Servicios de Abastecimiento y Saneamiento - La Tribuna del Agua

SERVICIOS DE ABASTECIMIENTO Y SANEAMIENTO
of developing and strengthening the link between
the operator and water users.
Customer management
This aspect is currently exclusively
managed by private distributors. It may be
noted that customer management as regards
drinking water in Paris corresponds yearly
to approximately 20 000 letters and 70 000
telephone calls. The breakdown by topic in 2006
in the sector managed by is shown in the graph
below:
It will be observed that in Paris the vast
majority of individual household consumers do
not receive an individual bill for their drinking
water consumption. Many Parisians possess only
a very limited, or indeed non-existent, knowledge
of their consumption, the tariff applied and the
organization of the water service in their city.
Whereas each household regularly
receives telephone bills, frequently from
numerous operators, the water service operators
in Paris do not benefit from this direct commercial
link with the population. The City of Paris and
the water operators have sought by other means
to make up for this communication deficit based
on a commercial link.
3 – The expectations of water users in Paris
Parisians, like all water services users,
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
19%
16%
21%
Billing Reading Standing
charges
118
COMUNICADOS
have questions, expectations, requirements
and observations. For operators, taking these
expectations into account is only possible
inasmuch as the latter are aware of them and duly
informed. Depending on the degree and urgency
of these expectations, uses will be to a lesser or
greater degree driven to bring them rapidly to
the attention of their suppliers: a complaint will
be filed as soon as there is an unexpected water
cut, whereas the need to be informed as to the
hardness of the water, for example, is of a less
pressing nature.
In reality, users will tend to notify
their operator of those events that in terms
of quality of service exceed the limits of what
they by definition conceive to be the admissible
constraints inherent in the service. Naturally, the
concept of admissible constraints depends on
assessment factors that are at one and the same
time individual, cultural and contextual and
which consequently may vary considerably from
one place to another.
For example, the boil alerts issued by the
operators are procedures which in certain towns
and countries are totally accepted by users;
whereas in cities such as Paris this procedure is
never employed and would be seen as utterly
exceptional and liable in the event to generate
considerable anxiety among users.
Two types of expectations can be distinguished
on the part of users:
15%
29%
Distribution Collection
Figure 2: Breakdown of contacts by family