Customer Participation Report

From customer consultation to a culture of customer participation: THE NORTHUMBRIAN WATER GROUP AMBITION

www.nwl.co.uk | www.eswater.co.uk | 1 CONTENTS

ABOUT THIS DOCUMENT PAGE 4

FOREWORD PAGE 5

INPUTS FROM OUR WATER FORUMS PAGE 6

CUSTOMER PARTICIPATION: WHAT IT IS AND WHY IT IS NEEDED IN THE SECTOR PAGE 8

THE CUSTOMER PARTICIPATION MODEL PAGE 10

WHERE WE ARE ON OUR JOURNEY PAGE 12

OUR FUTURE VISION FOR CUSTOMER PARTICIPATION PAGE 19

DELIVERING OUR VISION PAGE 29

NEXT STEPS PAGE 32

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This document tells the Authentic and true customer participation is an In publishing our report at this stage of the Customers are at the heart of our business. This notion of control, along with trust, There is no reason why those in the water exciting prospect for the water industry and one journey we hope to demonstrate our ambition and This guiding principle has directed all that we is key, we feel, to the sector maintaining sector, who supply essential services, should story of where we are that can set us apart. However, there is more to do commitment to customer participation as well as do as a company over many years, including its legitimacy in the long term. not aspire to become leaders in this field. before customer participation becomes an integral to contribute to the debate on how the sector can the way in which we have consulted with on the journey to involve part of how we all do business. We are committed draw on the interests, points of view, experience customers and taken their views into account. The excitement the report’s publication created This level of change will require a great deal of customers of water and to making this step change in our thinking and and knowledge of customers in shaping services. prompted us to take stock of where we had got to commitment from the sector. However, we know we see this document as an initial marker along In the past few years, however, we have started in our own approach and to use the ‘FACE’ analysis from experience that customer participation wastewater services in the that journey. We would very much like to work with other to take our interactions with customers further in the ‘Tapped In’ report to identify the steps we leads to more creative and innovative solutions design and delivery of their colleagues from the water sector, or more broadly, – moving from consulting and listening, to need to take in order to place ourselves at the and more dynamic and meaningful relationships. To help us in the task we are using the analysis as we move forwards towards greater customer something deeper and more meaningful. frontier when it comes to customer participation. Importantly, the process itself helps cement future customer experience. provided in the ‘Tapped In’ report, which was participation, and would welcome thoughts, the emotional and cultural connection between commissioned by Ofwat and produced by comments and ideas: This shift developed in part from the benefits Change within the sector needs to be fast company and customer, leaving customers with a Corporate Culture in March 2017. In addition, we saw when we co-created our ‘Unrivalled paced and we are keen to share our experience much stronger sense of ownership of their services we are using the latest academic research into @NorthumbrianH2O, @ESWH20, Customer Experience’ strategy in 2015. and to learn from others. A collaborative and of the value of water for their everyday lives. participation to challenge our thinking and make or email [email protected]. approach between companies, along with sure our future approach is groundbreaking. When Ofwat published its ‘Tapped In’ report, customers and employees, will be helpful earlier this year, much of what it said resonated as we define, as a sector, what leading H Mottram OBE strongly with us. We support the view, set out customer participation should look like. Chief Executive Officer in the report, that customer participation taps into a wider movement to connect people There is much to be learned too by looking to the things that matter in their lives, giving at the practices of leading organisations them not only a voice but also more control. within other types of businesses.

We have engaged with We held a working session with the Forums in June, Similarly members discussed how we might where we shared details of the FACE framework identify what is likely to motivate customers our Customer Challenge for customer participation, and explored into more participative relationships. Other members’ views and experiences on the subject. helpful contributions included the direction Groups, the Water Forums, to use more positive and active language, as on our evolving customer The session provided an opportunity for this tends to lead to active engagement. members to challenge the company and to participation story. identify any areas where they felt customer We will continue to share our participation participation can and should be strengthened. strategy with Water Forum members and to incorporate their challenges and Forum members provided very valuable insights into our work in this area. inputs and made a range of contributions. For example, members pressed us to find out more about why some customers do not wish to engage – to understand what might act as barriers to engagement.

