Transformation project leads to 33% increase in digital transactions
A digital transformation programme supported by Echo Managed Services has helped Welsh Water to achieve a 33% increase in digital channel customer transactions for the most common, high-volume customer contact types.
Echo’s Software Services Team has been supporting Welsh Water with the delivery of its digital transformation strategy, assisting the regulated water and sewerage company in enabling customer journey automation and an improved customer experience.
Welsh Water is not-for-profit company which serves three million people across most of Wales, Herefordshire, and part of Deeside, and Cheshire, and is the sixth largest of the ten regulated water and sewerage companies in England and Wales.
As part of their digital programme, Welsh Water wanted to empower their customers to perform more self-serve activities via their website with little, to no, involvement of a customer services representative.
This required, where cost-effective to implement, the customer experience to be fully automated, supported by Echo’s proprietary water billing software, which has been operational at Welsh Water since 2015.
The programme has included redesigning online customer journeys, integrating them with back-office systems, and improving the overall experience for customers.
Benefits of the digital transformation programme at Welsh Water include:
- A 33% increase in digital channel customer transactions for the most common, high-volume customer contact types.
- 96% customer satisfaction with the new digital channels and processes.
- Driving continuous customer service improvements has helped Welsh Water retain their position as the top-rated water company in Wales and England in the latest Institute of Customer Service UK CSI, and only water company to be scored within the top 50 of all UK companies.
Sam James, MD Household Customer Services at Welsh Water, said: “The Echo Software Services team has helped us achieve our digital programme objectives, working closely and flexibly with our own project team to drive forward our digital transformation vision. We’ve been working with Echo for over 7 years now in a collaborative way to help improve our service and customer experience.”
Mark Alfer, Head of Product at Echo Managed Services, said: “We’ve really enjoyed working with the Water team on this significant change project, and I am really proud of what we have been able to achieve together. The water sector is quite rightly focused on customer service and experience, and it’s rewarding to be able to support this drive through the capabilities and functionalities of our software products.
“We were also delighted that Welsh Water recently scored us within their top 3 suppliers across the full range of metrics: service, project, innovation, commercial and relationship. This achievement really is testament to our people – their experience, dedication and hard work.”
Echo Managed Services is a water market specialist, offering a range of software products and outsourced services to the sector. Echo’s Software Services team develops and provides billing software to water companies in the UK and Australia; RapidXtra is an established, leading water billing solution in the UK, and Aptumo is a global next-generation cloud-based solution, native to the Salesforce platform.