Institute of Water Conference Review 2014 by Distinctive Media Group Ltd

2 0 1 4 ANNUAL CONFERENCE R E V I E W

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Introducing

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2014 Annual Conference Review

EXHIBITION

One of the key components of our Annual Conference is the exhibition which sits alongside it. This year we welcomed 15 organisations to exhibit and inform our delegate about their products and services.

DELIVERING GREAT SERVICE IN THE WATER INDUSTRY

Contents 3 4 5 7 10

Heidi Mottram President, Institute of Water

13 14

Overview | Keynotes Session 1 - Resilience Session 2 - People for the Future Session 3 - STREAM Poster Session Session 4 - Water Industry Evolution Session 5 - Customer Expectation Social Programme

The conference this year was a fantastic and extra special event covering the key theme for everyone in the water industry - delivering great service.

Our 2014 exhibitors included:

Aqualogy ATA Recruitment Calm Solutions Cognica Driver Group Foundation for Water Research Glasgow Clyde College GPS Pipe Systems Nissan OXEMS

We had a top class range of speakers from as far away as America who came from the water industry and other business worlds to showcase the best customer service and what we can expect it to look like in the future. It was very thought provoking and made us consider the challenges facing the sector and changes needed to address them. I’m sure all of our delegates made full use of the opportunity to network, learn and discuss the topics that matter throughout the two day event, including the social evenings which were brilliant and I also thank all our sponsors for their splendid on-going support. I’m very pleased that we had a record number of delegates this year and was particularly impressed with the number of younger people with budding careers in attendance. I am confident that our industry is, indeed, in capable hands for the future.

Primayer

THANK YOU Lynn Cooper Chief Executive, Institute of Water

We would like to thank all of our delegates, speakers, exhibitors and sponsors for making this year’s Annual Conference a huge success, this year’s event was attended by 230 people – the largest turnout in our 69 year history. Promoting learning, networking and professional development is a key part of our work at the Institute of Water, and there is no better example of this activity in action than our Annual Conference - we are already looking forward to next year’s event, see you all there.

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With thanks to our sponsors

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2014 Annual Conference Review

KEYNOTE DAY 1 Mary Gober

Founder, Mary Gober International. Unsure of what to expect from the first session of the conference, all concerns and tiredness fell away as soon as Mary Gober took to the floor. From the outset her enthusiasm and sincerity spoke volumes as she engaged a room of over 200 delegates in her own unique way. Giving her talk, not from the stage but in amongst the audience, a tone was set that saw Mary deliver a speech of self-improvement both as individuals and as companies when it came to ‘Delivering Great Service’. This was delivered in a simple yet meaningful tone as a company’s outlook could be divided into what Mary termed “P, S, T” highlighting that as an organisation it was vital that there was a balance struck between the three with an example given where a company might be very highly Technical (T) but lack the selfawareness (S) needed to communicate and more importantly relate to its customers. Mary’s energetic performance was almost an emotional enforcer as she emphasised her mantra of “Say and Do” & “Think and Feel” with all delegates receiving a kind “Object Reminder” (a $1 bill) of what to do when in a situation, either at work, or on your own, that will prompt the mind NOT to pass the buck and to go the extra distance and help solve the problem yourself.

By Gareth McFarland, Rising Star

Colin Skellet

Chief Executive, Wessex Water. In contrast to the previous speaker Colin was coming with over 40 years’ experience in the Water Industry and through the talk his passion on the subject was more than evident. His overall theme was based on an outlook that water companies must try to operate or be seen as customer driven tools within the Service Industry as opposed to an internally objective driven one within the Water Industry. Colin proposed that the culture of an organisation must develop towards this customer driven model yet accepting that we must be realistic with our expectations both in the short and long term. His talk had clear points and objectives as to how, or indeed what, water companies can do to progress themselves up the service ladder. Colin used the example of his very own Wessex Water by showing a video that outlined the evolution his company had gone through right from its inception as a local government body to a regional government body and culminating in privatisation as the company it is today.

Dame Yve Buckland Chair, Consumer Council for Water.

