To make sure our services meet your expectations, we continuously listen and engage with a range of customers from bill-paying households and businesses to future customers, stakeholders and local communities.
All our research projects are designed to meet Ofwat and CCW’s expectations for high-quality research and engagement.
Join our customer panel
How we listen to customers
Here are some examples of how we listen to the views of customers.
Customer panel
Household customers are invited to share their views on our overall service and top priorities, as well as topical issues such as water saving, smart metering and storm overflows.
The surveys are often part of wider insight projects, so findings are considered alongside other customer views to inform our plans and changes to services.
Tracker survey
Our continuous tracker survey, which has been running for over a decade, engages with 2,000 customers a year. The survey is run by a research agency, Blue Marble, on our behalf.
Customers are selected from across our region and invited by email or telephone to complete a survey. Topics cover themes such as overall service, value for money, bill affordability and attitudes to water saving.
Young People's Panel
Each year, our Young People’s Panel (YPP) brings together a group of 20 to 30 future bill payers from across the region to work on real business challenges through a range of interactive tasks. Focus groups and surveys also help to capture their views on various wider topics.
Previous topics have involved designing a customer onboarding journey for our smart metering programme, creating a campaign to encourage saving water, and developing a ‘Manifesto for Change’ to build trust and reputation in the water industry.
Our business plan
Our business plans are informed by customer views and priorities on the services we provide.
Thank you to the thousands of customers who have engaged with us leading up to the development of our last plan.
We developed our recent business plan by carrying out the following research:
- Firstly, we refreshed our long-term priority outcomes to update our strategic direction and social purpose.
- We then developed our draft drainage and wastewater management plan, draft regional water resources plan and draft water resources management plan.
- The next step was to begin exploring our customers’ willingness to pay for certain service levels and outcomes.
- To prepare for our business plan submission, we tested it through 10 in-person public events across our region and an online stakeholder event, followed by our online ‘Your Water Your Say’ session.
- Our final bespoke insight project, which tested the affordability and acceptability of our plan, was carried out in spring/summer 2023.
- Finally, all our research projects and other sources of continuous insight were brought together for our business plan submission.
In 2025-26, we start work on our next business plan. We invite all customers to get involved by joining our customer panel to share your views with us.