Customer engagement
Your views and feedback help us to improve our day-to-day services and plan future investment.
Customers are telling us what they think by:
- taking part in our Your say, your future surveys - your views will help to shape our plans for the future
- joining our customer panel and tell us what you think every three months about a range of topics
- being part of our young people's panel for 2018 if you're aged 16 to 18.
We also seek the views of our household and business customers and stakeholders with the help of independent research partners. This involves focus group discussions, workshops and online surveys as well as telephone or face-to-face interviews.
In addition we engage every day with customers about our day to day service using telephone, text surveys, feedback cards and social media.
Look out for our customer magazine which is designed to keep you updated on how we're improving services and other news - we send it to households throughout the region.
Make your voice heard
Tens of thousands of you have helped shape our investment plans for 2020-2025.
Our biggest ever consultation has involved:
- speaking to customers in person at community events
- collating your views from our magazine surveys
- collating your views from our interactive online game
- carrying out independent surveys, interviews, group discussions and more in depth engagement events
- taking on board your comments from our Have Your Say panel.
We have combined all of the feedback to understand what customers' views are on bills and services.
We'd now like to share with you what we are proposing to do over the next few years. We would love you to tell us what you think before they are finalised.
Follow how we're doing
Over the past few months we've been gathering your views on how we're performing.
From your input, we've developed a set of commitments to deliver what you've said is important which you can see on our website.
Our future performance
Find out more about what we plan to do in 2020 to 2025 in the video below:
How you can take part
Before we finalise our business plan we want your views on what we are proposing to do. Our plans cover the following eight key areas:
Efficient use of water
- Cut the amount of water that leaks by 15%.
- Help 100,000 customers use less water.
- But we won't stop you using a hosepipe.
Sewage flooding
- Keep being the best at stopping sewage flooding properties.
- Invest in bigger sewers.
- Work with customers to raise awareness on what you can safely flush.
Future proofing our services
- Minimise any breaks in your supply.
- Keep investing to protect against flood and drought.
- Keep investing in cyber security.
Affordable bills
- Bills won't rise more than inflation.
- 85,000 low income customers get reduced bill.
Excellent drinking water
- We're a leading company for water quality but we want to be the best.
- Replace three times as many lead pipes.
- Work with farmers to protect our sources of water.
Environment
- Improve 480 miles of local rivers.
- Stay at the top for environmental performance.
- Improve habitats for plants and wildlife.
Excellent service
- Expand our online services to make life easier for you.
- Answer the phone with a real person.
- Increase support for people in vulnerable circumstances.
- Be in the top 50 companies for service in the UK.
Partnering with you
- We want you to help us achieve these things.
- We'll make that as easy as possible for you, eg, by giving you free water saving devices.
- We'll also teach 150,000 schoolchildren about the water environment.
Don't forget, we are always keen to hear your views:
Tell us what you think by emailing yoursay@wessexwater.co.uk or write to Your Say Your Future, Wessex Water, Claverton Down, Bath BA2 7WW.
You can also participate regularly by joining our Have Your Say customer panel and by filling in our feedback surveys if you've been in touch with us.
What we’ve been up to:
Strategic direction:
We've carried out several months of consultation to update our long-term strategic vision document and develop our 8 long term priorities.
Leakage research:
We've been meeting customers to tell them how we're tackling leakage and asking them to work with us to create a package of performance-related promises.
Future proofing:
It's essential you have water and sewerage services that are reliable and you don't face interruptions, even in the most extreme circumstances. That's why we've been asking your views on how we future proof the services we provide.
We've also been asking a range of customers, businesses, retailers and stakeholders what they think of our plans for 2020 to 2025. We’ve taken particular care to hear the views of people in more vulnerable circumstances.
Staff have also been on the road visiting various towns across the region.
Trowbridge and Taunton were two of the towns we visited; the pictures above and below show our team meeting shoppers in The Shires who visited our stand to tell us what they thought about our future plans. The video below shows us meeting customers in Taunton.
What you’ve told us so far
Some of you have already given us your views on what we should be focusing on to maintain and improve the services we provide over the next 25 years.
You told us that:
- it's important that you are kept updated when we carry out work on your behalf. So we introduced our customer care team who regularly contact you with updates. We've just started the roll out of our a job tracker so you can follow progress online in the same way you can track a parcel
- you're keen to see further investment in innovative technology so we can continue to reduce leaks in an efficient way over time. Leakage is now half what it was in 1995
- you understand there is a balance to be struck between reducing leakage and the impact on bills. The majority of you would prefer lower bills to reduced leakage, provided there is no risk to water supplies or the environment
- you strongly support education for everybody on how to use less water, and you would be prepared to change your usage habits in the event of a water shortage caused by dry weather
- the majority of you would be prepared to pay a little more to future proof water services for generations to come, including investment in our infrastructure
- most of you prefer price changes in line with inflation as this reduces uncertainty
- many of our customers in vulnerable circumstances have very complex needs and you’re pleased to hear about the support we’re offering.
What happens next
In September 2018 we submitted our plans to Ofwat for the period 2020 to 2025. Once they've checked we have properly reflected customers' views and we are spending money efficiently, we agree with them the bills we're allowed to charge and the service level targets we'll deliver in return.
We'll continue to keep customers informed of more detailed plans as they develop and, importantly, share how your views have been taken on board. We will do this through our customer magazine, website and social media channels.
To ensure we're engaging with a wide range of people and stakeholders, the independent Wessex Water Partnership has been set up to monitor and report on the delivery of all aspects of our 2015 to 2020 business plan.