The recent Ofwat forum report which revealed how water companies have been left wanting in encouraging business customer engagement raises the question of how well they will engage with household customers on their business plans for the upcoming AMP6 2015-20 investment programme.
The issue is likely to be of growing concern to the water industry regulator – highlighted in a new paper published today on waterbriefing.
Water company AMP6 business plan consultation: what will it look like and how will it work says that Ofwat's policy position statement published in October 2011 effectively handed a free rein to companies to design their own engagement strategies.
The paper says that given the freedom afforded to water companies by Ofwat, it is interesting to consider how companies may choose to engage with their consumers. How effectiveness and value for money are judged remains to be seen, as does the extent of the appetite of consumers for engagement with detailed corporate financial plans.
Engagement with strategic plans for privatised utility companies is a very different process to many other commercial marketing exercises. Meaningful engagement will require a thorough understanding of technically and financially complex, or commercially confidential material.
The paper suggests that while the use of social media by water companies is a possibility, more traditional forms of engagement will undoubtedly remain, and consumer panels and invitations to respond are likely to be the bedrock of the process for the AMP6 consultation. Such approaches, however, are dogged by doubts over how well they represent the sampled population, and how meaningfully responses are incorporated into final designs.
The paper concludes that the challenge for the water companies, and for Ofwat, is to demonstrate that a programme of public consultation will produce more responsive companies and a better service, and not just be an expensive box ticking exercise which consumers can ill-afford to have added to their bills.
Tom Styles is an environmental researcher and associate writer with waterbriefing.
Click here to access the paper in full.
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