We set up a new response team to help support our customers affected by serious incidents, such as flooding or burst water mains.

The Incident Response Team is on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week for significant incidents across Sussex, Kent, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

The team’s role is to provide customer support, which may include arranging temporary accommodation or simply giving updates on remedial work.

Incidents attended during 2010-11 included burst mains at Meopham in Kent and Crawley in West Sussex, both of which involved large clean-up operations and evacuating families to alternative accommodation.

Our customer tours initiative continued during the year with more than 200 visits to our operational sites. The visits enabled more than 2,000 customers to give us valuable feedback on their experience of the company while gaining an insight into our daily operations.

The tours were named Customer Satisfaction Initiative of the Year in the 2011 Water Industry Achievement Awards.

We also launched a ‘phone first campaign’ in which we call customers who complain to us in writing. This enables us to understand their complaint and to ensure they receive the very best service from us.