21 minute read
Digital Transformation
Harnessing technology with people for better service outcomesArtificial intelligence-enabled chatbots are more likely than experiences in other channels to cause annoyance As digitisation spreads across sectors and industries, technology is rapidly changing the customer experience landscape. The digital transformation underway across many organisations in the water sector is enabling smoother interactions that remove friction for the customer and We asked customers to identify a channel or technology they used to contact an organisation which improve efficiency for the business. However, there’s also a risk in trying to digitise too much too resulted in a particularly positive or annoying experience. The findings suggests that experiences with artificial intelligence-enabled chatbots are more likely than experiences in other channels to cause fast. The key to unlocking the promise of innovative technology lies in how it combines with annoyance, rather than satisfaction. Indeed, most of the digitally active customers we interviewed recounted (unprompted) a frustrating experience with a chatbot. Email and phone calls were associated the level of personal interaction to ensure an empathetic connection with customers. This is the with the highest number of positive customer experiences, perhaps reflecting the widespread use of these channels to deal with organisations. equation that water companies should strive to balance on both sides.
By Jo Causon
Advertisement
CEO, Institute of Customer Service
Digitisation and how it applies to customer service is a theme we explored in depth at The Institute in our recent research called A Connected World?. This found that many customers are embracing technology and welcome many of the advancements it is bringing. In particular, customers are using apps and also enjoy being able to self-serve for transactional requirements like checking bills, browsing options and finding essential information.
However, when it comes to more complex and personalised matters – and especially when there is a problem – most customers still want and expect to be able to talk to a real person and receive direct, human attention.
Customers: a mixed digital picture
While nearly three-quarters (73%) of the 1,000 customers we surveyed described themselves as confident users of technology, this still leaves a significant proportion who are less assured. In addition, 23% of respondents said they currently help a friend or family member to deal with an organisation online or digitally. This is a reminder that there remain significant sections of organisations’ customer bases who are not well-adapted to the technology environment. This can be for many reasons. Some simply prefer traditional ways of interacting with organisations; others are wary of data privacy and confidentiality; while others – often for financial reasons - may not have the equipment or broadband access to engage digitally. In addition, there are vulnerable customers who may straddle any of the above categories or have special needs when interacting online. Organisations such as water companies that provide essential services have a duty to cater for all of these diverse needs and preferences. In assessing the risk of digital exclusion, they need to consider how they will enable communication both with vulnerable customers who have challenges in using technology, and customers who prefer not to engage through digital channels. As essential service providers, achieving the right blend
Thinking of your interactions with large organisations like banks, retailers, utilities or travel companies, which technologies have had the biggest impact of your customer experience?
Apps
Phone calls
Web-chat or Livechat
Using WhatsApp or Messenger
Self-service check-out in-store
Online self-service on organisation’s website
Video chat
Chat bots - AI automated
Source: A Connected World?, Ensuring the right blend of people
6%
4% 10%
14%
9% 14%
12% 12%
10%
9% 10%
9%
11%
9% 18% 21%
3%
% customers saying this channel has had biggest positive impact on customer experience 17%
% customers saying this channel has had the most annoying impact on customer experience
A Connected World? 33
of technology and in-person service becomes even more important. Regulators and government have a key role in monitoring customer service outcomes for vulnerable people, setting minimum standards and encouraging organisations to share practice. As technology develops and organisations seek to offer differentiated customer experiences to digitally confident customers, it will be increasingly relevant to assess fairness of customer service outcomes for all customers.
Service benefits on tap?
But what are the benefits that organisations introducing greater levels of technology into their service delivery are unlocking? Our research finds that many are using technology to improve workflow processes, bolster analytics for better decision-making, and to achieve better integration of data. Some of the most impactful applications empower employees to deliver better service experiences: real-time prompts based on analytics of similar customer interactions, increased visibility of relevant data, and analysis of interactions with customers to identify training needs. One striking example is the role of customer service advisers as “digital coaches” – helping customers to use digital channels, stepping in where they are experiencing a problem, but doing this with the customer and, therefore, improving customer knowledge and capability as well.
