Improving Customer Satisfaction

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Customer Satisfaction

Improving customer satisfaction is a central theme driven by the Utility Regulators.  Any streetworks cause some level of consumer disruption.  Utility companies and their contractors know that repairs, maintenance and rehabilitation of water and gas networks are disruptive. There is traffic disruption due to road closures and restrictions from essential traffic management.  Pavements may be closed to pedestrians.  Then there is the potential damage to the homeowner’s property such as driveways, paths or gardens.  Finally, the local community is disturbed by noisy machinery. Consequently, any work starts from a negative position as far as local residents are concerned.  The Regulators, Ofwat and Ofgem, are challenging the utilities to improve customer satisfaction.  For example, the water companies will be measured by the Customer Experience Measure or C-MeX.  This measure will survey a range of customers to judge the utility companies performance.  So how do these utility companies improve customer’s perceptions from such a negative start point?

Education, communication and planning are undoubtedly crucial elements to overcome the negative impacts of the works.   But innovation is a MUST to employ.   Technologies are advancing all the time to improve the process of replacing underground infrastructure.  Any process that minimises consumer and local resident disruption is preferred because it supports overall customer satisfaction ratings.

Less Homeowner Property Damage

The Kobus Pipe Puller is an innovative trenchless technology.  The process requires only two small excavations which minimises disruption.  Small excavations also mean less reinstatement cost.  The Puller needs a pit only 400mm x 400mm.  At the other end, the opening needs to be large enough to expose the old pipe, cut it and feed in the new pipe.  This can be as small as an A3 sheet of paper!  Imagine this is the only excavation on a homeowner’s property.  Homeowners are rightly protective of their property, so any digging up driveways, gardens, paths are a cause of stress.  The Pipe Puller can improve customer satisfaction – often it is the surprise factor to the homeowner that there is so little disruption.  See a case study from a job in Leicester completed by the KPP400 Kobus Pipe Puller.

Play Video

Watch this video of the replacement of 17m of a service pipe under a block paved driveway that didn’t touch the blocks!

Less Traffic Congestion

Roadworks have delayed us all at some time. It’s annoying and frustrating.  It is difficult to avoid some disruption when replacing utilities.  So, anything that reduces the need to restrict traffic movement is a benefit.  Not only will it help the local community, but it will also reduce the traffic management administration and costs.

The Kobus Pipe Puller is commonly used on road crossings to replace service pipes connecting the mains to the boundary of the property.  The minimal excavations required keeps traffic management simple.  Often the whole road can be kept flowing and even the pavement can remain open to pedestrians. 

 

 

Less Noise Pollution

The Pipe Puller is quick.  It keeps noise to a minimum because a replacement of 20m length can be done in less than 10 minutes.   Also, the number of connections that can be completed in a day is high compared to other methods which means that the work is finished sooner.

Take a closer look at the Kobus Pipe Puller and see what benefits you can achieve. Improving customer satisfaction ratings are becoming more important so use technology that can help achieve better scores by reducing traffic disruption, noise pollution and damage to customer property.

Find out more about how the Kobus Pipe Puller can save time and costs compared to traditional methods

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