Water utilities are currently grappling with a slew of crises that threaten the stability and long-term viability of this sector. Central to these challenges are issues related to water quality and pollution, which have become increasingly pressing.
For example, this month, a class action lawsuit was filed against water companies claiming they have been underreporting sewage pollution incidents in the UK. In May 2024, a parasite outbreak in the water across Devon saw thousands of households needing to boil water for safe drinking.
These problems are largely rooted in structural challenges, such as decaying infrastructure, which will necessitate long-term solutions and significant financial investments. This means improving customer engagement through the use of technology should be a priority for water companies while they address infrastructure modernisation. Finding wins with automation to improve the customer experience rapidly will be essential to building long-term resilience.
The Water Utilities’ Customer Experience Problem
Consumer satisfaction with water services has plummeted to a record low, as highlighted in Ofwat’s latest report covering the 2022-2023 period. This decline in customer satisfaction poses a significant threat to water utilities, especially as addressing the underlying structural issues will inevitably require utilities to raise bills.
According to Water UK, household water bills in England are expected to increase by an average of 6% from April. Thames Water, for instance, recently announced a 40% increase in consumer bills by 2030 as part of its PR2024 (2024 price review) business plan update. This hike reflects the ambitious plans outlined by water utility companies in their PR24 strategies, which aim to build sustainability into business plans and tackle ageing infrastructure.
To navigate these turbulent waters, water utility companies must prioritise customer service to maintain good customer relations . Digitising through automation will help alleviate some of the immediate pressures and improve customer satisfaction. Here are three priority areas where automation can yield significant results:
Overcoming Legacy Systems
Modern, cloud-based IT infrastructure enables the implementation of automated workflows to improve the productivity of entire teams. For example, by leveraging cloud platforms, field data can be automatically integrated into systems of record. This reduces data collection time by up to 50%, enabling engineers to derive insights and make more informed decisions quickly. Automating manual and paper-based processes helps employees better govern, track and follow-up on operational activities.
Legacy systems cannot support digital workflows without extremely costly intervention, which are essential to streamlining operations. Embracing data as a strategic asset and overcoming legacy systems will be important to cutting response time to critical issues.
Relying on manual data extraction processes remains a major obstacle to efficiency as legacy systems use antiquated data formats that hinder the extraction of valuable insights. Digitising data collection and management will be highly effective in improving the productivity of core business operations.
Automate Customer-Facing Processes
As part of ongoing digital transformation initiatives, it is important to identify customer-facing operations that can be automated to deliver tangible value for customers. This enhances the customer experience by providing faster and more accurate responses and allows water utilities to allocate their resources more effectively toward addressing complex issues. For example, by automating the research grant process and migrating project management to the cloud, government agency AgriFutures Australia reduced contract processing time from four weeks to as little as 30 minutes.
Incorporating AI into Already Automated Workflows
Water companies have already begun exploring automation as a way to drive productivity. For example, smart metering systems that automatically read and collect water consumption data have been on the rise in the water sector. The UK Government and Ofwat are also pushing for accelerated installation of smart meters. According to their management plans, most water companies are planning to increase the use of smart meters in households to 48% in 2030 compared to 13% this year.
These fully automated processes stand to greatly benefit from the incorporation of AI to improve runtime effectiveness of workflows. For example, Nintex’s Form Generator uses natural language processing, enabling users to simply type out the form they need and it is automatically designed for them. It is important that AI is implemented in already automated processes. Using automation as a precursor means AI can learn and self-optimise over time for continued productivity gains.
Customer service is another highly effective use case for AI. AI can help predict and address customer issues before they escalate, personalise customer interactions, and provide more accurate information based on data analysis.
Driving long-term success with customer satisfaction
The water utilities sector is at a critical juncture. While long-term solutions to structural challenges are necessary, the immediate focus must be on improving customer relations to maintain trust and support from customers. Digitisation centred on automation offers viable paths to achieve these quick wins, ensuring that water utilities can navigate the current crises while laying the groundwork for a more resilient future.