At a conference for the Water Industry focussing on customer service it would make sense that the Consumer Council is represented and we couldn’t have asked for more than the Chair of the organisation, Dame Yve Buckland. Highlighting that customers’ thoughts come first and indicating that communication with customers is key, Yve delivered a talk that was thought provoking and certainly gave many delegates some food for thought. Encouragement and Satisfaction were the buzz words in this talk and these attributes could easily be applied to the speech itself and to the two main objectives that water companies should be striving towards today. Highlighting an example that water companies and their contractors should be seen as one entity in today’s market, Dame Yve hit on a point that is very prevalent and my own thoughts are that when a customer is dealing with a company they should feel that they are dealing with just that – one company. In some cases customers can feel they are dealing with three or more companies if the call centre, the technician out on the ground and the contractor that does the repair are not all in sync and working towards a common goal – customer satisfaction.

CELEBRATING BEST CUSTOMER SERVICE IN THE INDUSTRY TODAY Dr Helen Phillips Director for Customer Services and Network, Yorkshire Water

Helen explained that she thinks SIM is a fantastic piece of regulation because it not only gets us to focus on customer service but it drives us to have a customer-centred culture. She questioned what elements of customer service people are comparing. Are customers comparing their water company’s customer service to their experience at the bank? Are they comparing water companies to renewing their house insurance, are they comparing us to buying a new handbag? This causes a bit of debate in Yorkshire Water – is it realistic to compare paying a water bill to buying a new handbag!? Helen challenged the audience asking ‘Are you easy to deal with? Are you fixing problems first time and are you friendly and helpful?’

One of Helen’s biggest bug bears is data systems and customers having to explain themselves for the tenth time because employees aren’t aware of their case. Yorkshire Water has spent the last 15 months tightening the bridges between the existing ways of working in different parts of the business. They receive just under two million calls a year to their call centre and have 1.6 million individual contacts on the website. The new SIM methodology will measure cases in all points of their history and that’s what YW do with their customer voice. They ask for samples of feedback irrespective of whether the issue has been resolved and they find this to be a truer representation of what people are thinking in any point in time. Helen explained that everyone in YW who manages people will do two customer visits this year. Helen thinks that Yorkshire Water has also opened its eyes to their relationship with the supply chain - the customer doesn’t care

whether an employee works for an organisation called Yorkshire Water or another company – it’s important that there is an emphasis on having a unified appearance.

Mark Enzer

Group Practice Manager for Water and Environment, Mott MacDonald Mark began by explaining that the supply chain has to get its head around the whole concept of being the face of the water company. The supply chain has a very important customer facing role which is highly under estimated. Mark went on to ask about who are the customers that need to have excellent customer service? Really it’s all of us. It’s not just about the asset owners – the water companies, they’re not the only customers in this value chain. There are also the contractors and the sub-contractors and the suppliers. Continued on page 7

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2014 Annual Conference Review Mark believes that delivery is at the heart of great customer service, because customer service has to be results driven. Both parties won’t be happy unless both parties’ objectives are achieved - we need to understand what those objectives are.

A familiar phrase is ‘the customer is always right’ and in Japan they even go as far to say the ‘customer is God’. Excellent customer service isn’t always about saying yes: Mott MacDonald find many of their customers want them to challenge them to even greater things.

has little or no choice, where the parties are never likely to see each other again. The best kind of relationship and the best kind of customer service comes where there is a future pipeline, future purchases or future custom where the customer does have a choice.

The customer’s part of the deal is working out what they really want and then saying what they really want. Then for the supplier it’s about doing what they want. Saying what we are going to do and then doing what we say we’re going to do. Those two things sound quite simple but the process is very rarely linear. It’s not always easy for the customer to indicate exactly what they want. Working out what a customer really wants and then agreeing together on that is a lot healthier and can prove invaluable.

Mark theorised that a good customer has characteristics of openness, honesty, communication, respect and collaboration.

Mark believes the solution in relation to the supply chain is to do with more integrated, more collaborative delivery models which are more reliant on programmes than projects.