Channel mix matters
One lesson we see clearly in our research is that it is vital to provide a variety of channels through which customers can contact and interact with the organisation – because individuals have a range of preferences and experiences. Overall, email, apps and phone remain the most positively rated channels, with webchat not far behind. It is notable, however, that automated chatbots emerge as amongst the least satisfying and most annoying experiences for many customers – frequently because they take people on a ‘circular loop’ and don’t provide satisfactory solutions. AI capabilities are moving very rapidly, and the transformational potential it offers may be just around the corner. However, it’s clear that successful deployment of chatbots requires excellent design and structuring of customer journeys, thorough testing – and quick human intervention when it is needed.
Source: A Connected World?, Ensuring the right blend of people and technology for customer service, The Institute of Customer Service, 2022
Achieving the right blend
The best service approaches will see a blend of the technological and the human – working in combination to support and complement each other.
We also see successful organisations using technology and customer data to help predict likely spikes in contact from customers. In the water industry, this might mean identifying the early signs of a significant leak for example. Preventative action can then be taken – protecting the customer experience and alleviating the pressure on the contact centre before it happens. Ensuring that there are good communication flows between operations and customer service is therefore essential.
It is also crucial that the implementation of technology is not seen solely through a cost saving lens. With the cost of living crisis that is upon us, I am concerned that more organisations may look for cost efficiencies by increasing their use of technology and automated service, at the expense of their human customer service teams. This would be a mistake. If Covid taught us anything, it was the importance of human support and interaction through difficult times – something that the water and utilities sectors were right at the forefront of. Without doubt, many water companies and utility providers have further to go in their digital transformation journey and how they weave new technology into the service model. This can in fact be a strength, because it enables them to learn from the experience of others and take a considered approach. I am sure that we will see increasing advances in the sector moving forward. The key to success will be to achieve the right balance of human and tech that covers the needs, expectations and priorities of all sections of the varied customer base that relies on them to provide one of the very essentials of life.
Smart technology: the future of customer service in the water sector
By Rachael Merrell
Customer Service Director at Echo Managed Services More than ever before, today’s customers have high expectations and water utilities’ customers are no different: their provider should be able to deliver a seamless service, with little or no inconvenience to them or their day-to-day activities Echo Managed Services, the experts behind Aptumo, provide specialist customer service and billing solutions to the water industry. Decades of sector-specific experience and direct engagement with customers confirms that their needs and, more importantly their expectations, are changing. One of the top five recommendations for businesses in all sectors, according to the latest UKCSI report from the Institute of Customer Service, is to develop strategies to tackle or prevent problems before they affect the customer. In the water sector specifically, implementing smart tech could be the best way to achieve this goal.
A tech-enabled system
From infrastructure to customer service systems in contact centres, implementing smart tech should be a collaborative, one team effort, with the objective being to detect any issues before they can impact the customer experience. A full end-to-end review of existing customer journeys and touchpoints will inform the introduction of suitable smart technology that will give the provider full visibility of the water system, enabling them to better understand what their customers truly want and need.
Every partner involved in the review, design, and implementation process will share their knowledge and skills to improve the overall customer experience. It’s paramount in any smart tech project that this remains at the heart of the collaboration, and customer benefit is the objective. Introducing smart tech that enables a water company to detect issues which may cause problems helps to reduce customer complaints and ensure that customers don’t get a surprise either with their water supply or bill. Embracing smart tech enables all elements of the water supply journey to work together to benefit the customer.
Water companies should be able to identify any potential issues themselves; relying on customers to report problems means reputational damage could already have been done. Introducing smart tech gives providers the tools they need to pre-empt issues with water supply or billing to minimise any impact on the customer. Detecting problems
By constantly monitoring systems to detect any changes in performance, water companies can rectify issues before they become a problem for consumers. There’s no one-sizefits-all approach but, following a full review of existing customer experience, first steps should include introducing tech that gathers performance data such as changes in water pressure, for example. By noticing faults promptly, teams can be notified to carry out repairs before the customer becomes aware. If an issue is likely to take a little longer to fix or there may be an impact on water supply, service teams can contact customers to prepare them for any disruption. They can also direct customers to any support they may need if their water supply is disturbed.
