CCW Publishes Latest Household Customer Complaint Handling Report

The Consumer Council for Water (CCW) has published its latest annual household customer complaint handling report, comparing the performance of water suppliers across England and Wales over a series of measures.

It was revealed that written complaints from customers rose by nearly 10,000 in 2019-2020, a 13 percent hike that was driven in large part by a rise in billing-related issues among households in the Thames Water region. Thames Water and Southern Water were the only two companies to have seen poor performance across all eight measures used in the report.

Written complaints made to water companies hit their highest level for four years, reaching 84,649, but this was affected by Thames Water’s poor performance, which saw an additional 12,619 complaints – a rise of 57 percent.

Southern Water, meanwhile, saw a 22 percent increase in written complaints, with the supplier also falling behind other industry players with regards to resolving complaints at the earliest stage of the process.

Emma Clancy, chief executive of CCW, has now written to both Thames Water and Southern Water, calling for urgent improvement and offering support to help them tackle the root causes of their poor performances.

“Consumers’ expectations of their water company are very simple – they want accurate, affordable bills and a service they can always rely on but some suppliers are still not getting the basics right.”

“It’s encouraging [that] most of the industry is heading in the right direction but we want to see a big reduction in the large number of disputes over bills which still cause many customers enormous frustration, as well as resolving more complaints at the first time of asking,” she commented.

Any organisations out there operating in England no longer have to put up with poor customer service from their water company, since the English water retail market was opened up back in April 2017, they have been able to compare business water suppliers and find one that better suits their needs.

There are all sorts of benefits associated with switching supplier, ranging from making cost savings through better tariffs with another retailer and enjoying better service levels to finding a supplier with greater expertise or capacity in working with sector-specific organisations that have different operational needs.

You may be surprised to hear that by switching, you could even save between 5 percent and 10 pecent in England and up to around 18 percent in Scotland on your water bills if you make the move to a different supplier. Bear in mind, however, that the location of your company’s premises will have a significant effect on how much you could save on your water and wastewater bills.

It can be difficult to navigate the market and find the right supplier for you, which is why you may find it helpful to use a consultancy service like Switch Water Supplier. If you’d like to find out how we can guide you through the process, get in touch with the SwitchWaterSupplier.com team today.