Great customer service is about relationships not cosy, over-familiar relationship that allow standards to drop: Mark believes in a healthy, trusting relationship in which value can thrive. The worst customer service comes when there is just a single transaction, where the customer

LEARNING ABOUT BEST CUSTOMER SERVICE OUTSIDE THE WATER INDUSTRY By Emma Norris, Rising Star

David Jarvis

Project Manager, Severn Trent David spoke about his personal experience of receiving excellent customer service on a British Airways flight to New York. David highlighted some key moments and traits of service personality that turned a potentially negative experience in to a story he wants to share with others and praise the British Airways staff for. Particularly important to him was the extra mile that the staff went to, combined with proactive communication and a positive and warm attitude. A challenge in the industry is how we create the right environment for customer service to thrive. David left us with the challenge that customer focused outcomes are delivered by people focussed businesses.

Michael Auliar

Fleet Sales Director, Nissan Michael’s presentation delivered valuable insight in to how Nissan delivers great customer service, and the importance of putting the customer at the heart of decision making and strategy in a highly competitive market. Every employee’s role is to deliver great customer service. The brand positioning is ‘Delivering Innovation and Excitement for Everyone’, but Nissan recognise that without building trust and quality customers will never be persuaded that they could deliver that. An important change for Nissan has been to design products around customer requirements, not industry segments. New models have been

so popular that they have created their own segments; companies need to keep listening to customer needs and delivering on the requirements. Michael talked about some of the schemes Nissan have in place to incentivise dealers to deliver high levels of service, ways of measuring and incentivising dealers, and how Nissan ensure they deliver successfully to dealerships and end customers. A key success for Nissan has been empowering dealers to resolve small issues directly for customers.

Bob Evans

Communications Chief, Oracle Bob used interesting and relevant examples to discuss service philosophy and the technology that our customers are getting used to; businesses need to be able to respond to consumer demands in an unprecedented manner. As an industry we need to think about what business our customers will want us to be in in 12 months’ time, or demand, because their world, and needs and wants, are changing. Bob raised the challenges of how we get around choke points to get past problems and thrill customers, and what data the water industry is sitting on that could be unleashed to wow customers.

Mark Oliver

Director of Business Services Wales and West Utilities Ltd As the Customer Services Director of Wales and West Utilities, the best performing gas distribution network for customer service, Mark talked about the challenges of delivering good customer service in the utilities industry and the importance of putting customer service at the heart of organisational strategy. He also highlighted the importance to investors of customer service performance. WWU have a number of schemes in place to ensure that all staff are delivering good customer service, including the ‘ABCD (Above & Beyond Call of Duty) club’. Mark discussed the regulatory incentives and penalties. New regulations require stakeholder engagement and the ability to demonstrate that companies are meeting social obligations, including finding ways to improve services to vulnerable customers. Mark stressed that incentive regulation is driving improvements in the gas sector. A significant challenge in the sector has been connections performance. Traditionally, it has been difficult to score well in this area in customer satisfaction measures and WWU has recently responded to this by launching an online connections service.

Three quarters of all internet users now have an online social profile – should it be an integrated part of the customer service culture, or should it be ignored?

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SAINT-GOBAIN EVENING RAISES £1800 FOR WATERAID One of the notable highlights of the Institute of Water’s Annual Conference is the Saint-Gobain Evening. Every year this event is held at a mystery location, which is not revealed to the 120 attendees until they are en route to the venue. This year’s rather unusual choice of setting was Bristol Zoo where the participants were split into teams and required to complete a series of tasks, involving a tour through the zoo, answering a quiz and having photographs taken with various zoo “residents” and a ‘guess the celebrity’ photo competition. After the games, they were treated to a delicious barbeque at the Clifton Pavillion followed by West Coast music entertainment to close the evening, where attendees were invited to join in and ‘shake the rattles’ to the rhythm of the tunes from the excellent three-piece Somerset band - The Mangledwurzels. All of the money raised in the event has been donated to Wateraid – a charity working to promote and secure poor people's rights and access to safe water, improved hygiene and sanitation. SG Biozinalium Biozinalium 180x130 180x130 140320 140320 AW2.pdf AW2.pdf SG

Olga Luengo-Gonzalez, Marketing Manager at Saint-Gobain PAM UK, commented on the

evening: “Being able to gather together like-minded people for an event whilst also raising money for a very worthwhile charity is excellent. People know that each year the night 02/06/2014 11:30 02/06/2014 will be unique11:30 and completely different from any of the previous ones, but yet again another

great opportunity for networking during a very informal, light hearted evening. “I would highly recommend the experience and we look forward to the 2015 event and surprising people with what we have in store.”