Improving the billing process
Introducing smart tech can also improve the customer experience by helping to ensure that a higher than usual bill doesn’t come as a surprise. Having a system that monitors supply, considers any change in household circumstances, and continually monitors usage, means customer service teams are well-equipped to have conversations with customers about billing and affordability. Ideally, any changes to billing should be due to something the customer is aware of; it should never be because of a system fault or increased consumption that was beyond the customer’s control. Having a proactive system that identifies leaks quickly, before they develop into serious incidents, should help to reduce any impact on customer bills. Being able to constantly monitor usage gives water utilities intel that allows them to contact a customer if, for example, there’s a noticeable change in household consumption. Customers don’t always realise the impact that changes to the number of people in the household or introducing new water dependent appliances can have on their water bill. If the customer service team identifies an unusually high bill before it’s sent to the customer, they can make contact in advance to ensure that the customer understands why their bill has increased and provide any support they may need to help pay it.
Impact on customer satisfaction
Proactive systems are key to maintaining and further improving satisfaction ratings among water customers. In the July UKCSI report, the average customer satisfaction for water companies was up 1.5 points since July 2021, with satisfaction settling at a respectable 76.1 points. The research showed that 42.7% of respondents said any complaints were dealt with immediately, and 38% said that the resolution time was quicker than expected. Whilst this data largely reflects very well on the water sector, there’s clearly still room for improvement which can be achieved by taking steps to both reduce the number of complaints and manage them quickly. Proactive customer service that works with the right tech and involves real collaboration between the partners involved in managing the customer experience means that satisfaction could be greatly improved. It removes the frustration of unexpected issues with supply or bills and allows people time to seek out support if they face any financial or practical challenges. If water providers are to keep up with ever changing consumer demands, implementing smart tech really is the future.
The next generation billing solution that puts you in control
With real-time data that provides a 360° view of customer information, Aptumo enables exceptional service first time, every time.
aptumo.com hello@aptumo.com
Digital sustainability, a key concept in today’s world, stems from the far-reaching digital transformation that companies have to tackle and the need for them to exploit their data to add value. Understanding this concept and how to be digitally sustainable in the water sector is also essential in terms of flexibility, operability and cost savings.
Digital sustainability is a must in this day and age. Although we have lived through different industrial revolutions, none of them is comparable to the so-called Industrial Revolution 4.0, which entails the profound digital transformation of companies. It involves technological changes, as well as shifts in company culture, in the way we communicate, organizational flexibility and even in the different strategies required. Yet data exploitation is always the driving force behind all these changes. In the face of these developments, water utilities have to implement changes so that they can offer a better service, making the most of the characteristics of this new industrial transformation such as 5G, greater operational agility, interconnectivity, more data, and greater access to information. However, these changes must be preceded by a comprehensive assessment of all the areas that make up a utility, pinpointing the ones which require improvement. However, it is important to highlight the difference between sustainable digital transformation and digital sustainability. While the former refers to the use of technology in an environmentally friendly way, digital sustainability in the water sector can be defined as the process by which companies access and exploit their data thanks to intelligent solutions and applications to integrate this data, regardless of the vendors. In this regard, digital sustainability means the entire company speaks the same language, and is able to create improvement indicators (KPIs) and dashboards to enable it to make the best decisions.
