Customer complaints about water suppliers have fallen by 70 per cent since the peak in 2007/8, but problems relating to billing, metering disputes and debt recovery persist.
In its paper ‘Getting the Measure of Billing and Debt Complaints’, CCW – formerly the Consumer Council for Water – set out best practice and case studies highlighting ways the water industry can settle bill disputes and debt recovery.
The paper showed bills and charges have consistently been the root of most grievances over the past decade, with around 50 per cent of issues in that category. According to CCW’s research, this directly influences customer perceptions of fairness and value for money.
CCW said companies should address the root causes by offering households a transitional period when switching to a meter; flagging bill spikes and communicating changes to proactively avoid disagreements; reading meters frequently; and making regular contact with billpayers.
Carl Pegg, head of consumer relations at CCW said disputes over bills and debts continue to cause anxiety for many billpayers, despite the fall in numbers.
“Getting the basics right with bills is essential but companies also need to invest more time and resources in getting to know and understand their customers and the individual challenges they face,” Pegg said.
Disputed liability queries caused the majority of complaints over the past five years and with more households becoming metered each year companies were encouraged to anticipate problems and prepare customers for any unexpected changes to bills.
CCW suggested offering water audits to find any problems on a property that are causing excess usage. It said frequent meter readings will also help to identify issues before the customer has reason to complain.
The worst performing companies when it comes to debt recovery were Southern Water and Welsh Water, which received complaints at rates four times the national average. South West and Thames were also above the average of 0.3 complaints per 10,000 connections.
Meanwhile Portsmouth, Bournemouth and Wessex were lauded as the three best performing companies. CCW praised Portsmouth Water, for example, for only issuing a bill after validating any increases in consumption, communicating with the billpayer about changes and sending technicians out to find and fix leaks or check the accuracy of meters.
CCW noted an issue around complaints relating to instances where billpayers were encouraged to enter unsuitable repayment agreements and thus fell behind. Companies were advised to offer customised financial assistance, avoid threats of court action for debtors and communicate via different mediums to avoid customers becoming “immune” to reminders.
The report said companies must learn from CCW’s assessment and examine how to support customers as, despite improvements around affordability and debt management, the same issues continue to arise.
The body will launch a campaign in March to reduce the number of billing and charges disputes and will host a workshop for companies to share successes and ways to improve service. Progress will be monitored over the coming year and recounted in a subsequent report and workshop session.
You can read the full report here.