6 | www.nwl.co.uk | www.eswater.co.uk www.nwl.co.uk | www.eswater.co.uk | 7 CUSTOMER PARTICIPATION ENGAGING CUSTOMERS IN WHAT IT IS AND WHY IT IS NEEDED IN THE SECTOR SHAPING FUTURE SERVICES WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF CUSTOMER PARTICIPATION?

Customer participation is Launching the ‘Tapped In’ report earlier this year, TRADITIONAL CO-CREATION We believe that greater Customers and communities have local As customers become more engaged, so Ofwat’s CEO Cathryn Ross called on companies APPROACH (NOW) knowledge and expertise that can be does their understanding of the role the “the active involvement of to “think differently and more radically” about how customer participation and channelled to solve problems and identify sector plays, their ownership of the issues they view customers. (OLD) innovative approaches. it faces, and their appreciation of the value customers in the design, co-creation within our own of water. production, delivery, Rather than seeing customers as passive recipients business, and for the sector Active participation changes the dynamic, of services, the sector should see customers as Active change bringing a creativity that simply does not Passive input Customers sit at the centre of the water consumption, disposal and active participants, who have knowledge, skills and agents as a whole, makes sense for exist when customers are being consulted and wastewater value chains. This enjoyment of water, water creativity that can identify issues and opportunities a number of reasons: on a predetermined range of options. approach recognises that fact by putting and help find ways to do things better. This might them fully at the heart of decision-making. include, for example, making improvements to Customer participation can generate services and the water Listening Dialogue the local environment, saving water or improving widespread behaviour change, Finally, water and sewerage companies environment in the home, at customer service. particularly when the sector works have relatively long-term relationships work and in the community. At the People as together on common issues. with their customers. Embedding The opportunity exists for companies to build on receiving end innovation customer participation acknowledges this the engagement they undertook at PR14, and to of and, over time, should help to reinforce decisions resources It is an attempt to connect innovate. This will deliver a stronger sector, one customer trust and confidence. that commands the trust of customers and is ready people to the things that for the future. Researching Understanding need experiences really matter in their lives… We agree that customer participation helps to to give them more control.” unlock value and build trust. Last year, as part of Real insight Reliance on our ‘Unrivalled Customer Experience’ strategy we from people (‘Tapped In’, Corporate Culture/Ofwat) ‘experts’ published our own assessment of the difference who matter that greater participation brings.

Ofwat’s ‘Tapped In’ report highlights four The model is a helpful basis to explore and assess strategic areas where action can be taken to the opportunities for and benefits of increasing increase customer participation, each with its own customer participation. objectives, engagement techniques and principles for delivery. They are: EXPERIENCES: ACTION: increasing customer customer behaviour change control of water in their actions, including saving home and of the customer water and helping to reduce experience. FUTURES: sewer blockages. customer participation to COMMUNITY: improve the current and community ownership future sustainability of water of particular aspects of in the lives of customers. water as an essential resource.

Our commitment to One of our first steps To create the strategy we engaged with Through the process customers told us that the key customers, including those in vulnerable priorities for them were: customer participation is on the customer circumstances, supply partners and employees through a number of highly interactive Showing each customer that they evolving rapidly, in part participation journey was workshops across the areas we serve. are special. as a natural development the co-creation, during The strategy output reflects the ideas and Taking personal ownership for from the process we 2015, of our customer experience of the hundreds of committed customers’ problems. went through at PR14 to experience strategy. people who contributed, and is very different from what might have been produced had Keeping our promises. engage more directly with we developed our thinking in isolation. Making it easy. customers, and the benefits Co-creation is now a key principle that emerged from that. of how we develop all aspects of Keeping it local. experience for our customers. Perhaps most surprising was the finding that customers wanted to ‘keep it local’, valuing the role we play in their communities and the long-term nature of our presence in their lives.