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2014 Annual Conference Review

KEYNOTE DAY 2

By Paul Harte, Rising Star

However, change in water companies was not all that she covered. As a progressive CEO she also highlighted the need for change within Ofwat. Cathryn highlighted that the regulatory system does not stand still – it is highly dynamic. And, in order for the water industry to change, the regulators need to change. Regulatory change can be achieved by a virtuous circle of learning which influences change.

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Concluding, Cathryn discussed Ofwat’s new strategy of influencing change in water companies. This new strategy aims to focus on trust and confidence with water companies by being more engaging and transparent, building stronger relationships through the sector and focusing on outcomes and customers.

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Cathryn then began to talk of Ofwat's role as a regulator and how it influences water companies to change behaviour to improve compliance and better serve customers. This is achieved by using a formal (financial, reputational and procedural) or informal (making information available, highlighting issues, raising questions) tool kit. It was clear that Ofwat has to work through a wide range of interfaces in order to properly influence change within water companies.

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She spoke of the water industry being a “success story” since privatisation 25 years ago showing the audience that: leakage is 30% lower since the 1990’s, £116 billion has been invested in water/waste water infrastructure and water quality averaging at 99.96%.

Jo went on to show the audience of the examples and methods that should be used by Water Companies in order to achieve high levels of customer satisfaction. Her first example was to “build confidence” in the customer by being professional, simplifying how customers do business and showing that you have the time skills do deal with any potential customer issues. It is important to maintain and improve customer service as it has been shown that there is a clear link to poor levels of customer service and poor sales.

Cathryn spoke of the journey of the water industry and the journey of Ofwat as a regulator and how both have had to evolve and change to continue to meet the customers “very high expectations”.

The first keynote speaker of the second day of the conference was Cathryn Ross, CEO of Ofwat. Cathryn became CEO in October 2013 after a role as Executive Director of Markets and Economics at the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR).

Something that I found interesting with Jo’s presentation was the information presented in the UK Satisfaction Index. The Satisfaction Index showed that utility companies were fixed at the bottom for customer service. Jo made an excellent point that water companies should be benchmarking their customer satisfaction levels with companies from other industries like retail (one of the higher performing industries in the Satisfaction Index) rather than focusing on being the best of a bad bunch.

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Jo opened her presentation by explaining what the Institute of Customer Service is and why it is important. As an independent not for profit organisation, the Institute for Customer Service works with companies to measure and improve customer service in a wide variety of industries.

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She noted the change from a transactional to a relationship economy and that customers have become more demanding in their quest for better service. Jo also highlighted the impact of social media on customer service as it has never been easier to condemn/praise customer service to vast numbers of people.

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2014 Annual Conference Review

WHAT TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCE WILL MEAN FOR THE CUSTOMER OF TOMORROW By Cerys Pope, Rising Star

Ray Arrell

Renewable Energy Engineer, South West Water

Water and Wastewater services contribute to 3% of energy used in the UK, Ray discussed the water industry as an energy consumer, an aspect of the water industry which is not obvious to customers. Energy costs are rising therefore the water industry needs to target a more sustainable approach. There are three main areas to tackle energy in operations: Avoid excessive treatment, “Downstream Thinking” using sustainable drainage and onsite energy generation for onsite use. Renewable energy sources have become increasingly popular, South West Water have given themselves a target of 20% renewables in 2020. The issue with the usage of renewable energy sources is matching the chosen renewable energy source to the demand of the energy needed. The structures of renewable sources e.g. wind farms can require a lot of land which is not always available on the treatment works, this is where the principle of a third party strategic partnership is introduced where nearby landowners could pay for the construction of the renewable energy source and the water company pay them for the energy rather than the national grid. The community energy strategy where the water companies are engaging with the community is becoming a favourable option, where there is the potential to collaborate with local energy groups.

