AWWA WSP57732

Customer Service has long been the Achilles heal of many water utilities worldwide. Customer perception affects many divisions within a utility. In the financial area it can affect payment patterns, which in turn affects cash flow, receivables and ultimately profit or loss. Community Relations strategies must be geared to customer perception. Human Resource is also affected, if a utility is perceived to be bad it might experience difficulty in attracting and retaining quality employees. In some countries regulatory bodies have been established to ensure that minimum quality standards are maintained that are based on international benchmarks. This paper discusses a methodology that was designed and implemented in Jamaica with tremendous success. This methodology stressed top management commitment, without which the best of intentions were failure bound. This methodology included analysis of service gaps, which is the difference between the service the customer perceives as being good versus the current service level from the utility. These service gaps were obtained through the establishment of focus groups and the employment of phantom customers. These gaps were broadly divided into operational issues and customer relations issues. The two broadly defined areas were then categorized and quantified using complaint tracking, time and motion studies, Pareto, histogram and trend analysis. Baseline data and subsequent data integrity was of utmost importance to ensure that correctly identified problems were the ones prioritized for action. After the major problems were identified, remedial actions were taken. These actions included staff assessment with a view to relocating, retraining and hiring new staff to ensure proper job fit; the re- engineering of some processes to ensure customer satisfaction and shorter response time. The results were then monitored and tracked to compare pre- and post- customer satisfaction levels. The service gap was decreased considerably. Incremental and continuous improvements will ensure that this gap remains small. This total paradigm shift and quantum improvements in customer service has been well documented in the Jamaican media and by the Jamaican regulatory body, the Office of Utility Regulations (OUR). Includes figures.