3B) 24/7 digital access and online self-service - through implementation of residential and business online portals

About this project

We have recently upgraded our website to provide a more modern, functional site that’s easy for customers to use. However, prior to our price submission process, the website did not have the online portal functionality of some of the metropolitan water corporations. In previous years, customers have told us they want to be able to access self-serve options at any time to pay bills online, check their account balances and billing history and update their details. We committed to introducing this for our customers under our Price Plan 2018-23.
Our customer portal brings us in line with current digital practices and allows customers to self-manage their account whenever they want from wherever they are.

Actions to date

The customer portal has been live for three years and we’ve continued to see increasing numbers of registrations and have run low-level awareness campaigns and sign up incentives. As well as viewing and paying accounts, checking account history and requesting payment extensions, customers can also easily switch to e-billing, set up direct debit arrangements and update their personal details.
In the past 12 months we’ve also been finalising our new, additional options for payment, which will be available by the end of the financial year. We’ve also been working on on-going security measures, as well as developing options for intelligent metering data for those customers who’ve had their meters switched to digital meters.
The property developer portal is also live, and property drainage plans have been added for both plumbers and owners.

What's next?

We’ll continue to build further functionality into the customer portal, based on customer requirements and feedback. We’ll be working on promoting access to the portal, as a customer survey indicated more people would use it but didn’t know it was available.
In the next 12 months, intelligent metering data will be available, and we’ll also be prioritising new function development based on customer preferences.
In addition to the project, we’re also planning to make leak detection data from the intelligent meters available proactively to customers - likely sent via email or text. We’ll confirm with customers when this functionality is ready to launch.

Our accountability for this project

GVW sees significant value and effective savings through having an effective customer portal.
Where customers are able to directly manage their accounts, GVW should benefit from cost-effective gains in these administrative functions.

For this information in PDF form, click here to download the factsheet (PDF: 183KB)