On Friday 8 November, industry leaders from across the water retail market gathered at the Institute of Directors to attend MOSL’s annual CEO Forum in London.

The theme of the day was ‘Hindsight, Insight, Foresight: Redefining success’ – reflecting on the known challenges and choices made at market opening and their impact on the water retail market nearly three years on.

MOSL CEO, Sarah McMath, shared her personal perspective of market opening as Programme Director for Competition 2017 at Thames Water and asked other industry leaders to look at the collective journey of the market to date and what is needed to ensure it is delivers on its commitment to customers for greater choice, better value for money and improved customer service.  

In order to make certain that the customer voice was heard throughout the day, ahead of the event MOSL spoke to business customers who have engaged in the market at some level over the past three years. We asked them to share their experiences of switching or entering the market and some of the key issues they face from a customer perspective from market opening to now.

The stories they shared and the issues they raised, which concentrated on metering, billing and poor customer service, relate directly to the priorities identified by our CEO members in the pre-event survey, but showed the true level of impact on the customer experience.

The videos act as reminder that we opened the market to deliver better outcomes for customers and that customers must remain the basis for our decision-making and collective responsibility to drive improvements.

We are encouraged by the positive response these videos received during the CEO Forum and would like to share them with the wider market. The customer videos can be viewed below.

1. The customer experience - Have you switched suppliers?

2. What was your experience when the market first opened?

3. What is your experience of the market now?

4. What would you like the market to focus on?