Create a plan
To validate his initial assumptions and
establish his action plan, Nelson spent his
first two months on the job talking with
staff members.
“I spent time in one-on-one meetings with
my direct reports, visited with the staff in
all our locations and went out into the field
with meter readers,” Nelson says. “I heard
a lot of good ideas about how to improve
service, but what was needed was a vehicle
to get those ideas into place, because they
weren’t being acted on.”
Nelson says that installing a continuous
improvement process starts with a return
to the basics, and that includes listening to
the voice of the customer.
“In order to get more structure around
creating a customer service ethic and to get
that ingrained as part of your corporate
culture, you have to start by measuring
your results because you need data to
track how you’re progressing,” he says.
Nelson began by reviewing water industry data, which produced a list of 69 customer needs. He prioritized the needs
according to customer importance and
then surveyed customers for performance
feedback, establishing a performance baseline for the organization.
