Have your say on our billing services

Listening to our customers.

We want to make it easy for our customers to pay their bill. We value feedback, so we frequently ask our customers to share their experience with us to help improve our billing services.

 

We offer various payment methods, such as direct debits, online payments through our website or app, phone payments, and paying your bill at your bank or post office.  Plus, you can select how often you want to pay: weekly, monthly, quarterly, half-yearly, or annually.

 

If you’re struggling to pay your bill, there are many ways we can help you, from flexible payment plans, capped bills, low income discounts, payment breaks and more.  We can also provide bills in different formats and languages to suit your needs and preferences.

Ways to share your feedback

There are a number of ways you can share your experience with us, or you can contact us at any time:

  • Email or text - if you've contacted us or completed a transaction, you'll receive a survey to complete. 
  • Website - rate your online experience and leave feedback where you see the smile icon.
  • App - leave a review on the App Store or Google Play.
  • Have Your Say Forum (opens new window) - share your views on our services.
  • Phone survey - you may be contacted by phone to complete a customer satisfaction survey.

You told us, we did:

To make our bills easier to understand, we asked over 1,800 customers what they liked and disliked about our bills.

 

We used this feedback to re-design the look of the bills and shared it with customers at our Innovation Festival and in workshops. Customers are now receiving the new bills.

 

Here’s some of the changes we made:

 

You said:

We did:

Cubic metres are confusing

Our bills are now in litres

I need to know how to get help if I need it

Help information is now on pages 1 and 4

Explain in simple terms how you’ve worked my bill out and how much I need to pay

We’ve re-designed how we work your bill out to make it easier to understand. How much you need to pay is now on page 1

Help me to understand more about water, why it’s important and how I can protect local rivers by using less water

We’ve introduced information on where your water comes from, tips for using less water and saving money and information on what we’ve done to help the local environment
You told us you needed help to understand why your bills were higher than expected.

 

So we introduced an online digital assistant called Maya, so customers can quickly help identify the reasons for a high bill along with helpful tips and solutions to lower their bills. 

 

Maya also provides information about how we can help if you're struggling to pay and if you could be eligible for a reduction in your bills. 

As the cost of living and bills rise, we know it can be difficult to make ends meet. 

 

To help customers find out which financial support scheme is right for them, we've created an online eligibility checker.

 

We've also made it easier for customers to apply for a low income discount without having to send us their supporting evidence documents, as we verify their details using TransUnion.  

 

We’ve also made it easier for customers to talk to us by introducing LiveChat and WhatsApp.

 

There are times when we're unable to get a meter reading on an internal meter which means the customer receives an estimated bill. 

 

To prevent customers from receiving estimated bills and having to contact us after they've received their bill, we now send them a text or email requesting a meter reading before their next bill is generated.

Our automated payment line was set at a minimum card payment amount of £5.

 

This meant customers who wanted to pay less than £5, for example, weekly payments or a final bill, were unable to use this service. 

 

We removed the £5 limit, so customers can now make any payment amount.

Customers told us they wanted to make an additional online payment if they paid by Direct Debit.

 

Sometimes, if a Direct Debit did not go through or was cancelled, there was no option for a customer to log in to make this as an online payment. This service is now available, so a customer can keep up to date with their payments.

We work hard to make every customer happy, but if things do go wrong, and you need to complain, we want to let you know what we’ll do to put things right quickly. 

 

To make sure our letters and emails are easy to understand, our employees have attended a ‘write it well’ programme, and we've introduced a quality process to make sure we continually improve the skills of our teams.

 

We’re proud to have been awarded Gold at the UK Customer Experience Awards and selected by the Institute of Customer Service as finalists for our work in this area.  

We know moving home can be stressful.

 

That’s why we created a moving day checklist video.

 

This video, guides you through what you need to do when moving home, covering everything from why your water might taste different in your new home, tips and advice to checking how your internal stop tap works and how to set up your account.  

Moving away from home to study and live is exciting.

 

It also means signing up for services, budgeting for bills, and food shopping.

 

To make things easier for students moving into their new accommodation, we’ve created a student area, where they can tell us their new address or, if they've moved, set up an online account, download our app and find answers to their questions.