Download - The Invisible Water Corporation
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?