Digital sustainability means companies can improve communication, standardizing language and avoiding information silos. However, there are other advantages that should also be taken into account:
1. Scalability The digital sustainability of water utilities guarantees the smooth operation of the system regardless of the number of users. In this case, we are talking about horizontal scalability. There is also vertical scalability in which more resources are added to meet the needs of a larger number of users. In any of its forms, it guarantees that the system responds despite the increase in users and data. 2. Durability Digital sustainability guarantees longer system life cycles thanks, in part, to the digital transformation process, which does away with the need to have several suppliers, or the implementation of solutions such as GoAigua, a tool that offers a holistic overview of operational digital infrastructure components, bringing all the systems into one, standardizing language and avoiding the need to constantly change parts of the systems to achieve this coordination.
3. Improved operational management As previously mentioned, digital sustainability means the company speaks the same language. This will lead to improvements in operational management, greater control over situations, real-time alerts about possible incidents, shorter response times, and improved functions in general, thanks to automation.
4. Cost reductions Companies can reduce costs thanks to greater durability and improved operational management, since there will be no need to replace infrastructures, delay processes or involve more stakeholders in them.
5. Interconnectivity One of the main advantages is the ability to interconnect systems to break down information silos, bring data together and make recommendations for action based on real-time information.
Digital transformation of utilities
Digital transformation is key to the conservation of water resources, to decisionmaking and to the improvement of demand management. It can take place via a bottomup process, where it is carried out as specific problems arise, or via a top-down process, where a well thought-out roadmap is followed. The latter of course requires greater effort but also offers further-reaching results. In any case, it is a must for water utilities, which have no choice but to redefine their processes and organizational culture to keep pace with current circumstances. Digital sustainability must be factored into this process if utilities are to become more efficient in terms of water management, offer a better service to consumers and reduce their carbon footprint. idrica.com
The sixth British Water Data Conference, which took place on 3 November 2022, kicked off with a warning from keynote speaker Oliver Grieveson on the “dangers and opportunities” around digital transformation.
The event took place at the Royal College of Pathology in London, but the body of water infrastructure was the one under examination on this occasion, not least, the health of the instrumentation monitoring some 375,000 combined sewage and stormwater overflows (CSOs) in the UK wastewater network.
“A lot of that data we know is false,” Grieveson said, “because of the quality of what we’re doing with instrumentation.” He also reflected on the “sheer volume of data about the hit the water industry” as new instrumentation comes online in the next few years, and the challenge to the people tasked with making sense of it. The conference gave delegates the opportunity to hear updates from a number of winners of Ofwat’s innovation competitions first hand. The projects led by Yorkshire Water, Anglian Water, Severn Trent Water, South West Water and United Utilities are funded by the £200 million Innovation Fund set up by the regulator to help grow the water sector’s capacity to innovate.
First up was Yorkshire Water’s Blockage Predictor Project set up to identify sites at risk of pollution. With sensors deployed across the utility’s CSO asset base, Heather Sheffield, the utility’s integrated planning & central control manager (wastewater), said 24% more blockages had been found and 65% were detected earlier than previously. Speaking of the value of finding the right partners to collaborate with, in this instance German technology company Siemens, she said, “One of the challenges we have is that concept, culturally, that we can do everything ourselves – and we just can’t. This partnership has helped accelerate some of this thinking and the implementation of AI [artificial intelligence] across our asset base to help us manage service risk.” Next was Anglian Water’s £8 million Safe Smart Systems Project (SSSP), which involves 26 partners, and focuses on the first steps to achieve autonomous control of UK water systems. Presenter George Schley, consultant business architect/analyst at US engineering company Jacobs, explained that digital solutions need to be scalable and adoptable by other water utilities. “Defining the common language” is one of the most important things in the SSSP project, he said, promising that an information management framework (IMF) was an output of the project that would be “shareable with everyone”. Schley also spoke of the challenges of getting data from operatives in the field who are sometimes working under the most difficult circumstances, at night and in bad weather: “People are one of our most important sensors.” he said. His thoughts on the importance of people were echoed by South West Water data scientist James-Pascal Mercer, who is involved in another Ofwat funded project examining the effect of tourism on arealevel water demand in Devon and Cornwall and how it can be used to make predictions. After sharing results showing greater correlation of visitor numbers and demand in coastal areas, he said, “The operators already knew intuitively what the data revealed from their years of experience. We wanted to verify it.” Gigi Karmous-Edwards, founder and cochair of the Smart Water Networks Forum (SWAN) work group for digital twins, said that setting best practice on these advanced digital tools is an important next step. Building on the theme of a shared language, she proposed that everyone adopt a common definition of a digital twin as: “A dynamic digital representation of real-world entities and their behaviours using models with static and dynamic data that enable insights and interactions to drive actionable and improved outcomes.” The meaning of open data given consideration by a number of speakers, with Adam Cartwright, head of IoT applications at Siemens asking, “Data open to who? Interoperability is more important than openness. The public don’t need to know the efficiency of a pump, they need to know the outcome.”
