Earning your trust in a post-Pandemic world

Modern life is hectic. We’re all constantly juggling a huge array of commitments and relationships –working hard, looking after the family, keeping on top of housework and bills, updating social media, exercising, catching up with the news, arranging zoom catchups with friends and family... the list goes on and on. Even in a pandemic, it seems, the human race is collectively busier than we’ve ever been before. Yet still there are moments that force us to stop, pause, and reflect.

For me, the twenty-year anniversary of Welsh Water becoming not-for-profit is one of those moments. In 2001 when Glas Cymru was formed and took ownership of Welsh Water, forming a not-for-profit utilities company was a truly innovative and bold step. And it’s a step that has stood the test of time. Even two decades later our not-for-profit model is still unique and the impact that has had in terms of us being able to do things differently from the pack cannot be understated.

We have long been a customer-focussed company. Every decision we make is guided by our vision, ‘to earn the trust of our customers every day’ so it seems only right that our internal anniversary celebrations focus on exactly that. Living up to this vision can be challenging; not least because earning trust looks different today than it did some twenty years ago.

Much has happened in the last two decades and the world is a vastly different place than it was in 2001. We live in a fast-paced world of instant deliveries, instant messages, and instant gratification. A world where you can order almost anything to be delivered to your door within 24 hours, have takeaway food arrive at 2am without even picking up the phone, be approved for a mortgage without visiting the bank, and video-call a friend living on another continent simply by pressing a button.

Our lives had already changed beyond recognition when the pandemic hit, and the last eighteen months have had yet another extraordinary impact on the way we live. It’s changed not only how we interact with each other and what we deem ‘essential’, but the expectations we have of the companies we rely on, whether for necessities or luxuries. As a society, our priorities have shifted, our expectations are different, and many of us are much more aware of the impact both individuals and industries have on the world around us.

And what does this mean for us at Welsh Water? What effect does this have on how we deliver our essential services and how we achieve that vision to ‘earn the trust of our customers? After all, a safe supply of clean water is a necessity that’s all too easy to take for granted - but we’d all be lost without.

As we mark twenty years of our unique not-for-profit model, internally we spent a week thinking about precisely that challenge. We’ve hosted workshops, guest speakers, and panel sessions designed to push our thinking to the next level.

There are big questions to be asked and complex challenges to rise to. How can we continue to identify and support customers who need extra help? How we meet the digital needs of a customer base with hugely varied access and abilities when it comes to tech? How do we make a real and lasting positive impact on the communities we serve? How do we tackle the wider societal and environmental matters at play? And how do we balance tackling these challenges with the cost of dealing with them and potential impact on bills?

Simply put, it’s absolutely crucial we listen to what our customers and colleagues are telling us and we know the way forward is to continuously question ourselves - to always ask how can we do more and how can we be better? By doing so, we hope to truly live up to our vision ‘to earn the trust of our customers every day.’