7 August 2013

It's official - customers of South Staffs Water benefit from the highest levels of service, according to new results issued by the water industry regulator, Ofwat.

South Staffs region came top out of 21 water companies in England and Wales in the Service Incentive Mechanism (SIM) survey, which measures the levels of customer service at all water companies in the UK, while the Cambridge region, which became part of South Staffs Water in April, came joint second.

The SIM is designed to improve the level of service that water companies provide. It is based on two measures:

• The number of complaints, unwanted contacts and abandoned calls the company receives from customers
• The results of a quarterly customer survey which analyses the quality of service provided

Customers are asked to rank how easy it was for them to get through to the company; the knowledge and professionalism of the person the customer spoke to, and their satisfaction with any company visits.

Both regions of South Staffs Water improved on their scores from last year, with customers saying they feel more informed on the progress of an issue, are more satisfied with the time taken to resolve a matter and are more satisfied with the visits they receive from the water company.

Rachel Barber, Customer Services Director for South Staffs Water, said: "We're tremendously proud of the achievement, which has involved everyone who works for the company.

"We have worked extremely hard over the past year to improve customer service standards, particularly by listening to what our customers tell us. But achieving first place will not be the end of the work; we are committed to continual improvement and will be working even harder to try to remain in first place."