lot of detail, we are following up with a series of shorter, ‘mini reports’ looking in greater depth at specific themes from the Water Matters 2024 data.
This summary looks at customer contact – in terms of customer satisfaction with how companies deal with customer complaints/queries, as well as views on companies’ communication around services and plans. This helps us understand whether companies are focused on delivering a truly customer-focused culture, an important strand of CCW’s Forward Work Programme.
Headline findings
- While we did not see the same dramatic falls this year in scores as we did for customer satisfaction with environmental performance, we are still seeing a steady decline in satisfaction among customers who contacted their company.
- Overall contact is increasing, but not among the most financially vulnerable customers or those who worry about being able to pay their bills.
- Many customers who were dissatisfied with their company’s’ communication said they were unable to recall any contact at all, besides bills.
- The gap between the best and the worst in terms of customer service is widening.
More customers are contacting their company – but are less happy with customer service
In this year’s Water Matters survey, a quarter of customers (25%) said that they had had some form of contact with their water and/or sewerage company in the past 12 months. This number has been steadily climbing over recent years, and is now at its highest level since the survey began.
This figure is not bad news in itself – it is important that customers can feel confident about contacting their company if they have queries or concerns, or need extra support. However, it is discouraging that, while contact has been rising, satisfaction with contact has simultaneously been steadily decreasing over the past decade in England and Wales, from 83% in 2014 down to 74% this year, the lowest score yet recorded. Wales saw a smaller fall over the same period, from 84% in 2014 down to 79% this year – the first time its score has fallen below 80% for this metric.
The most common reason for contacting companies remains billing enquiries (29%). Given this, it is concerning that we also saw this year the lowest level of customers saying they would contact their company if worried about paying their bill – down to 68%, from 71% last year. This fall in score cuts across all socio-economic groups. It suggests that, despite an increase in overall customer contact, those potentially more financially vulnerable customers are still not seeking support.
Figure 1
There is much more still to be done to improve communication about services and/or plans
When looking more closely at those customers in our survey who said they were dissatisfied with their company’s customer service, by far the most common explanation was ‘lack of communication and/or information’. 61% of answers mentioned this, across England and Wales.
Another question in the survey asks specifically, ‘how well does your company communicate with you about its services and plans’? This year, only 47% of customers gave a net positive answer – the lowest score since the question was added in 2019. This is down from 50% last year, and 54% the year before. Despite companies’ efforts to improve communication, the trend of customer satisfaction is actually a negative one.
There have been some positive developments – more customers reported receiving updates and communication via email, which they found more convenient. However, as Figure 2 (below) shows, a lack of helpful communication from companies is still an issue for many. Indeed, among those customers who were dissatisfied with how their company communicated about its services and plans, a third (33%) said they didn’t remember receiving any communication apart from bills.
It is unsurprising that negative perceptions of water companies have grown over time, as our previous Water Matters mini-report showed, when a significant proportion of customers hear nothing about either their company’s plans for the future, or any potentially relevant services it may offer.
Figure 2
View enlarged word cloud image (jpg)
In last year’s report from CCW into Customer-Centric Culture, we explored what good communication and improved engagement looks like across all the stages of a customer’s journey. These latest findings in Water Matters re-emphasise the necessity for all water companies to start or continue to make improvements in this area.
Some improvements are being made – but there are large regional disparities
A note of caution should be added that this data is looking at a subset of customers, who had contacted their company in the past 12 months and so in some cases involves small sample sizes. Nevertheless, it is worth reflecting on the fact that variation in score by company was more pronounced in this year’s findings than ever before. As the table below shows, for every metric by which we measure satisfaction with customer contact, the gap between highest and lowest performing company has increased from last year, sometimes dramatically so:
| Category | Highest score | Lowest score | Gap between scores (and change from last year) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ease of contacting someone who was able to help you | 94% (Northumbrian Water) | 58% (Southern Water) | 36% (+10%) |
| Quality/clarity of information provided | 94% (Northumbrian Water) | 59% (Southern Water) | 35% (+12%) |
| Knowledge/professionalism of staff | 94% (Northumbrian Water) | 64% (Southern Water) | 30% (+1%) |
| The feeling that your contact had been/would be resolved | 100% (Northumbrian Water) | 51% (Southern Water) | 49% (+19%) |
| The way that your water company has kept you informed of progress with your enquiry/complaint | 88% (Northumbrian Water) | 45% (Southern Water) | 43% (+4%) |
| Net satisfaction with customer contact | 94% (Northumbrian Water) | 52% (Southern Water) | 42% (+7%) |
Out of 19 companies, 7 actually managed to improve their score from last year’s survey when it came to net satisfaction with customer contact. These were: Anglian Water, Northumbrian Water, Thames Water, United Utilities, Cambridge Water, Affinity Water and SES Water. Again, this is not to disguise the disappointing overall picture; but it is just as important to show where improvements are being made as it is to highlight poor performance.
Conclusion
While some of the questions in Water Matters deal with wider customer perceptions about their company and the water industry as a whole, the company contact findings discussed above are largely focused on those who have recently raised a complaint or query, and so have direct experience on which to draw.
For this reason, the record low scores across England and Wales as a whole for satisfaction with company contact this year should give companies particular cause for concern.
It is welcome that some companies are improving their scores around certain elements of dealing with customer contact – but it is a patchy picture at present, with the gap between better and worse performers growing ever wider. At a time when bills are rising, companies need to do more to tell customers how their money is being spent, as well as what additional help is available to them.
Far more still needs to be done, particularly given that some of the companies with the lowest satisfaction levels had higher than average proportions of customers getting in touch with queries or complaints.
Our forthcoming Household Complaints Report will look at these issues in more detail, building on the key work of CCW’s complaints assessments which provide insights into the aspects of companies’ customer service that need the most improvement.
But these findings are a clear reminder that giving customers the best possible service at all stages of a complaint journey has to be the first step in restoring confidence that their company cares about the service it provides, and, in so doing, start to restore trust levels.