Surging bills plunge customer satisfaction for water utilities

A six-year streak in the US of improving or flat customer satisfaction rates with residential water utilities has, due to a significant increase in monthly bills, come to an end.

The past few years have seen customer satisfaction for water utilities either maintain a stable level or continuously increase. This was earned through investment in water quality, proactive customer communications and digital customer service channels.

This has now, however, been washed away by a significant increase in monthly bills.

The finding comes courtesy of the J.D. Power 2022 U.S. Water Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction Study, released by SM, illustrating the deprecative effect of the recent bill surges.

“The timing couldn’t be worse,” said Andrew Heath, senior director of utilities intelligence at J.D. Power.

“The rate relief efforts put in place during the pandemic have come to an end just as the forces of inflation have driven a significant increase in the monthly bills of residential customers. Customer satisfaction has declined in every factor of the study, as the average monthly water utility bill in the US is now up $5.73 from 2020—without a corresponding increase in consumption.

“Utilities looking to combat this negative sentiment really need to get serious about proactive customer communications and customer service.”

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Customer satisfaction metrics

The customer satisfaction decline coincides with a $5.73 increase in the average monthly bill amount when compared with 2020.

This same cost increase does not correspond with a significant increase in water usage, which was observed in 2021 when a largely home-bound customer population was consuming more water than ever.

While satisfaction scores declined in every factor of the 2022 study, the declines are most pronounced in the areas of communications and price.

Overall satisfaction scores were highest when customers recalled receiving a proactive electronic communication from their water utility.

Likewise, the number of customers using digital channels to access customer service increased 43% from 2019 and customer satisfaction is highest when interacting with customer service digitally.

The U.S. Water Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction Study, now in its seventh year, measures satisfaction among residential customers of 90 water utilities that deliver water to at least 400,000 customers.

The study is reported in four geographic regions and two size categories: Midwest Large, Midwest Midsize, Northeast Large, Northeast Midsize, South Large, South Midsize, West Large and West Midsize.

The study can be accessed online.