A high number of UK customers feel they lack a personal relationship with their water company according to a recent survey into billing and satisfaction.
The report called The Secrets of Better Billing found 12 per cent of customers felt “actively engaged” with their supplier while 51 per cent of customers said they felt like suppliers treated them as “just another number”.
A further 20 per cent of respondents said their supplier understands their needs, while 18 per cent said they do not care what the supplier does.
Despite the proportion expressing apathy, the research highlights customer interest in greater transparency from water suppliers to show where and how money is spent.
This was especially true of younger customers with 75 per cent of 25-34-year-olds interested in where customer money goes compared to 60 per cent of over-55s.
Individual customer responses included interest in how much money is spent on staff wages and bonuses compared to the amount spent on the environment; in how much is spent on leakage and water conservation and spend on service and supply improvements.
Some customers responded that information about spending did not interest them and they would access information elsewhere if they wanted to but didn’t want to see it on the bill; others said they trusted the company to spend money wisely.
The water sector was shown to be behind other utilities in the use of digitalised billing with 55 per cent of customers receiving paper bills, however customers showed little appetite for seeing modernisation with fewer than five per cent wanting companies to offer alternative ways to receive bills.
Similarly, customers are generally satisfied with their understanding of bills although 14 per cent felt too much jargon was used and 39 per cent wanted bills to be easier to understand.
Customer indifference to bills and what companies do was further seen when it came to reading bills, with 12 per cent of customers admitting to not looking at them, 40 per cent only scanning the bill and 48 per cent actually reading it properly.
The report, by Echo Managed Services, surveyed 1,000 water customers on their relationship and satisfaction with their water supplier.