Chris Jones

Professor Tom Curtis

Research and Development Manager, Northumbrian Water Group and

Professor of Biological Engineering, Newcastle University

Chris and Tom explained the challenges of customer service are the customer’s expectations. There are three areas to target- cost, quality and time. The promise of technology can help to meet these targets. Connectivity- connecting the industry’s assets to the network can feed back information e.g. if a CSO is spilling. The introduction of intelligent assets to inform the water companies when interventions need to be carried out could prevent incidents before they occur. The relationship between the customer impact and the probability of success can sometimes be misdirected, is it better to target and concentrate on a risk with high customer impact even though the probability of success is low. By undertaking pilot schemes, the water industry should not be afraid to fail- the principle of fail early and fail often was discussed where the industry continues to carry out trials and learn

from the mistakes for the future. The water industry needs to exploit the technology to aid in the delivery of the desired outcomes.

Chris Sayers

Chair, Northumbrian University

The evolution of customer services was highlighted within this presentation. A video from 1969 was shown illustrating the public’s assumption of technological advances in the future, many of the assumptions were accurate. The vast increase in the intelligence of machine learning is considered as a ‘game changer’ for customer services where Artificial Intelligence was discussed. The usage of Artificial Intelligence is expected in 2020 to replace the need for humans in certain jobs e.g. customer services. Avatars are currently in their infancy however the development of this technology could also have a huge impact on human’s as well as customer service. The continuous increase in the intelligence of computers and machines to use within the customer service

aspect of any industry can conflict with the opinion many customers have, they would prefer to speak to an actual person unlike the automated machines currently in use. The introduction of technology and the continuous improvement should provide numerous advantages to customers of the future. By using renewable energy sources, this will prevent a large increase in prices due to high energy costs and is also better for the environment. By introducing smarter technologies the water industry can identify problems with the assets which can prevent incidents and negative impacts to customers.

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CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS FOR A CHANGING WORLD By Katy Buckland, Rising Star

David Seymour, the Head of Market Development from Business Stream was the first to talk from this session. Focusing on retail competition he talked about how although it is not coming into affect in England until April 2017 we must get ready for it now. Competition will deliver choice for businesses and we need to give customers what they want, not what we think they want. Retail competition in Scotland, introduced in 2008, lead to improved service levels, innovative technologies, choice for the customer and a better price. He spoke about how to drive these changes in England we must develop the wholesale and retail capability of companies to ensure a level playing field, evaluate our systems and processes, and have control of data. The key point he made was that the market must be simple for customers and consistent across all companies to be of most benefit.

David Olivant, former Energy Procurement Manager at Asda and Chair of the MEUC’s Water Action Group, continued on the theme of how we must prepare

ourselves for retail competition and ensure we are ‘brilliant at the basics’. He spoke about how customers want accurate bills, a consistency in approach, call centres with empowerment who give you a solution and not pass the call on, account managers who know their customers, innovation that the customer can see, and accurate data. It cannot be a one size fits all approach, but rather each company having a unique selling point. The deciding factor for which company a customer chooses to be with will be based on the service they provide, not price. He noted that we must be good to our existing customers now as they may already be planning to go elsewhere when they have the opportunity, and it is critical they are not neglected when companies are vying for new customers. Retail competition will give opportunities to both the water industry and the customer, but we have to get it right.

Martin Lunn, the Supply Demand Strategy Manager for Northumbrian Water Group, spoke about how customers expectations are changing and we must ensure security of supply and a high level of service to meet them. Although a temporary water use ban might only be a 1 in 20 year event, if needed unlike in other industries such as gas and electricity, we are reliant on the customer to use less and can’t reduce their usage ourselves. With increased metering and therefore customers paying for their exact usage, they see a temporary water use ban as a failure of the water company due to, for example, leakage, rather than a lack of rainfall. Backed up by an example of the Abberton Scheme,

Martin talked about how during such events communication with customers is the key. He spoke about how we must keep the focus on the customer and involve them with decisions as much as possible. By ensuring they understand the reasons behind a decision, in short, they remain happy customers.

impacts and how this might affect the water industry. The climate is already changing and although we should be trying to mitigate the effects, we will still need to adapt if we want to continue doing what we’re doing; and the longer we leave it to adapt the more costly it may become. Along with increasing temperatures, sea level rise and changing crop yields, it is likely we will see an increase in extremes such as storms, droughts, intense rainfall and floods. He spoke about how we need to assess the impacts of less but intense rainfall on water and waste water treatment works, how the demand for water will likely increase with higher temperatures, how temperature may effect the treatment process, and how our rivers, catchments and coastal infrastructure must be able to cope with intense rainfall, storms and sea level rise.