Thanking delegates at the end of the packed day, Tracy Britton, chair of British Water’s Data & Analytics Focus Group, and smart water solutions director at Jacobs, came back to the theme of collaboration: “We have to get better at not just talking about collaboration, but enabling it,” she said, highlighting the Ofwat projects and the need to take them out of silos and “bring everything together”. The event was sponsored by Innovyze, an Autodesk company, which provides digital software for water professionals.
Anglian Water pilots transformative AI technology
Transformation of Anglian Water’s treatment and recycling processes is being made possible by trials of artificial intelligence (AI) driven software developed by Norwegian technology company InfoTiles.
The digital analytics company is collaborating with the UK utility on a 12-month pilot project focusing on biofilters and anaerobic digestion. Both types of biological processes and assets are integral to the treatment of wastewater and a key aim of the collaboration is to enhance operational visibility and decisionmaking around asset management. The initial trial of the InfoTiles software will monitor the rotating arms of biofilters at 15 sites to assess whether they are rotating when needed. It will also involve measuring sludge blanket levels in primary settlement tanks at a further 15 sites, to ensure they stay within optimal ranges for effective operation. The data, collected from a mix of new and existing sensors through Anglian’s existing supervisory control & data acquisition (SCADA) systems, will be combined with flow rates and publicly available weather data to build a rich contextual overview of what is happening at the water recycling plants in real-time.
InfoTiles can also combine Anglian Water’s existing SCADA systems into one event streaming platform that can aggregate, compare and visualise reliability of the equipment. This same platform allows Anglian Water to trial different sensor technology and compare the reliability and accuracy of the different sensors undergoing testing. InfoTiles’ strength lies in the ability to visualise and model process data through machine learning to show the likelihood of critical failures in wastewater treatment, such as potential stoppages and breakdowns. This will give Anglian Water, one of the UK’s largest water utilities, the ability to anticipate, detect and resolve potential problems. By continually assessing the health and effectiveness of assets, maintenance teams can be deployed much more efficiently. The two companies were brought together through WaterStart, a US-based membership platform which seeks to remove common barriers to the adoption of innovative technologies and connects utilities and municipalities with solution providers globally. “We are so proud to be involved in this pilot programme, which will transform the way we manage our water recycling sites,” said Adam Jessop, optimisation technologist at Anglian Water. “Collaborating with international companies through WaterStart has helped the team to work at pace to find solutions and ways to improve the service provided.” The overall aim of the collaboration is to enhance operational visibility, create more informed decision-making, and understand where and how to prioritise maintenance of the water company’s assets. Adam Wood, chief product officer at InfoTiles said, “Our Nordic customers use InfoTiles to guide their maintenance decisions with real-time data. Our team is enthusiastic to collaborate with the technicians and analysts at Anglian Water to tailor the InfoTiles platform to enable better, data-driven, maintenance at this major UK utility.” Nathan Allen, executive director at WaterStart, said, “InfoTiles have proven the technology works in the Nordics, and WaterStart is thrilled to support the company’s expansion into the UK market. Effective data management is a global challenge for water utilities and it is exciting to see the outcomes of the pilot as the technology is expected to be broadly scalable among our global membership base.”
