New website hub launched for Mandarin speakers

We've created a suite of Mandarin resources to make it easier for our Chinese customers to access important information.

The resources include general information about our business and what customers can expect from our team, as well as guides covering:

• The different ways to pay your bill

• How bills are calculated

• What to do if you receive a higher bill than usual

• How to read your water meter

• Information for customers with smart meters

Head of communications Rachel Hughes says: “Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland is a city rich in diversity, and we know there’s no one-size fits all approach for communicating with our customers.

“We’re always looking for ways to make it easier for our customers to engage with us, so when we replaced our website we identified some of the common questions people have, and had the relevant information translated into Mandarin.

“They’re now housed on a new page on the website where they can be easily downloaded and shared.”

Networks contracts manager James Lu, whose first language is Mandarin, says the new translated resources will be in hot demand.

“There’s a huge and growing population of Chinese people in Auckland, and there are many people who speak little English – my parents included,” he says.

“It’s fantastic to have this information at our fingertips in our own language. I think it will go a long way to lifting the understanding of what we do at Watercare, the support that’s available to our customers and how our water and wastewater bills are calculated.”

Hughes says, our LiveChat translation service is also popular with Mandarin speakers.

“We have hundreds of conversations each month with our Mandarin customers using the LiveChat instant translation service, and we know these customers really appreciate being able to communicate with us in their first language. Having these new resources on our website builds on this.”

• Residential customers can access our Mandarin resources here

• Business customers can access here

• And, landlords/property managers can click here

The LiveChat service is available via this website during business hours.