You'll Miss Me When I'm Gone: Consequences of Losing Customer Trust and Strategies to Earn, Maintain and Rebuild Customer Trust in Your Drinking Water System

摘要

While trust is something that is not tangible, when trust is absent in the relationship between a utility and its customer the impacts can result in the loss of more than just good feelings. Utilities depend on their customers to trust when there is a need to adjust rates and support decisions to invest in infrastructure and water supply. The relationship between a utility and its customers is one of great dependence. Utilities depend on their customers' trust when there is a need to adjust rates and support decisions to invest in infrastructure and water supply. Communities depend on drinking water utilities to ensure that water is safe, continuously available to meet demand, and affordable. Customer trust in their utility is often times undervalued, until there is a crisis. If a utility has not done the work to build the trust of their customers before there is crisis the road to gaining trust will be twice as hard. Research has indicated that public trust in government and institutions is declining. The impact of declining trust can dramatically impact water utilities, in particular if a crisis occurs. There are proactive strategies that water utilities can implement that can establish, build and maintain customer trust. Tucson Water provides a case study of events that led to the loss of customer trust and the steps that were taken to regain and build trust over the last 40 years. An important lessons learned by Tucson Water and other utilities that have experienced a similar loss of customer trust is the importance of proactive, accurate and consistent communication with the public. Utilities who have high levels of customer trust intentionally make efforts to 1) anticipate and prepare for challenges that may impact consumer confidence; 2) become a trusted source for information; 3) turn negative situations into positive experiences for customers; 4) consistently focus on making the customer the priority.