How will PR19 affect you?

Being a recruiter who specialises in the water industry, one thing that I love about the industry is that it’s constantly striving to improve. This is driven by the high standards from the organisations within the industry and Ofwat (the economic regulator) conducting regular reforms to achieve best practice.

One item which is high on many people’s agenda is PR19, this is the next price review which will be conducted in 2019. In preparation for this organisations are making changes now to ensure their policies and procedures are up to date. So what does PR19 really mean and what do water organisation need to do? The underlying principle of PR19 is for an organisation to achieve ‘enhanced status,’ they have to demonstrate excellent customer engagement and this is becoming particularly relevant due to Consumer Choice which raises the proposition that customers can choose their water supplier: "Such a market in the water and wastewater sector could see customers become more engaged, push prices down, service up, and encourage more efficient use of an increasingly stretched resource" http://utilityweek.co.uk/news/domestic-competition-for-water-industry-reaction/1193942#.V7SQWygrKUk

From a water company perspective this is extremely positive in one way due to the prospect of increasing their customer base. However, there is also the very real risk that they could lose customers due to this so now is the time to act on increasing your brand and customer awareness:

• Start with speaking to the next generation, it has long been known about the skills shortage in the wider engineering sector, this also holds true to the water industry. Water plays a crucial role in public health, the environment and economy (through transport, food production and construction). By promoting this to the next generation you can get them excited about the water industry.

• Customer engagement is not a one off target, it’s a culture shift throughout the organisation from board level down, which needs to be lived both internally and externally. By working collaboratively internally, your organisation are comfortable doing this externally (with your customers).

• A recent initiative which has been set up is Water Plus which shares best practice between organisations and has the aim of providing excellent customer service, great value and new service offerings in addition to providing billing, meter readings and water efficiency advice for businesses right across the country.

• Place a renewed focus on customer feedback, have social streams that provide a regular transparent forum for customer communication. All engagement should be a two way process, when surveying customers allow them to provide open responses which can improve the overall process. Ask key customers how they would like to be surveyed – focus group, online survey to name a few, by involving them in the process design you can increase engagement.

• Encourage a culture of innovation to drive ideas that will further engage customers. On your intranet, have an ideas portal – providing an open forum for all employees to submit innovations to improve the organisation. Sometimes the best ideas can come from a fresh pair of eyes. Incentivise these ideas to encourage all employees to contribute, for example if an idea is implemented, the creator receives a gift etc. Many innovative tech organisations have dedicated ‘ideas times’ into all employees working week - brands such as 3M and Google give their employees about 10% "free time" to experiment with new ideas.

PR19 is going to make the water industry even more interesting to be a part of, organisations are going to be more innovative and customer centric. To find out more about PR 19, becoming part of the water industry and joining an organisation that prides themselves on their service then please contact Dominic Hughes on 01925 747397 or dominic.hughes@bps-world.com.