A new Frontier bulletin, ‘Keeping Up With the Joneses’, published today, looks at customer engagement in the water industry. The bulletin follows a workshop, hosted by Frontier earlier this week, which explored in particular how customer valuations of improved water services can be affected by the information provided.

The workshop was attended by Ofwat (the water regulator in England and Wales), water companies and industry stakeholders. Annabelle Ong of Frontier presented the results of a research project, carried out jointly with United Utilities, on how comparative information provided to customers affected the value they placed on service improvement. A survey carried out for the analysis revealed that, in this particular case, customers’ choices were driven primarily by cost and did not change when comparative information on service levels was provided. Full details of the project are provided in the bulletin.

Frontier regularly carries out economic analysis of the UK water industry for the regulator and water companies.

For more information, please contact media@frontier-economics.com or call +44 (0) 20 7031 7000