News
Severn Trent praised by CCWater for substantial reduction in customer complaints
21st September 2016
The number of complaints we've received from our customers in the last year has fallen by 28 per cent, putting us in second place for the best performing water and sewerage company in England and Wales. The latest figures showing the fall were published today (Wednesday 21 September) by the Consumer Council for Water.
Leah Fry, head of customer experience, said: “We’ve worked really hard to embed customers at the heart of our business and I think that is reflected in the year on year reduction of customer complaints, which are down 28% from 2015. This is testament to the hard work our teams have put into improving the service we provide our customers."
“We’ve changed and improved our processes, and trained and upskilled our front line staff so they’re able to resolve customers’ issues first time. In addition, we’ve opened up more channels of communication so our customers can contact us when and how they want to. We have a whole team of staff on Twitter 24/7 and our use of live web chat is increasing day on day. We’ve introduced “Track my job” which allows customers to check online the progress of any work we’re doing for them, which is much easier than them having to call in to find out what’s happening. We’re also working hard to make our website more user friendly, so customers can report any concerns they have through our ‘Ask a Question’ page, they can also pay their bills online, report a leak, and find out about incidents happening in their area.”
We also have the lowest average bills in the UK for the seventh year in a row, with customers paying on average less than £1 a day for their clean and waste water services, and we've been praised by the Consumer Council for Water for substantially reducing the number of complaints we received from our customers.
Professor Bernard Crump, Central and Eastern Chair for the Consumer Council for Water, said: “What is most pleasing is that Severn Trent Water has maintained a downward trend in complaints over several years. That shows a commitment to keep improving their services for customers and resolve problems quickly and effectively when things do go wrong.”
Leah added: “While we’re delighted with today’s figures, we know there is lots more that we can do to make sure we further improve the way we engage with our customers, and continue to provide the highest standards of customer service, which our customers quite rightly expect.”