Better practice for water business

In 2020, we ran better practice workshops to enhance support to water customers affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

The workshops were designed to:

• support water businesses to implement specific coronavirus support principles introduced by National Cabinet (and which we adopted into our water customer service codes in August 2020)
• promote sharing and widespread adoption of better practice approaches to customer support
• inform long-term reform of the water customer service codes.

Our role in these workshops is to make it easier for the sector to exchange ideas. We do this to allow the industry to find better ways of engagement to use, so that all water customers can benefit.

These workshops brought the water sector together with government and consumer representatives, to promote better practice approaches to supporting customers. Each workshop in the series focused on a theme that is relevant to the National Cabinet approved principles as well as the longer-term reform of the water customer service codes. The themes explored were current proactive communication practices, debt collection and customer support, and supporting water customers who run a small business during the coronavirus pandemic.

Proactive communication to promote consumer engagement

Under the national principles for coronavirus support, water businesses must encourage customers to contact them to discuss their situation. We explored better practice approaches to this in the first workshop.

Water businesses shared better practice approaches to communication they took during the pandemic. These included:

• messages offering support circulated through mass media to reach many customers 
• setting payment arrangements and confirming in writing to give customers assurance
• sending customers courtesy reminder messages via text of upcoming payment due date
• providing self-service options through their website, for example, request for a payment extension or hardship grants
• using bill inserts and flyers on new statements to customers, offering a message of support
• taking a human approach to understanding customers pain points and tailoring communication to meet their needs

We invited three water businesses to share their approaches to communication during the pandemic.

Debt collection and customer support

The national principles also require water businesses to stop collection action for customers experiencing financial stress. We explored this in our second workshop. Presentations on this theme included better practice from the industry, new government assistance, and current behaviour change research.

BehaviourWorks Australia presented on its INSPIRE framework for improving customer engagement. The framework is designed to bring about behavioural change through better communication.

Water businesses said they use the framework by: 

• operating at an ‘at your word’ level – taking a customer’s word about their circumstances
• working with customers to find solutions together
• giving the right information to support customers and meet their individual needs
• reducing pressure (especially for customers affected by bushfires), and conveying a message of help
• removing negative incentives like interest charges and restrictions
• focusing on positive incentives like credit and matching payments on instalment plans.

We invited Coliban Water to speak about their work engaging customers and staff during the pandemic.  

Supporting water customers who run a small business 

The national principles ensured that small business customers are eligible for the same hardship assistance available to residential customers. Our third workshop explored better practices the industry currently uses. We also heard from the dispute resolution scheme familiar with small business hardship needs.

Water businesses shared the better practice approaches they took to support small businesses during the pandemic. These included:

• providing payment extensions to small business customers
• offering flexible payment plans
• reducing service charges like trade waste
• extending hardship support available to residential customers to small business customers
• extending financial wellness training to small business customers.

We also invited Barwon Water to share their initiatives for supporting small business customers during the pandemic.

The Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman gave a presentation on challenges facing small business. We heard that cash flow and questions about how to operate post-pandemic are also issues challenging small businesses. 

If you have further questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to the team at water@esc.vic.gov.au