How Scottish Water cut complaints by 29% with one question
Scottish Water supplies drinking water and wastewater services to more than 2.4 million households. It used to post its surveys and wait two weeks for answers. Now customers get a text message, call, or email the day after an interaction, with one question they answer in their own words.
01The challenge
The challenge: postal customer surveys took two weeks
Surveys by post, answers two weeks later.
Customers expect high-quality water and first-class care from one of the most important services in their home. Scottish Water regularly asked for feedback, but it sent surveys by post, and the average response took two weeks.
It needed to speed up both collecting feedback and acting on it.
Average lead time for feedback, before and after.
02What changed
The fix: a one-question satisfaction survey by text, voice, and email
One question: how satisfied are you?
The day after an interaction, customers receive a text message, a call, or an email asking how satisfied they are, and they reply in their own words. The sentiment engine analyzes every reply as it arrives, so a complaint, praise, or a new idea shows up at once.
Across all channels, 30% of customers respond. By text message alone, half of them do.
Average response rates by channel.
03The result
The result: 88% customer satisfaction and 29% fewer complaints
Higher satisfaction, fewer complaints.
Acting on feedback the same day lifted customer satisfaction to 88%, and complaints fell by 29%.
Customers now explain what matters to them in their own words rather than on a scale of 1 to 5, and Scottish Water acts at once instead of waiting for replies to arrive by post.
Reduction in customer complaints after moving to real-time feedback.
04For the teams
Employee engagement: sharing positive customer feedback with frontline teams
Praise that reaches the people who earned it.
95% of customer feedback about employees is positive. Sharing it across the business lifted morale, success stories are celebrated across the organization, and staff now encourage each other to deliver first-class service.
With real-time access to comments, employees see what they do well and where to improve, and team leaders use the feedback as a coaching tool.
Share of customer comments about employees that are positive.
Scottish Water results at a glance
Scottish Water is the publicly owned water and wastewater provider for Scotland, serving more than 2.4 million households. Its customer service performance is overseen by the Water Industry Commission for Scotland.
| Measure | Before | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Time to receive feedback | 2 weeks (postal survey) | Real time |
| Response rate, all channels | Not reported | 30% |
| Response rate, text message | Not reported | 50% |
| Customer satisfaction | Not reported | 88% |
| Customer complaints | Baseline | 29% fewer |
How to run a program like Scottish Water’s
- Ask one questionThe day after an interaction, ask how satisfied the customer is, and let them answer in their own words.
- Offer three channelsSend the question by text message, automated call, or email.
- Read every replyLet the sentiment engine sort complaints, praise, and ideas as they arrive.
- Share the praisePass positive comments to the employees they mention, and use the rest for coaching.
Voice of Customers runs every step on one platform, from the survey to the follow-up.
Even though the Product is clearly impressive, [Rant & Rave] aren't complacent with this. They have, and continue to put a massive focus on new innovations, and actively engage us in this process, which highlights that their customers' needs are at the heart of Rant & Rave's future.
What they use
The parts of Voice of Customers behind Scottish Water’s results.
Every module runs on one platform, with surveys by text message, email, voice, and web form, a sentiment engine that reads every comment, and follow-up that gives each unhappy customer an owner.
- One-question surveys by text, voice, and email
- Sentiment engine
- Feedback dashboard
- Frontline Engagement
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The results, the charts, and how they did it, in a format you can forward to your team or bring to a budget meeting.
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Bring one journey you want to hear more about, such as a repair, an appointment, or a support call. We will show you the survey, the dashboard, and the follow-up built around it.