The Invisible Water Corporation

Peter PrevosPhD Candidate, School of BusinessManager Land Development, Coliban Water

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Value Proposition

Water corporations often communicate the value proposition through technological achievements.

VicWater (2011) Strategic Vision for Water Management “The 'value proposition'...

needs to be defined and communicated to customers”

Benchmarking of Water Services

ESC proposed performance indicators Random selection of

targets What is perfection?

Research into water service quality Invisible Water Corporation SERVAQUA

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Service Quality

Value Perceived benefits

minus perceived cost Quality

Meeting specifications Satisfaction

Comparison with expectations Complaining about high water bill.

Source: neptunetg.com

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Consumer Benefits

Needs Physiological Sociological Psychological

Wants Raw water Potable water Recycled water

Gardening is an activity that covers all types of needs – from physiological (movement, food) to providing a sense of self actualisation.

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Consumer Cost

Monetary Psychological Sociological Time

Women in Ethiopia carry water from a lake back to their homes. The time spent hauling water can be significant in areas where sources of domestic water supply are limited. Source: waterencyclopedia.com

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Marginal Utility

Perceived value is determined by marginal utility Least important value

to a consumer Water

Life sustaining Waste transportation The marginal utility for water is low

because its lowest utility is flushing it down the toilet.

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Consumer Involvement

Water and sanitation are considered low involvement services Increases as

perceived level of certainty of supply decreases

No empirical validation of this claim

During the drought, many customers spent large amounts of time and money to retain the ability to use water.

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Water & Sanitation Services

Core services Facilitating services

Needed for service delivery (grey)

Enhancing services Extra value (white)

Focus on core services

Lovelock’s Rose of Service applied to water corporations.

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Customer Satisfaction

Overall Satisfaction Overall valuation of

the service portfolio Moment of Truth

Interaction with service provider

Expectations of outcome

Satisfaction, neutral or dissatisfaction

Every time a customer opens a tap, flushes a toilet or contacts the water corporation constitutes a moment of truth.

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Overall Satisfaction

The sum of transaction specific satisfaction

Other influences Public image Trust in corporation

Existing models SERVQUAL SERVPERF

The drought and subsequent restrictions have a large impact on overall customer satisfaction.

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Transaction Specific Satisfaction

Core Services Network reliability Water quality

Facilitating services Minimise phone calls Easy to understand

bills Self serving website

Burst in Kangaroo Flat. Water supply disruptions cost customers additional time.bendigoadvertiser.com.au

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The Invisible Water Corporation

Minimise consumer time investment

Service quality ideal No water disruptions No water restrictions No boiled water

notice No phone calls

A boiled water notice is a service failure as it requires consumer more time to use water.

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Further Research

SERVAQUA Model for water and

sanitation service quality

Time utility Consumer perspective

Pilot study Validate model www.prevos.net/water

Questions?