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One of the ways in which we have listened to Co-creation has become We decided that at this price review we would This shift in customer expectations is a marked customer feedback to ‘keep it local’ is through begin by having completely open conversations change from our experience at PR14. It also our investment in ‘Flo’, a customer engagement second nature for us, with with customers about: reflects the view given by Cathryn Ross at the vehicle. Flo allows our Customer Heroes to launch of ‘Tapped in’, where she noted that get out and about across our regions, having customers shaping how • What matters most to them about the services customers increasingly want to have a say on more conversations with customers who might never investments are made we provide. than simply the core service offering. dream of joining a focus group or filling in • Which areas of the business they would most a survey. and experiences are like to influence. delivered. It was therefore • The best ways for us to engage with them. By using Flo we are able to reach more than 1 million customers every year. This includes a given to build on this The qualitative, explorative conversations we had customers in harder to reach rural communities, were quite unlike the more traditional research whose challenges and priorities are often very when we started thinking we had carried out in the past. They also yielded different from those of customers who live in about our PR19 business interesting insights. towns and cities. We get great feedback from customers about Flo – around 94% say they plan engagement. Through customer workshops, focus groups, agree or strongly agree that Flo is a good way digital and one to one engagement we heard that for us to communicate with our customers. customers were less interested in aspects of the delivery of water and wastewater services which Flo also helps us encourage changes in they consider to be a core offering. There were behaviour that benefit all customers, such as other areas where customers were looking to have using water more wisely and being careful about much more say and influence, such as customer what can go down the drain. Many customers service, value and trust. use the opportunity too to sign up to our priority services register and for support tariffs – so great business benefits too!

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A more recent example of Our customers told us they were interested in The discussions helped us to improve the bill Northumbrian Water region Essex & Suffolk Water region understanding more about our finances during breakdown infographic that we provide with bills, (Water and wastewater services) (Water services only) our evolving participation our ‘defining the conversation’ work. So we set and to create a specific ‘Our Finances Explained’ up a participatory session in Newcastle, attended section on our websites. approach is the co-creation by our Finance Director and other members of staff. The discussions provided valuable insights NET PROFIT ENERGY NET PROFIT ENERGY workshop we recently held is the cash remaining costs of running our is the cash remaining costs of running our It gave me a positive perception because after paying tax and all of day-to-day operations after paying tax and all of day-to-day operations into what customers knew and what they were our other expenditure our other expenditure with customers around interested in, and there were some surprises for us. it has explained it all and exactly where all the PAYING BACK INTEREST PAYING TAXES, RATES PAYING TAXES, RATES AND LICENCES PAYING BACK INTEREST money is going. on money borrowed to invest 6p on money borrowed to invest 4p AND LICENCES in new assets and improve the 11p including tax on profits, rates 5p including tax on profits, rates on buildings and water/ in new assets and improve the issues such as profits services we deliver services we deliver on buildings and water For example, customers did not at first understand wastewater treatment sites, 10p treatment sites, and licence Workshop attendee 9p 16p and licence fees paid to the 5p fees paid to the likes of the Environment Agency and Ofwat why we should need to borrow money even though likes of the Environment BUILDING NEW and tax. BUILDING NEW Agency and Ofwat ASSETS AND ASSETS AND we are making a profit, or that we are required to BUYING NEW 7p BUYING NEW 4p EQUIPMENT EQUIPMENT 67p pay tax. to improve our £1.07 to improve our PER HOUSEHOLD water services PER HOUSEHOLD water and PER DAY wastewater PER DAY services 10p Customers told us that they liked our simple 18p MAINTAINING 40p MAINTAINING 29p presentation of how much of their bill, in pounds OUR EQUIPMENT OUR EQUIPMENT to make sure it works PEOPLE AND MATERIALS to make sure it works PEOPLE AND MATERIALS efficiently and by looking including wages for our efficiently and by looking including wages for our and pence, goes towards different types of after our equipment we can employees as well as our after our equipment we can employees as well as our supply chain partners minimise the higher cost of supply chain partners minimise the higher cost of building new assets expenditure (such as staff, materials, interest, building new assets profit and energy) each day. They were much less interested in where the spending is directed, such as for sewage collection and water resources.

