1 What were the main drivers for the development of a customer service strategy for Anglian Water Services? In the early 1990s Anglian Water Services, in common with the other water companies in the UK, was facing a new challenge. It had been newly privatised and was struggling to understand the new environment in which it was operating.

A new challenge for the water industry was that water users were now to be thought of as customers, not least because in the not-too-distant future the utilities were to become open to competition. Indeed, today, the old demarcations between water, gas and electricity companies have disappeared, with a number of companies providing all three traditional services and offering telecommunications as well.

John Green, then operations director of Anglian Water Services, met with his team of senior managers, including a newly appointed marketing manager, to formulate a customer service strategy.

The first requirement was to understand the relevance of customers to the success of the company. The water companies had previously operated more as custodians of water hygiene than as customer-focused organisations. This did not mean that they did not have a service ethic but rather that it was not customer-focused.