Why are we talking to customers?
Our strategies and plans
Asking customers if our business plan is affordable
Below are the promises we are making to our customers of what we will deliver between 2020-2025. These are based on the areas that our customers have told us are most important to them. Find out more and have your say below.
During 2017 and 2018 we asked around 40,000 customers what key areas they want us to focus on now and in the future and how much they want us to invest in these areas. We used all this feedback to put together a draft business plan with a series of promises and targets and also worked out how much customers’ bills would cost to deliver it. We then needed to go back out to our customers to understand, if they found our plan to be acceptable and affordable.
What customers told us
As we are one company made up of Cambridge Water and South Staffs Water, we tested the acceptability of the plan during July 2017, using household (HH) and business (NHH) customers from both regions. There was no noticeable variation in the number of customers supporting our plans between our two regions. You can find out more about what our customers said by clicking on the sections below.
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Find out how many customers found our plan acceptable
How acceptable did customers find our plan? Before versus after they were informed:
Majority of customers found the plan acceptable, both before and after, it was explained.
Which customers changed their view most after being informed?
After they had heard the details of the plan, business (NHH) customers found it much more acceptable.
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See how many customers found our plan affordable
How affordable did customers find our plan? Before versus after they were informed:
Seven out of ten found the plan affordable increasing to 76% after they were informed
Which customers changed their view most after being informed?
After they had heard the details of the plan, both customer types found it more affordable.
Seven out of ten found the plan affordable increasing to 76% after they were informed
Which customers changed their view most after being informed?
After they had heard the details of the plan, both customer types found it more affordable.
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View which bill level our customers preferred
How would our customers prefer changes to clean water charges to be reflected in their bills?
Option A: a typical flat bill of the same amount each year; or
Option B: a fall/rise where the amounts varied over the five years of the business plan
80% of HH and NHH customers preferred option A - a typical flat bill
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Find out how many customers said they trusted us to deliver our plan
How much do our customers trust us? Before versus after they were informed:
Almost two-thirds gave a score of eight or more out of ten for trust in our brand; only 2% gave a score of less than three out of ten.
Which customers changed their view most after being informed?
After they heard the details of the plan, the scores for trust increased among household (HH) customers, but fell for business (NHH) customers, who expressed dounts that we could deliver an improved service at a lower bill level.
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See how many customers think our plan is value for money
How much value for money do our customers feel they get? Before versus after they were informed:
More than half of our customers gave a score of eight or more out of ten for value for money.
Which customers changed their view most after being informed?
After they had heard the details of the plan, the scores for value for money increased amongst all customers.
More than half of our customers gave a score of eight or more out of ten for value for money.
Which customers changed their view most after being informed?
After they had heard the details of the plan, the scores for value for money increased amongst all customers.
How we're using the feedback
The results highlight that our Business Plan for 2020-2025 is the right one for our customers and is affordable for the vast majority. It also showed that the 28 targets in our plan where going far enough for most customers.
For those customers who said our bills were not affordable, we will continue to focus our efforts on raising awareness of the financial support we offer through our social tariff and other financial support schemes and also look at ways to give customers more flexibility around when and how much of their water bill they need to pay
And we have listened to our customers’ feedback and put in place plans to keep bills flat, including the impact of inflation, over the period 2020-2025.
You can find out more details about how we are planning to keep improving the service to customers and achieve our proposed targets in our Business Plan.
Who carried out the study?
We used the independent research agency Accent Research to carry out the research. This followed a thorough selection process, which helped us make sure the feedback is totally independent and unbiased. We also closely followed the Consumer Council for Water’s expectations for testing the acceptability of our business plan with customers.
The Independent Customer Panel also reviewed and challenged how we approached this work. This was so we could be sure we asked customers the right questions and that we correctly interpreted what they said.