Our vision is to reach In doing so we have been conscious of the need to We explored how we could take customer make sure that the actions we take are aligned to participation even further. We realised that while millions of our customers. both our commercial and our resilience objectives. we are undertaking much that is genuinely participatory, we need to build stronger We are seeking to build on To help us move forward we held an all-day foundations to underpin that activity. our positive experiences workshop earlier this year, led by Corporate Culture, and attended by colleagues from across We wanted to: of customer participation the business. to date, and have been • Develop a deep understanding of customers. Over the course of the day we used the FACE • Improve the customer experience. considering the cultural model to analyse the full range of activities that • Involve customers in creating a resilient future. we currently undertake in engaging with our • Use customer participation as a way to help us changes and practical steps customers – from the smallest, highly localised achieve our business objectives. we need to take to truly schemes to full company-wide initiatives. At the workshop we challenged ourselves as to make this an instinctive part In this way we identified the projects that we felt how the business could translate the work we had of how we do business. illustrated the benefits of customer participation done so far into a more fundamental change in well. They included the case studies set out on culture, through the development of a customer pages 20 to 27: participation strategy combined with greater employee engagement around participation. FUTURES – the Innovation Festival 2017 ACTIONS – the Water Rangers COMMUNITIES – Every Drop Counts EXPERIENCE – Make My Day

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In summer 2017 we held a During an intensive five-day period participants • A session to consider how smart technology explored some of the biggest social and will have changed the way we live and work by This festival is a fantastic example of open truly unique event, environmental challenges we face. They then used 2030, hosted by CGI; innovation, bringing together people with a ‘design sprint’ approach as a way to identify and • An exploration of how we can create greener different skill sets and from genuinely different which brought together test solutions. cities and communities with Ordnance Survey. backgrounds – all with a common desire to find I felt it was a brave decision to allow customers ways to innovate by matching ‘what’s possible’ I was delighted to be invited to the Innovation major national and to access the thoughts and decision process of A design sprint is a defined process, often To encourage free thinking, we created a relaxed with ‘what’s needed’ through a multi-sectoral and Festival and to be involved in the Rain, Hail and the organisation. I felt very comfortable and global companies involving customers, to design, prototype and festival atmosphere by holding the event in a tented multidisciplinary dialogue. Shine sprint. I was asked for my opinion throughout welcome in expressing my views as a customer test the viability of an idea, product or feature. We village and putting on music and activities such the workshop, not only as a customer, but as part to work with other and congratulate those with the foresight to have used them within the business since 2015 as yoga and mindfulness. We also introduced a The festival format, embracing science and culture, of the team discussion in all aspects and issues of invite ‘the customer’ to contribute to help shape as a catalyst for innovation, including as a means schools challenge where young people designed generated a dynamic and creative atmosphere the different types of flooding problems. I’m really businesses, universities, the service in the future. This experience with to create a better digital water bill experience for the teenagers’ bedroom of the future. Around 400 that drove open idea development and problem impressed with the forward thinking, proactive Northumbrian Water has given me an insight into schools, stakeholders customers whose participation was instrumental to people, including customers, came along for the solving. Innovation nearly always happens best innovations that Northumbrian Water have taken the difficulties they face and the contact with staff the final design. full five days. at the boundaries of science, art, design and to manage their business preparing for the and our customers to in a festival environment gives an empathetic view engineering. Finally, I was especially happy to see future with some great initiatives while protecting of the problems and helps contribute, I hope, to co-create solutions. This year the festival sprint groups included During the course of the week, almost one young people actively involved – they, more than the environment. the solutions. customers, suppliers, subject matter experts, thousand ideas were streamlined to produce 34 any other generation, ‘get’ innovation in our

