A focus on customer engagement and satisfaction has led to a 38 per cent reduction in complaints for South East Water, according to the water company’s annual performance report published today.

The company is now preparing to implement a number of initiatives during 2016 to increase customer satisfaction further.

SEW’s Performance, People and Planet Report for 2015-16 is accompanied for the first time by an independent report from the company’s Customer Panel giving their assessment of how they performed in 2015/16.

Commenting separately, the Panel report said:

“Unfortunately, of the 8 customer satisfaction measures, SEW has only managed to meet 1 of its targets: that on frequency of restrictions (note that there have not been any restrictions now for four years). All the other targets of this kind were missed – although 2 only just - with the score for leakage especially low.”

“A number of the proposed initiatives, while welcome in themselves and likely to improve customer service, are – in the view of the Panel - not really focused on changing customer perception. For instance, the launch of the new vision and values, the development of employee training, and the operational engagement programme will not we suspect of themselves have a sizeable impact on customer perception.”

South East Water worked with its customers to set 25 performance commitments for the 2015-2020 period across its business, meeting targets ranging from leakage and water pressure, through to the number of burst water mains and its compliance with environmental legislation.

The water company’s performance during the year included:

• Meeting its leakage target for the 14th successive year
• Producing high quality drinking water, with 99.96% of all samples complying with UK Drinking Water Regulations
• Zero serious pollution incidents (as classified by the Environment Agency) - although SEW did have a number of breaches of abstraction licence and discharge consents

£900k penalty for failure to meet interruption to supply performance ODI

The majority of customers received a reliable service through the year with underlying interruption to supply performance of 9.1 minutes per connected property which would have met the target. However, following a burst on an 18 inch diameter underground pipe in Hailsham in May 2015 which ran for 45 hours and left 33,900 properties without water for varying durations, SEW failed to meet its ODI commitment and will receive the full penalty amount for the year of £900,000.

Customer Panel will look in depth at interruptions 

The Customer Panel group’s chair, Roger Darlington, said today:

“Our report acknowledges the evidence that South East Water is upping its game, but also highlights where we think the company needs to do more for customers. We will continue to provide constructive challenge on behalf of customers throughout the coming year.”

Work undertaken during the year by the Panel included a series of ‘deep dives’ where the company was asked to provide a detailed paper for the Panel to discuss in depth. Issues covered to date are water quality, environmental issues and leakage - future ‘deep dives’ will look at interruptions, customer interactions and water resources.

Commenting on the utility's performance, Paul Butler, Managing Director of South East Water, said:

“This report describes the first year of our five year investment programme, a programme which is driven by our ongoing commitment to deliver a five-out-of-five service for customers.”

“We are pleased to see the level of customer complaints reduce by 38 per cent this year, which builds on the improvements we have made over the past few years. However, we are not complacent, and strive to ensure our performance improves every year so that our customers always receive an excellent service from us.”

Click here to download Performance, People and Planet 2015 - 2016

Click here to download South East Water Customer Panel Annual Report 2015/16