Conventional wisdom holds that in business the customer is always right. But in some situations good ol' common sense clearly needs to trump "Conventional Wisdom."
In these situations it can be difficult to know when to accommodate an unreasonable customer, showing compassion and understanding, or when to simply show them the door (being careful not to let it hit them in the…well, you know what we mean). Clearly the best defense that water and wastewater systems can rely on is to have a comprehensive customer service plan down on paper that will serve as your guide in providing consistent service and treatment to your customers.
The most important people in the world to water system managers, board members, operators, and clerks (at least they should be!) are the water drinking public, especially those in their own backyard.
When you boil it all down, the primary reason a water system exists is to provide safe, reliable, and affordable water service to its users, who in turn supply the income a system needs to cover costs, keep the pumps running, and keep employee paychecks from turning to rubber.
In this issue of the Safe Drinking Water Trust eBulletin we'll help you review your system's customer service policy or help you put one together if the initial review shows that your system just doesn't have one. We'll also give you a few tips for dealing with disgruntled customers (not that you'll ever need them!).
Additional Resources
30 Ways To Show Your Customers They're Always Right, entrepreneur.com article
www.entrepreneur.com/article/0,4621,312114,00.html [1]
Valuing Your Customers
Customer service policies are the "heart" of system policies. They define your system's role and responsibilities for providing water service, and your customer's rights and responsibilities in accepting service.
While there is no single blueprint for building an effective customer service policy, it is important that each and every system have, and stick to, a customer service policy to ensure that everyone is treated fairly and to protect your system from legal liabilities.
Remember, good policies aren't created over night, they evolve over time. So whether you are reviewing your existing policy, or are working to creating a new one, it is always a good idea to think back to instances that have raised questions in the past and consider ways to develop clear policies that will eliminate these problems in the future.
Key areas that should be addressed in a comprehensive customer service policy include:
• General Rules: This section will address your commitment to providing a safe supply of water, assert your authority to provide service, and should include definitions to help users better understand the policy.
• Service: This section will address the process and fees required for connecting to the service, your system's rate structure, who is eligible to receive service from your system, and who will be allowed to make the physical connections.
• Collections: This section will clearly define when meters will be read, when water bills will be due, what happens when bills aren't paid, and the procedures that customers can follow to file grievances and request payment extensions.
• Cut-Offs: The cut-off section is clearly one of the most important sections from a legal perspective and should be reviewed by an attorney familiar with your state's legal requirements. This section will clearly define how delinquent accounts are to be collected, when termination of service will occur, and what steps must be completed before service will be restored.
• Legal Jargon: The final section of your system's customer service policy will explain when the policy was adopted by your system and who approved it.
Additional Resources
Examples of Customer Service Policies
www.gainesville.org/pdfs/main.citydepartments.publicutilities.watersewerratespolicies.pdf [2]
www.pbcwater.com/docs/upap_ch_2.pdf [3]
www.owasa.org/pages/servicepolicies.asp [4]
Don't Be Afraid to Ask
Anytime you sell a service, it is a sure bet that eventually you will be faced with collecting on past due accounts or dealing with a less than happy customer. While no one wants to be the bad guy in these situations, best management practices (and good old common sense) dictate that your utility must be run like a business. This means collecting on past due accounts.
It's just not fair to your prompt paying customers to ask them to subsidize those who don’t pay or are chronically late. Remember, your budget is based on your system's estimated monthly collections. Past due and delinquent accounts can make it difficult to balance your own budget and pay your system's bills.
Consider the case in Atlanta, GA a few years back. On the heels of a hard-won rate and sales tax increase earmarked to help pay for roughly $3 billion in sewer improvements, the Atlanta Department of Watershed Management decided that it had little choice but to rein in its outstanding accounts—nearly a quarter of the city's 134,000 active customers owing nearly $35 million in uncollected customer debt.
While collecting your past-due accounts probably won't bring in anywhere near the $35 million the folks in Atlanta hoped to clear, having a clearly defined collections and shut-off policy included in your customer service policy should make it easier for your system to pay for future projects.
Additional Resources
www.nesc.wvu.edu/ndwc/articles/OT/SU04/PastDue.pdf [5]
Good Customer Relations Make for Good Customers
In order for your system to hone it's customer relations skills it is important that everyone embrace the necessary skills from the board of directors, to the customer service clerks, to the system operators.
This doesn't necessarily mean that you need to station your service crew outside the billing office to open doors and greet each customer with a hearty handshake. However, it does mean that employees from the top—down should make a conscious effort to develop good customer-service skills including:
• Possessing a positive, caring attitude and express it by listening to your customers praises, needs, and even complaints.
• Communicating effectively with your customers whether through verbal exchanges or through "bill stuffers," newsletters, or press releases to help build support with the community for your system.
• Satisfying Customers needs. Most customers will forgive and forget if you will only take the time to address their problems in a timely manner. Never let them think that you are unconcerned about their problems, or even worse, deny that a problem exists.
• Follow up on problems. Your response shows the customer that you care and that you want to make sure that they are satisfied, even if it is only by telling them that you are still looking into their concern the next time you see them at the grocery store.
Customer service skills are easy to master, and even easier to define if your system has, and follows, a comprehensive customer service policy. But no matter what, if you will just take the time to put yourself in the place of the customer, and think about how you'd like to be treated if the roles were reversed, we can all find ways to get along.