stakeholders and our people, who considered: key projects that are now being taken forward for fast-changing world and are, after all, the Peter Keith further development. Some of the ideas included: customers of the future. A Northumbrian Water customer A Northumbrian Water customer • A design sprint focused on flooding, hosted using data science to pinpoint leakage, creating by IBM. moss trees to combat pollution, and developing Prof Roy Sandbach • A data hack focused on leakage, hosted digital work assistants to increase productivity. Chair, Innovation Board, by Microsoft. North East Local Enterprise Partnership

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The Water Rangers initiative Volunteer Water Rangers look out for Since the initiative was launched in 2014, more suspected pollution and report their findings than 3,100 patrols have been completed by Water Rangers is an inspiring example of what involves volunteers from so that any potential issues can be dealt volunteers, with over 180 issues reported. is possible when you engage local communities local communities who with quickly, minimising the impact on the Encouragingly, three-quarters of the original in the management of the water environment. The environment and wildlife. volunteers are still involved with the initiative sense of ownership and pride that these rangers regularly monitor routes and the latest mood survey results (February have for their local environment is palpable. This They also report on third party issues such as 2017) shows the highest Net Promoter Score to sort of scheme doesn’t just save money on water next to streams, becks, fly tipping, fallen trees, abandoned shopping date of +85. bills. By drawing on the local knowledge of Water burns and bathing waters trolleys and missing life buoys so that this Rangers as their eyes and ears, Northumbrian information can be passed on to relevant A successful example of frontiership when it Water is able to obtain higher quality information more vulnerable to pollution authorities to take action. comes to customer participation, over the last faster than would otherwise be possible. across the North East. eight months, the team has more than doubled In this way members of the community are part to 64 volunteers. In addition, it is fantastic to see It is a win-win for the local communities and

of the solution when it comes to maintaining some mini Water Rangers coming through into water customers. I have studied environmental water quality. The initiative won the Water the team, including children as young as five. governance and public participation around Industry Achievement Award’s Community the world, and I view Water Rangers as an Project of the Year 2016. Partnership working with organisations such as example of best practice when it comes to the region’s rivers and wildlife trusts has really community engagement. blossomed and we are continuing to explore cross-volunteering opportunities to support Prof. Mark Reed one another. Professor of Socio-Technical Innovation, University of Newcastle

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We have found that there’s a We designed this award-winning water saving We first trialled the whole-town approach in Since the initial trial we have completed more campaign to be genuinely different from the 2014 and have been refining and improving than 18,000 home audits in six towns, saving a lot to be gained by working offset, in that it offers customers in a single area the process since then. For example, after the total 388,000 litres of water every day across the chance to participate in a range of initiatives scheme had been running for a couple of years the company. We have also undertaken more with a whole community, that are usually delivered at different times and we undertook customer research to understand than 150 audits with business customers. Recent particularly when it comes places throughout the year. how we could increase participation rates. analysis has shown that the retrofits we deliver This entrant demonstrated the benefits of bring long-term and sustained water savings. multiple approaches. to behaviour change. We offer wide-ranging water saving We got feedback that time was precious and schemes and use a combination of targeted that the ‘morning’ or ‘afternoon’ slots we were The fact that the campaign is directed towards What is more this approach is replicable, scalable advertising and community based marketing to offering for an audit visit were too open-ended. one town over one summer period helps build and measurable. maximise participation. We therefore introduced two-hour appointment a buzz which, along with partnering with local slots for all of our visits. community groups, enhances participation Judges commentary, 2017 Water Industry Achievement Awards A key element is the offer to households of a free levels and in turn delivers higher water savings. plumber-led home retrofit that is worth more We also heard that our more general flyers were than £130, which encompasses not only easy to ignore so to make our information stand retrofitting of products but also direct out we made it much more bespoke to customers engagement with the customer to bring about – addressing them by name with a post-it note long-term behaviour change. and tailoring what we were offering to their own circumstances (for example whether or not they have a meter and/or garden).

