Case Study: Barwon Water Customer Support Program

In line with commitments to customers in our Strategy 2030, Barwon Water is always seeking to keep our bills as low as we can. We also offer a range of support programs to our customers experiencing financial vulnerability to help them pay their bills.

A key action for Barwon Water in the Geelong Region’s ‘foundation’ FIAP, was to proactively connect more customers with our payment support options, through empathetic and effective conversations with our outbound calling team. We regularly see the positive outcomes of this focus. Recently, one of our team spoke to a customer experiencing family violence, who needed to rapidly vacate their property.

The customer owed over $950 on their account and were very unsure about how they could pay, given their challenging life situation. They were also overwhelmed at the thought of the outstanding balance continuing to increase.

Our trained customer consultant acted quickly, to close the customer’s account and move the balance to their new property. We registered their concession card details and supported the customer to apply for a government Utility Relief Grant. This reduced the outstanding balance to $150.

Finally, we set up an Arrange and Save payment plan, at an amount the customer could comfortably afford. The scenario transformed from a customer in an upset and overwhelmed state to feeling supported and having their overdue balance significantly reduced, in a single phone call.