Utilities: water, electricity, gas and waste

We are passionate about helping utility corporations engage with all their stakeholder groups to increase performance. We do this through enduring partnerships, high quality work, thought leadership and industry knowledge.

These services are delivered by our sister brand, Tingwall, powered by Insync. Tingwall specialises in engagement, research and employee experience for government and utilities. To learn more, visit tingwall.com.au.

It is easy to say that all organisations have the same issues; and to an extent that’s true. However, most utilities share a number of characteristics that make them different:

Natural monopolies
Aging workforce
Very high tenure and low attrition
Highly unionised
Highly regulated
Often political
Costs dominated by WACC and RAB more than OpEx
Balancing a social obligation with commercial imperatives

We appreciate how these differences make utilities uniquely challenging to manage.

For many years we have helped utility corporations engage with customers, stakeholders and staff with services including:

staff engagement surveys
customer perceptions surveys
stakeholder interviews and advisory
board effectiveness surveys
deliberative techniques for community engagement and consultation
safety culture surveys
strategic thinking about bringing tariff structures into line with community expectations
assessments of uptake rates on new products
choice modelling and willingness to pay studies

Key issues in the sector

Community and consumer engagement: Insync’s certified IAP2 practitioners run deliberative forums and other participatory techniques to help regulated corporations confirm their social licence to operate.

Benchmarking: quality controlled fieldwork methodologies allow corporations and regulators to compare customer outcomes across a region, a jurisdiction or a country.

Stakeholder universe: sending a respectful and knowledgeable researcher to find out what your stakeholders really think of you pays dividends beyond the balance sheet

Reviews of processes and committees: reviewing documentation, composition, behaviours and outcomes of high profile/impact strategic advisory committees gives access to best available practice

Research design consultancy: advisory related to the design and implementation of multi year programs of work which materially change internal culture, customer outcomes and bottom line performance.

Leadership advisory: staff and 360 degree surveys and fearless advice lead to outstanding organisational culture and engagement

Annual studies: regular and repeatable studies that yield insight and provide a high degree of certainty about year on year changes.

Community insight: roads, WWTPs, pipelines and the like require community engagement and support to be implemented on time and on budget.