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From our engagement with One of the ways that we have done this is We also surprised a number of community through #makemyday - a week of activity groups with gifts, including taking 22 community customers to create our to coincide with Customer Service Week. In café volunteers with learning difficulties for a October last year we went out into communities five-star afternoon tea treat. As well as these strategy for our unrivalled to surprise customers and community groups bigger surprises we took our community customer experience, we with treats and gifts to ‘make their day’. engagement hub, ‘Flo’ to a different location each day and did special lucky dips for knew that customers want to In advance of our activity, we asked our residents on their high streets. By the end of be made to feel special. customer and employees for nominations. the week, we had ‘made the days’ for more than Throughout our #makemyday week we gave 2,000 customers. gifts to customers who had been nominated by friends, family or neighbours. This included a This unique initiative is now firmly established gift of £500 for Taylor who has severe cerebral in our customer participation calendar, helping palsy and wanted a beach wheelchair so he us to deepen relationships with our customers could enjoy visits with his family. Violet, who is and the communities we serve. Critically it is 92, asked for someone to take her out for fish building on our already industry leading* levels and chips as she has no family and was lonely. of trust while also enhancing confidence in One of our managers showed her the sights of the sector. Great Yarmouth and they both had a great time.

*Annual Water Matters 2017 research by the Consumer Council for Water.

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We are committed to FUTURES Our ‘Love your Drain’ campaign, spearheaded by The Innovation Festival 2018 the campaign character Dwaine Pipe continues continuous improvement to grow, educating customers about the causes of Following the success of our first innovation festival blockages and what can and cannot be disposed of and have challenged earlier this year we are committed to holding down the toilet and sink. Dwaine Pipe uses multiple ourselves to increase another festival in 2018. education and communication methods to pass on his messages, which has now been heard more customer participation Once again we will work with major global and than 15 million times in the North East. in co-imagining and national innovators, and with members of the public and other stakeholders, to tackle key problems in a Working with our customers in this way has co-creating the future with true festival environment. had a real impact on reducing the number of unnecessary sewer blockages caused by material our customers, employees The festival is likely to include sprints and data such as baby wipes, fats, oils and grease. and supply partners. ‘hackathons’ focusing on the value of water and the customer experience. In particular, our innovative work with schools and food outlets is helping to change customer In order to do this in a more structured way we ACTIONS behaviour. For example in one local area of have identified a number of initiatives that we will Influencing behaviour change through Darlington blockages have fallen by 24%. now progress within each of the four FACE areas. ‘Love your Drain’ We are committing to increasing investment in the We have included examples below. Drain blockages cost the company around Love your Drain campaign by ten-fold by 2020. £1 million a year, and of the 18,000 blockages we clear each year, more than half are avoidable

28 | www.nwl.co.uk | www.eswater.co.uk www.nwl.co.uk | www.eswater.co.uk | 29 COMMUNITIES As a first step we are seeking to appoint a customer As a business we are investing in an ambitious Creating collaborative communities and community collaboration lead. Their focus move to digital capabilities which will substantially will be to build on the community partnerships improve customer experiences and strengthen the As part of our commitment to generating active that already exist and to develop new ones. Finally resilience of our services. participation, we are pledging to develop we understand that communities encompass not ‘collaborative communities’ and will publish a only communities in the traditional sense but also The roadmap we designed is based on a 10-week challenging target that will see us involving millions communities of interest and we will be using digital collaboration with customers using workshops, of customers. channels where possible to support those groups. pop up surveys and using our engagement vehicle ‘Flo’ in various locations across our areas. These Our ambition is to ensure that customers who EXPERIENCE workshops helped us to identify friction points actively participate through this initiative are Our digital roadmap investment and future state customer journeys in the areas broadly representative of the diversity of people we of billing, moving home and reporting a problem serve. Both individual and collaborative community With 8 million unique page views to our websites (such as a leak). The investment we are making will input will be included in our participation activities in 2016-17, we know that many of our customers deliver much higher digital interactions (50% of and targets. A particularly important element of want to engage through digital channels. At interactions starting and ending on digital channels this initiative is to collaborate with other service the moment customer journeys are not always by 2020, and at least 75% by 2025), key journeys providers – giving our customers and communities being completed digitally end to end, with some available end to end, and an unrivalled and a more joined up service offering of water, health, customers moving onto analogue channels at personalised digital experience. multi-utility and lifestyle choices. some point.

