Barwon Water takes out OzWater award

Barwon Water’s customer experience program received national recognition last night when it won the Australian Water Association’s inaugural Customer Experience Award at the prestigious OzWater 21 Awards in Adelaide.

The award, sponsored by the Water Services Association of Australia, aims to recognise organisations with a strong culture of providing excellent customer experience and value for customers.

Barwon Water’s nomination for the award included the improvements it has made to its customer support program, call handling, continuous improvement, and communications and engagement with its customers and community.

Managing Director Tracey Slatter said it was proud moment for Barwon Water to be recognised for its commitment to its customers.

“Our staff really care about our customers and the region they work in,” she said.

“As part of our Customer Experience program every staff member made an ‘I care, We care’ personal commitment to how they could make a difference in their day-to-day work.

“We’re also working hard to continuously improve what we do to make it easier for customers to connect with us as well as working more efficiently so we can continue to keep bills affordable.

“Thank you to our customers too for the feedback they provide that helps us improve every day.”

The national AWA award follows on from the latest Victorian Essential Services Commission’s Customer Perception survey results (June 2020-Feb 2021) for the Victorian water sector where Barwon Water was rated number one for trust, reputation, value for money and satisfaction.

Barwon Water’s contact centre, which answers approximately 145,000 calls every year, has also been rated number 1 in Victoria for call quality for three years in a row.

Also at the AWA awards last night, Barwon Water was recognised as a finalist in two other awards: the Safety Excellence Award, for Barwon Water’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy, and the Research and Development Excellence Award for Barwon Water’s involvement in sewerage surveillance alongside other industry partners.

“Safety of our staff and our customers is our top priority,” Ms Slatter said.

“Our Mental Health & Wellbeing Strategy was fundamental in supporting employee mental health and wellbeing during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. During this time we held additional training for our frontline staff that gave them the skills they needed to be able to help customers impacted by the pandemic.”

The Australian Water Association’s awards were presented at the Ozwater’21 Gala Dinner on Tuesday 4 May at the Adelaide Convention Centre.