Ofwat is developing C-MeX and D-MeX, new measures of residential customer experience and developer services customer experience for the upcoming 2019 Price Review.

Both measures will incorporate financial and reputational incentives to challenge companies on the quality of their customer service and measure overall customer satisfaction.

Unlike its predecessor, SIM, C-MeX will link financial incentives to the performance level of the best performing companies in all sectors. According to John Russell, his will prove “especially impactful” because customers don’t compare their water services with those provided by other water companies. C-MeX will therefore take account of where water companies stand with regards to customer service in comparison to big players like John Lewis and Amazon, who he described as renowned for their excellent customer experience.

Ofwat has also highlighted developer services customers as also an important customer group which in the past hasn’t always received the most seamless, efficient service from water companies. PR19 will test the developer experience for the first time through D-MeX.

The regulator will design pilots for C-MeX and D-MeX in the near future  with the aim of running them later this year to ensure that the measures are sufficiently robust to use as financial incentive mechanisms, before 2020.

New test to demonstrate how utilities are supporting vulnerable customers

Ofwat will also hold companies to account by assessing business plans against an affordability test, and for the first time, an explicit test on how they are supporting vulnerable customers. The test will take into account information provided to us not only by companies but also from other organisations such as customer challenge groups (CCGs).

The water companies will need to prove they have engaged with their customers on how they will address affordability and how they will improve their support to customers in circumstances that make them vulnerable, to ensure that they have taken account of customers’ views in their proposals.