Enhancing Consumer Satisfaction Survey for CCW

The Consumer Council for Water (CCW) is an independent organization representing water consumers in England and Wales, helping thousands of consumers resolve complaints against water companies while providing free advice and support. To ensure a high standard of service and adaptability to consumer needs, CCW conducts a satisfaction survey among its consumers on a rolling basis. MEL Research undertake telephone-based research to assess consumer satisfaction and improve the survey’s effectiveness.

Approach

The telephone-based research aims to conduct a minimum of 100 interviews per month, with an annual target of 1,200, based on an average of 475 contacts per month. To maintain high response rates, MEL Research deploys a skilled telephone research team experienced in exploring customer experiences. All interviews adhere to guidelines set by MRS, IQCS, ISO 20252, and GDPR. The interviewing week spans Monday to Saturday, with no interviews conducted after 8pm.

To maximize response rates and engage harder-to-reach groups, MEL Research employs several approaches:

• Calls are spread over different days of the week, and an appointment booking system is available for respondents who cannot participate immediately.
• Message machines are used to leave clear messages about the purpose of the call and when a repeat call will be made.
• Interviewers receive comprehensive training to handle reluctant respondents and establish rapport effectively.
• The survey questionnaire is designed to be concise (around 15 minutes) to avoid respondent fatigue.
• The introduction to the survey emphasizes the opportunity to support CCW and influence consumer representation.
• For individuals with hearing difficulties, the Next Generation Text Service (NGTS) is utilized to facilitate communication.
• MEL Research’s call center team covers a range of languages, allowing effective engagement with diverse communities. Where language barriers persist, appointments are scheduled, and Language Line offers three-way interpreting if needed.

MEL Research monitors the progress of the survey using real-time data through the Confirmit system, enabling daily assessment of completion volumes and identifying potential slowdowns. Immediate access to the dataset ensures the survey operates smoothly and meets expectations. CCW also has access to an Active Dashboard, allowing transparency on progress and performance metrics, which can be filtered by month and case type.

For more in-depth insights, MEL Research has also conducted qualitative depth interviews. These interviews allow an exploration of individual experiences and offer valuable insights into the complaints process and service problems encountered. The qualitative phase will be conducted through telephone or virtual interviews, and follow-up recruitment will be done using contact details collected in the quantitative survey.

Outcome

CCW uses the survey findings in various ways:

• Case handlers review results case-by-case, seeking areas of improvement.
• Team leaders identify systemic issues and training needs.
• Monitoring satisfaction during peak work periods and assessing the impact of new initiatives.
• Defining work focus based on key drivers of satisfaction.
• Publishing satisfaction results in three key performance measures (outcome of case, speed of service, and overall satisfaction).
• Benchmarking performance against similar organizations.
• Using results to demonstrate the effectiveness of mediation work to stakeholders.

Through MEL Research’s thorough and tailored approach to the satisfaction survey, CCW gains valuable insights, identifies improvement opportunities, and enhances its role as the independent voice for water consumers in England and Wales.