Watercare ranks highly among Australasian counterparts

18/04/2018

Two surveys have found that the majority of Aucklanders are happy with the service from Watercare.

Compared to the rest of New Zealand, Aucklanders are more likely to think they have higher quality water and to think their water utility provides good customer service.

The large-scale customer research surveys were conducted in 2017 by Water NZ and the Water Services Association of Australia (WSAA).

The surveys were primarily designed to understand customer needs so water companies could prioritise their improvement efforts. A secondary purpose was to seek customers’ views on environmental issues related to water to give companies an understanding of the cultural context they are working within.

Water NZ survey

Of the 1642 Auckland respondents, 88 per cent rate the quality of water they receive as very good or good, compared to 78 per cent for the rest of New Zealand (out of 2858 respondents).  

Sixty-nine per cent felt Watercare provides reliable services and responds quickly to faults. Those in the rest of New Zealand were far less trusting in the reliability of their water companies (48 per cent).

See more information about the Water NZ survey.
 
WSAA survey
In the WSAA survey, Watercare ranked in the top 5 of 38 water companies across Australasia in all of the main categories identified, which were: customer satisfaction (Watercare ranked 5), trust (Watercare ranked 3), value for money (Watercare ranked 4), community reputation (Watercare ranked 5), efficient and well managed (Watercare ranked 5) and effective planning for the future (Watercare ranked 4). 

The most frequent words to describe Watercare were ‘reliable’, ‘clean’ and ‘efficient’ and ‘expensive’.  The same four words were also frequently used to describe Wellington Water’s services.

The surveys did highlight an area for improvement – Watercare’s processes for dealing with customer transactions. A range of technological and process improvements are underway  that will transform the transactional experience for customers dealing with Watercare.