Background

Affinity Water is the largest water-only supplier in the UK and is committed to delivering a high quality water service to all its customers. The supplier provides, on average, 900 million litres of water each day to a population of more than 3.6 million people in parts of Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Surrey, the London Boroughs of Harrow and Hillingdon and parts of the London Boroughs of Barnet, Brent, Ealing and Enfield. It also supplies water to the Tendring peninsula in Essex and the Folkestone and Dover areas of Kent.

The challenge

Customer service is crucial for Affinity Water. However, leaving customers waiting too long for a response and resolution to queries or issues leads to low scores for Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) and the Service Incentive Mechanism (SIM) – the latter of which is designed to encourage water companies to provide better customer services.

The solution

Processing around 240,000 inbound customer queries per year via email, letter and self-service channels, Sopra Steria invested in new software, such as workflow tools, automated key customer processes, and introduced a new digital customer response mechanism to keep customers informed.

The results

With our help, Affinity Water has reduced its costs, improved efficiency and is better positioned in the minds of existing and potential customers:

• Affinity Water’s CSAT scores have improved
• The firm achieved one of its highest SIM scores ever in March 2018 – just six months after we took over additional contractual services
• We use our RPA (Robotic Process Automation) capability to enable the instant resolution of queries and deliver ongoing feedback on progress