Our customers: water services

Every five years, Thames Water produce a new, updated business plan. As they put it, 'what our customers want defines what we do' – so it's crucial for them to ensure these key, strategic decisions are informed by feedback from customers.

Thames Water adopted Citizen Space to allow them to conduct regular consultations, at scale, with their customers, online. It gives them a simple way to build, publish, manage, analyse and report on digital surveys and consultations, even with tens of thousands of respondents.

"Feedback from our customers and stakeholders is really important. Our plan looks at how we supply water to our nine million customers so it’s vital we get it spot on. That’s why we’ve revised the parts of plan based on the feedback we’ve already had and now want to hear more on the changes we’ve made."

Head of Environmental Regulation, Thames Water

Scottish Water provide vital water and waste water services to nearly every household and business in Scotland. Their vision is 'to be trusted to care for the water on which Scotland depends'. Key to this trust is demonstrating that they listen well to their customers. So when Scottish Water were reviewing their Strategic Plan, they wanted to make sure they opened up an extensive public consultation.

As part of a wide-reaching 'Shaping the Future' campaign, Scottish Water used Citizen Space alongside a number of in-person events. This helped to maximise accessibility, providing a user-friendly digital response mechanism where people could participate at any time.

"We want to hear whether customers think we have identified the right priorities to build on our successes in the years ahead. We also want to listen to customers’ views about future charge levels and the extent to which they would like to see service improvements in return."

Chief Executive, Scottish Water

As a water corporation, Yarra Valley Water had to make a price submission to the Essential Services Commission. They wanted to demonstrate that they had listened to the concerns and expectations of their customers, so used Simulator to collect feedback online.

Yarra Valley Water used a Bill Simulator model – where participants could adjust spending across different service packages, letting them decide how much they would be happy to pay for the quality of service they want. This deliberative process provided the corporation with valuable insight into their customers' priorities – and also ensured that this input was considered, informed and realistic.

"We embarked on one of the most comprehensive customer engagement initiatives the Australian water industry has ever seen. The outcomes have provided a platform to ensure we have a clear understanding of our customers’ needs and expectations."

Price review report, Yarra Valley Water