AWWA CSC59660

This paper discusses how a major water service disruption event defined the needs of a customer outreach program at the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC), and laid the groundwork for the formation of a formal standardized approach to the needs of the customers during service disruption events. The paper describes how communicating with customers, municipal officials, and the news media turned a terrible event into a positive news story and encouraged a certain level of customer satisfaction in how the agency responded to a tragic event. The plan of approach included creating a Customer Outreach Group to meet the emergency maintenance needs of customers during service disruption events. This group developed programs in two areas, emergency outreach and community outreach. The paper discusses the main points and functions of these two areas of outreach.