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Reports on water companies
International comparisons - customer contact indicators: results for 2006-07 Table 9 gives the indicators we use to measure the performance of the water companies in dealing with customer contacts. For response to billing contacts, the England and Wales performance was affected by three companies, two of which introduced new billing systems in 2006-07. Excluding these companies, the average level of service in England and Wales would have been similar to that in Scotland. The range of performance in England and Wales against written complaints is also wide. The average level of service is similar in England and Wales and Scotland. In Portugal, response to written complaints is only recorded against a 22-day standard. Even against this lower standard, the percentage failure by Portuguese companies is on average much worse than in England and Wales. The number of written complaints per 1,000 customers is similar in England and Wales, Scotland, Canada and Portugal. In Australia and the USA written and telephone complaints are reported together. When we include complaints made by telephone, the companies in England and Wales do not appear to be performing as well as their counterparts in Australia and the USA. However, differences in telephone complaint rates are more likely to be because of different reporting methods than true differences between the countries. We use overall performance assessment (OPA) scores in England and Wales to assess companies' service to customers over a range of measures. Through these scores we recognise good or bad customer service when we set price limits for each company. Water Industry Commission for Scotland uses a modified version of our OPA for setting charge caps in Scotland. There, Scottish Water has been set an OPA target for each year of the charge cap period, with some allowance in prices to achieve this improvement. Figure 4 shows the relative performances of Scottish Water and the ten water and sewerage companies in England and Wales for 2006-07 using this modified OPA. Scottish Water's overall performance lags behind England and Wales, but has improved significantly since last year, increasing its 2005-06 score by about 40%. This score is likely to improve further in future years.  |
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Customer service levels |
Network indicators - results for 2006–07
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Customer contact indicators - results for 2006–07
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