Our journey from water authority to community partner took a major leap forward with the outcomes of the June meeting of the Customer Accountability Panel.
In line with our values the customer event moved us further toward the human-centric and customer driven culture that is our ultimate goal.
The purpose of the CAP was to ensure our customers were "getting what they were paying for" and the outcomes of discussion against our four Customer Promises indicated we are heading in the right direction
Here is a summarised version of what our CAP members told us in regard to what they expected from us in the services, leadership, environmental and customer service space.
A major focus of the CAP meeting was to allow members the opportunity to provide feedback on the four promises of the 2022 Deliberative Forum. These were their remarks:
Promise 1: Reliable Water & Wastewater Services
GVW should create more awareness about its delivery of cheap and reliable water services. The CAP also suggested GVW should educate the community about who to go to for different issues, including water quality.
Nagambie's Kym Bailey was a member of the Annual Performance Forum and is now working with the CAP.
Promise 2: Lead action to grow the region
GVW is working toward delivering on this promise. The CAP thinks that GVW could better promote the value it adds to the community, and the areas the organisation is leading action around.
Promise 3: Care for the environment & adapt to climate change
GVW is performing well on this promise, as indicated by the organisation being on track with three out of four measures. The CAP encouraged GVW to continue to place high importance on collaboration with Indigenous communities.
Promise 4: Be respectful and responsive to customers - deliver affordable, value for money & fair service
GVW should highlight to the community it is providing great value for money. The CAP also encouraged GVW to maintain its focus on continuous improvement.
Performance Measures
In total there were 16 Performance Measures attached to these four promises as part of Price Plan 2023-28. The CAP members scored each of these using a traffic light system of Red (not met target), Yellow (close to or largely met target) and Green (met target). Eleven of those were in the green, four in the yellow zone and one in the red.
Once the participants had finished voting on all 16 Performance Measures, they were then asked to provide an overall rating for each of the four Customer Promises. They were instructed to use the same traffic light descriptors when assessing the overall performance.
They scored us 74 per cent green for Promise one, with the three highest scoring measures being our levels of communication in the event of an incident and our ability to restore water supply following planned and unplanned works.
For Promise two we scored 59 per cent in yellow and 32 per cent in green, the CAP members asking us to increase water literary in our communities by increasing education programs, engagement events and expanding communications beyond the main towns.
Pomise three recieved a 67 per cent green rating, our scores in the area of reducing carbon emissions and our Urban Water Strategy plan development attracting strong support.
The final promise had a 69 per cent green rating, with the handling of our billing and complaints the highest ranking measure, along with customers' belief we provide value for money and excellent information on water saving measures.
CAP members also completed an evaluation survey about their experience at the event.
They were asked to rate eight statements from strongly agree to stongly disagree. Seventy two per cent strongly agreed to the statement "I enjoyed being part of the CAP", 86% agreed or strongly agreed to the statement "I was provided with enough information to understand the discussions and contribute meaningfully", while 96% agreed with the statement "I had an opportunity to share my thoughts and opinions".