{"id":14314,"date":"2014-04-15T13:15:55","date_gmt":"2014-04-15T12:15:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/?p=14314"},"modified":"2014-04-17T09:01:29","modified_gmt":"2014-04-17T08:01:29","slug":"how-can-the-consumer-voice-be-hear-in-the-regulated-sectors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/?p=14314","title":{"rendered":"How can the consumer voice be heard in the regulated sectors? (1)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This morning, I was a speaker at a breakfast seminar organised by the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/changeopinion.com\">Westbourne Communications<\/a>\u00a0agency in central London.\u00a0The snappy title of the session was <em>&#8220;Stakeholder Challenge And Influence: Lessons For The Utilities Industry&#8221;<\/em>. I was invited in my capacity as the\u00a0Chair of the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.southeastwater.co.uk\/about-us\/our-business\/customer-challenge-group#ad-image-0\">Customer Challenge Group<\/a>\u00a0at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.southeastwater.co.uk\/pls\/apex\/f?p=sewl:1:0\">South East Water<\/a>\u00a0to talk about different consumer models in the regulated utilities. I reproduce below my speaking notes:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">We are discussing sectors of the economy subject to economic regulation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Key characteristics of such sectors:<\/p>\n<p>1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Services fundamental to civilised society<\/p>\n<p>2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Networks requiring massive investments<\/p>\n<p>3)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Customer choice limited or non-existent<\/p>\n<p>Regulation is complicated and involves trade-offs, but:<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Interests of customers must be at the heart of regulatory decision-making<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The customer voice must be heard in the regulatory debates<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Three models for providing institutional customer voice in sectors subject to economic regulation<\/p>\n<p>1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Body within the regulator &#8211; Communications Consumer Panel in Ofcom, Customer Advisory Panel in Ofwat, Consumer Challenge Group in Ofgem<\/p>\n<p>2)\u00a0\u00a0 Body outside the regulator &#8211; former Postwatch and Energywatch, which were merged to form Consumer Focus and are now a unit in Citizens Advice called Consumer Futures, CCWater, Passenger Focus<\/p>\n<p>3)\u00a0\u00a0 Body within the regulated company &#8211; Customer Challenge Groups in the 18 water and sewage companies in England &amp; Wales, External Advisory Board in EE<\/p>\n<p>I am very familiar with all three models:<\/p>\n<p>1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Body within the regulator &#8211; I was Member for England on Communications Consumer Panel for eight and a half years<\/p>\n<p>2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Body outside the regulator &#8211; I was on the Council of Postwatch for its last three years and on the Board of Consumer Focus for its first three years<\/p>\n<p>3)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Body within the regulated company &#8211; I have chaired the Customer Challenge Group for South East Water for two year and I have been a member of the External Advisory Board of EE since it was set up a year ago<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Each model has its strengths and weaknesses.<\/p>\n<p>1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Body within the regulator<\/p>\n<p>Advantage: can influence regulator early and without public change of positioning<\/p>\n<p>Disadvantage: suggestion of lack of independence but this is more perception than reality<\/p>\n<p>Problem: how to ensure strong links with other consumer bodies and voices<\/p>\n<p>2) Body outside regulator<\/p>\n<p>Advantages: seen to be independent and easier to obtain public profile<\/p>\n<p>Disadvantage: can be seen as overly critical of regulator or companies but usually not the case<\/p>\n<p>Problem: adequate powers and resources<\/p>\n<p>3) Body within the regulated company<\/p>\n<p>Advantage: such embedding allows detailed knowledge and frank conversations<\/p>\n<p>Disadvantages: perceived lack of independence and danger of capture<\/p>\n<p>Problem: seniors managers and boards find challenge uncomfortable<\/p>\n<p>Since each model has its strengths and weaknesses, in my view, best approach is a combination with clear definitions of roles and proper resourcing.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Finally, none of this models can be excuse for companies not engaging with their customers systematically, continually and meaningfully:<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;\u00a0\u00a0 Complaint handling and resolution<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Qualitative research<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Quantitative research<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Focus groups<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Social media<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This morning, I was a speaker at a breakfast seminar organised by the\u00a0Westbourne Communications\u00a0agency in central London.\u00a0The snappy title of the session was &#8220;Stakeholder Challenge And Influence: Lessons For The Utilities Industry&#8221;. I was invited in my capacity as the\u00a0Chair of the\u00a0Customer Challenge Group\u00a0at\u00a0South East Water\u00a0to talk about different consumer models in the regulated utilities. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-consumer-matters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14314"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14334,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14314\/revisions\/14334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}