In our industry, terms like “units”, “CCFs” “indoor and outdoor” and “GPCD” don’t mean much to the end-user, but are distinct terms that communicate a specific message from one staff member to the next. How efficient would your team be if more than 30% of your staff didn’t speak the same lingo?
We came to the same conclusion.
Dropcountr helps manage over 1 million residential customer accounts spread across 26 unique cities in four states. We assist dozens of staff members with customer support inquiries and send thousands of water usage reports, leak alerts and utility messages to our end users every week. A founding goal was to make water usage more accessible and coherent to the end customer, but for far too long we haven’t supported a huge segment of our users and your customers in their language of choice.
Dropcountr HOME is now available to your customers in Spanish. Monthly Water Reports, rebate portal, utility messages and leak alerts – all the Dropcountr features you love and more are now catered to your Spanish-speaking community.
Because great things happen when you speak your customer’s language
An Inclusive Water Future
Utilities often sustain “one-way” communication with their customers. Those with the resources to support a customer service and outreach team do so, but often this relationship is limited to “here’s your bill”.
In May 2017, J.D. Power released the 2017 Water Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction Study. This report highlights the direction our industry is moving – toward modernized infrastucture, technology and a more intimate relationship between the utility and customers.
Building relationships with customers starts with communication and a sense of support; frequent touch-points that help the end user manage their water use (and their water bill). Relationships aren’t built overnight, but that process can start today.
At Dropcountr, that process started with a customer inquiry “do you have a Spanish version?” Conversations with our existing partners, a series of data pulls from the U.S. Census Bureau and American Community Survey, and surveys with our end-users provided an abundantly clear answer, “We need a Spanish version.”
Residential water providers will increasingly need the backing from their ratepayers as infrastructure and delivery costs mount. That support will stem from modern, digitally driven relationships, and those relationships can start with as simple a gesture as communicating in the same language.