Water Corporation is transforming the way it approaches fault call triage and remediation in response to an ageing network and an increasing expectation of quicker service from customers. In addition to these challenges, the Corporation is trying to keep down costs and support the community with the provision of quality water and wastewater services.

With $38 billion (replacement value) of assets, the triage process of identifying service or asset faults across WA’s widespread communities is a crucial step in repair operations and is fundamental to resource and cost management. Each year up to 5,000 hours of resource time are spent driving to and investigating sites that do not have any faults.

If an initial call is triaged incorrectly then the wrong resource is sent or the fault is miscategorised, which are both costly mistakes. Analysis identified that in one out of 10 occasions no works were conducted. As a direct consequence of this, the budget for reactive works was exceeded by 8%, and planned maintenance works on assets were postponed or cancelled.

The Business Innovation and Improvement Business Unit at Water Corporation identified that improving the service centre triage process would provide the following desired outcomes:

• Improve scheduling and ensure dispatches of work crews were handled correctly.
• Improve understanding of the customer issue as well as the allocation of priority to leaks and breaks.
• Improve the effectiveness of the service centre to better prioritise faults.
• Improve the effectiveness of in-the-field resources for better allocation of resources and priority for attendance.
• Diagnose issues quickly and accurately leading to faster resolution, which means additional efficiency gains will be achieved.
• Lower operational costs due to less time on site as crews locate faults faster, through better location data, and arrive with the right tools for the job.
• Happier customers due to the ability to triage an incident immediately and correctly the first time leading to an overall improvement on resolution times.
• Improved vision, communication and awareness of the actual incident during remediation.

The Innovation team identified the top five issues the Corporation would confront in implementing the system as: used for outbound calls; dependent on customers having a smartphone, data plan and/or near WIFI; varying degrees of comfort with technology across different demographics; and ineffective after sundown or without substantial lighting.

A product called Virtual Assist from Brisbane-based company Codafication was used in the pilot. In conversations with Queensland Urban Utilities (QUU) the team saw how easy it was to use and agreed it was appropriate for Water Corporation triaging, despite it being used for insurance claims assessments. While the product is called Virtual Assist, for internal project governance reasons, the project for Water Corporation is called Visual Connect.

Before launching the pilot, a Proof of Concept (POC) had to be approved which required engagement with multiple subject matter experts.

Water Corporation piloted the product Virtual Assist, which allows staff to connect with customers and see what the customer sees in real-time in the simplest way possible.

A review of the data collected during, and post pilot confirmed that most metrics saw a much higher actual measure of success than what was initially targeted, with more than 90% of customers prepared to use Visual Connect compared the original target of 50%.

In addition, the data collected indicated substantial, tangible financial benefits which would lead to the broader implementation across the business with other stakeholders including:

• Identifying non-Water Corporation assets
• Locating the meter and stopcock
• Identifying training needs
• Helping customers isolate the water supply to stop leaks, and
• Providing additional justification for implementation.

Importantly, 38% of callers were able to fix the fault themselves with guidance from staff, or understood they needed to engage a plumber by the end of the call.

The project team was keen to use Visual Connect with non-fault related customer interactions as well. Four additional user teams implemented the technology including Water Use Verifications, Construction Quality Assurance, Perth Region Field Services (PRFS) Schedulers and PRFS Customer Care.

The success of the pilot let to the implementation of Visual Connect across the business and has enabled Water Corporation to diagnose issues quickly and accurately, leading to faster resolution.

Actual data and forecasts indicated over 5,500 resource hours, 189,000 kilometres and 21.45T of GHG will be saved. In the short time it has been operating it has delivered a substantial reduction in unnecessary attendances, while also delivering an improvement in the Corporation’s customer satisfaction score. Other stakeholders within the business also see value in using the application for other business activities such as water use investigations, construction audits, health and safety incident investigations, all without having to leave the office. 

Visual Connect has helped the Corporation improve managing the initial stages of the customer contact resulting in better service, more accurate triaging, and, by capturing video and photos during the call, can provide more detailed information to the crews to provide solutions to the problem.

As the world continues to feel the impacts of climate change, with water conservation and waterwise habits increasingly more vital, Water Corporation needs to continually adapt to support the community in taking action to secure Western Australia’s water future. The reduction in site attendances that this initiative brings delivers on Water Corporation’s objectives and commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve safety.

For more information about Water Corporation, visit watercorporation.com.au