WaterSide Chat: Engagement Program Best Practices

Water utilities around the country are increasingly recognizing the need to better improve relationships with customers. Utility program participation rates continue to hover in low single digits and customer satisfaction levels are always in need of improvement in the face of rising rates and ongoing infrastructure failures. Progressive agencies have implemented a range of customer engagement and communication strategies to address some of these challenges with mixed results. The most promising outcomes appear to be coming from an integrated approach of better data collection, customer education, and money and water saving recommendations. This timely WaterSide Chat will focus on the best practices which leading water utilities have employed to better engage their residential customers. Join WaterSmart and our esteemed speaker panel to learn more about a range of program offerings which have been employed, and which approaches have yielded the most effective results in improving customer engagement and satisfaction. Fiona Sanchez is the Director of Water Resources for the Irvine Ranch Water District, located in Orange County, California, and the 2014 Board Chair of the California Urban Water Conservation Council. With over 20 years of experience in water use efficiency, Ms. Sanchez has been with IRWD since 2003, and currently directs Irvine Ranch Water District’s highly successful conservation and water banking programs. Jason Christensen is the Water Conservation IT coordinator for the city of Park City, Utah. Since 2012 when he took over responsibilities for the water utility conservation programs, Jason has led efforts to deploy a citywide Advanced Metering Infrastructure and related leak-alert and customer communication technologies.