The final talk in this session was by Doug Johnson, the Deputy Director of Applied Science and Scientific Consultancy from The Met Office. He spoke about climate change, its potential

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2014 Annual Conference Review

SESSION 5: STREAM POSTER SESSION

Sarah Cotterill with her winning poster

Our Annual Conference and Exhibition provides an ideal forum for the STREAM Industrial Doctorate Centre to showcase the research being undertaken by its Research Engineers. It is also an excellent opportunity for the Research Engineers to test their ability to communicate their work to a knowledgeable and often challenging audience. The experience can be rather unnerving but also highly rewarding, improving confidence in both research findings and their value beyond the lab/field trial. Beyond the immediate benefits of the poster session, the Research Engineers also appreciate the opportunity provided by the event to extend their professional network and develop and appreciate of the changing context of their work. The posters are prepared by Research Engineers during their EngD registration and reflect the broad range of challenges facing the sector. This year’s posters covered topics as diverse as urban wastewater systems, gene sequencing, enhanced treatment of ammonia, surface water management and the winning entry: plant scale development of a microbial electrolysis cell. The winning poster was presented by Sarah Cotterill. Her project focuses on reducing the energy used in treating wastewater. Speaking about her project, Sarah said: ‘Reducing the energy used in treating wastewater is one of the most important challenges the water industry faces. Domestic wastewater treatment accounts for approximately 3% of electricity use in developed countries, despite the substantial

value of energy stored in wastewater. There are many established methods for energy recovery, including anaerobic digestion. Yet these approaches counter intuitively rely on energy-intensive processes such as heat or a concentrated waste stream. It may be necessary to adopt a less classical approach. A solution may be found through the use of a microbial electrolysis cell [MEC]. These systems function like a battery, where bacteria at the anode digest the waste and in doing so create electrical current which is transferred in a circuit to the cathode. At the cathode, electricity, hydrogen or chemicals can be produced; creating value. There are suggestions that MEC could replace aerated biological processes if the technology could be retrofit into an aeration lane, but failing this there are alternative options for MEC to recuperate energy. With a low energy demand and the prospect of value produced; is this technology too good to be true? There are several key challenges to the application of MEC. Many investigations have been conducted in laboratories under controlled conditions with expensive materials; amplifying the technology’s performance and potential. The technology, at present, does not match secondary treatment removal efficiencies, therefore improving this is imperative. The barriers to commercialisation appear to be related to the design and engineering of large

reactors, rather than the biological processes or economic feasibility. MEC are predicted to recover some investment costs over their lifespan (aerobic technologies become more costly) making MEC economically attractive to the water utilities. If the technology can be trialled at larger scales under realistic conditions, MEC have the potential to provide energy neutral wastewater treatment.’

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2014 Annual Conference Review

2014 SOCIAL PROGRAMME

President’s Dinner and Awards The Institute of Water President’s Dinner and Awards 2014 were held on Friday 6th June at Bristol Marriott Royal Hotel, Bristol. A number of awards were presented on the evening to recognise achievement and commitment across a number of categories.

Institute of Water National Innovations Winner: Pulsar Process Measurement & DCWW Innovation Team (Welsh Area) Second Place: Organica Water (Midlands Area) Third Place: Radio Data Networks (Eastern Area)

Institute of Water President’s Cup South West Area

President’s Cup Winners South West Area with President Heidi Mottram

Institute of Water Allen Bolton Award Barrie Light, South West Area

WaterAid Award for Outstanding Commitment

Allen Bolten Award Winner Barrie Light with Immediate Past Chair Richard Barton

WaterAid Outstanding Contribution Award Winner Hazel Taylor

National Innovation Award Winners with Rupert Kruger

CPD Award Winners with Lynn Cooper

Hazel Taylor

Institute of Water CPD Award Winner: Shelley Williams, Southern Water Second: James Williams, Dwr Cymru Welsh Water Third: Phillippa Pearson: Dwr Cymru Welsh Water