The idea for this initiative was co-created with our Sometimes customers have to complete tasks customers during customer engagement and off line or are directed to a phone number. This co-imagination sessions held in August 2017. means we are directing customers away from their preferred channel.

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Looking ahead, we plan to TAKING OUR CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT research has shown is really important to our by other businesses, including the mobile We identified a number of projects that we will STRATEGY FURTHER customers. Using Flo also allows us to hear the phone company Giff Gaff, and would require deliver by 2025, including working with financial and make sure that customer thoughts and ideas of our diverse customer base, employees to work closely with customers as health support organisations to share information We are putting plans in place now to develop including in remote rural communities. they develop their skills. so that customers get the support they need when participation is part of our our existing research and engagement strategy they need it. As part of our company-wide ‘Just DNA and reaches across for PR19 so that it becomes a strategy of EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT Examples such as this will be supported by an hour’ programme, we will sponsor additional customer participation. detailed internal communications plans – to share training of employee volunteers in debt advice and We want to make sure that customer participation all parts of our business. stories about customer participation, to recognise financial inclusion. is embedded across the business: We held a workshop with customers in August those who use customer participation, and to share This work is focused around where we explained our aspiration for customers the positive impacts that active involvement has We are finalising our strategy now and will publish • Our business has a strong tradition of to participate in developing our products and had on the delivery of services. the final version early in 2018. three areas in particular: employee involvement in the community. We services. We explored with customers how they plan to tap into this by setting up volunteering thought we could achieve this and discussed a opportunities for employees to engage with DEVELOPING OUR range of approaches – from crowd sourcing ideas • Taking our customer customers around services. STRATEGY FOR INCLUSIVITY and solutions to offering apps for customers so they can provide on-line, real time feedback. We We aim to treat all customers fairly and to provide an engagement • We are already developing a Northumbrian are building on these initial discussions now and excellent experience, no matter what circumstances Water Group Academy, working with schools strategy further. will finalise our participation strategy in early 2018. they may be in. We have been developing our and colleges, to raise the profile of careers in Unrivalled Customer Experience Strategy so that it • Engaging with employees. the water industry. We are taking this further Our plans include greater connection through our becomes inclusive for all customers. We engaged by exploring opportunities for employees to • Developing our strategy online communities and through wider use of our with customers, employees and stakeholders through work with students in co-creating materials for customer engagement vehicle, ‘Flo’. In the last year six co-creation workshops, where we explored what for inclusivity. the Academy. we reached more than one million customers in excellent service looks and feels like to customers these ways and we expect to build on this figure • As a final example we are exploring in vulnerable circumstances. This helped us next year. Flo allows for face-to-face interactions opportunities for customers to solve other develop our vision, which is to provide a customer with our hugely diverse customer base, which customers’ problems. This approach is used experience that is right for each and every customer.

32 | www.nwl.co.uk | www.eswater.co.uk www.nwl.co.uk | www.eswater.co.uk | 33 We hope that this report has provided some practical examples of customer participation in action.

We will continue to share our own experiences and will report back on our own progress on the journey early in 2018.

In the meantime we would very much like to hear from any customers, companies and industry parties who have similar stories or wish to share lessons learned.

@NorthumbrianH2O @ESWH20 or email [email protected].