Transcript
Welcome to talking water with GMW, where we discuss all things water, some of the most interesting people across GMW and the water industry.
This month we are joined by customer relationship coordinator Mark Halden
As one of 6 coordinators across the GMID. Marks job is to provide customer support and help with account management, troubleshooting and other enquiries. Mark talks about what he can offer customers, how his role in the environment has changed over the years and how he will be engaging with customers in the lead up to the pricing submission
We release episodes on the first week of each month, so check back in for more.
Question: As a customer relationship coordinator what do you do? What is part of that role?
My role Ivy it is basically a hybrid role in a way, I am office based as well as field based. So, I am pretty much out there on the ground all the time whether I am in one of the regional offices, I am based in Kyabram as well as Rochester, which is known as essential irrigation district.
So some of the work I do, I am dealing with customers, anyone with a small domestic and stock holdings through to family farms, mixed family farms and touch on a little bit of corporate stuff these days. So, we have got a bit more of that around within our districts.
Some of the other work I do is being on site at some of the field days that we might be present at, for example, the Seymore Alternative Farming Expo that we attend annually as well as the ... field day that is coming up shortly.
so a lot of my work comes through the customer call centre as well. I get a bit comes that through the customer service centres being Kyabram and Rochester. Probably most of my work is a lot of repeat contact. So, customers just continually sort of coming back for assistance that they need with allocations and AVAs and all those type of things.
Question: Your day would be pretty different day to day?
Yeah for sure look every day is very different. You may not know where you could end up, different issues may come in. Yeah, I could be out on the road half the day, I could be stuck in the office all day basically.
Question: So you would be a pretty familiar face around the area from getting out and about and also at field days. So can you sort of tell customers who may not have dealt with you what you can offer them and what they might not necessarily know about what you can provide
Yeah, some of the work I might do that people might not be aware of is as customers realise they have licencing over land for their irrigation use. So some of the stuff that I might do is assist with some of that subdivision or amalgamation for example. We may have customers out there that could be subdividing land to put a house on they might need assistance within that licence within that delivery share reallocating outlets to certain parts of the property.
That's something also I do in reverse. We have got customers out there also that they may purchase a property a neighbouring property and they may wish to amalgamate licences, their delivery share just to keep everything as one and operating as a single farming enterprise.
Some of the other stuff that I do is with unbundled water. So, water has been unbundled since 2007. Irrigators traditionally they would have to have multiple allocation accounts and trade between those different allocation accounts. Now what they are able to do is to bring all those water shares into one allocation bank account. Have all their water in one place to manage across multiple farms.
I can certainly assist with that sort of work as well and also things like water shares. If customers that wish to move water shares around and need a bit of assistance or direction with any of that. So, any of that Victorian water register stuff yeah I can certainly help with.
Question: Yeah I can imagine that is quite a complex field so it must be really useful for you to come to their house and explain that to them.
Yeah absolutely, when people own multiple properties, that may have sold water shares over the years, they may have acquired more water shares as well. So just having someone to sit down with and map through everything, explain where things are, what ownership it is in, what can be done. All those kind of things. Yeah people find it great value because it can be quite confusing at times.
Question: What would you say are the top 3 issues that customers come to you with?
One of the biggest ones would be to do with carry over. So probably at the completion of irrigation season a lot of customers are looking at what allocation they have left into their accounts. The volume that they could potentially carry over into next season. and yeah you get a lot of calls and a lot of contact at that time of year. So it is just a matter of explaining annually, I guess, because every year matters change people they might have different volumes left in their AVA and they may have used more this year, less one year. And we are just able to have a look at the ability if they can carry over, the volume they can carry over, probably the risks associated with carrying over - whether they are using low reliability water shares or high reliability water shares. That has a big difference on what could happen if there is a spill in the storages for example.
Another one probably would be just understanding their accounts. As I mentioned before with unbundled water, people own a lot of different water shares, some people may not own any water shares. Just understanding draining rates, and delivery shares - what delivery shares mean and what it entitles them to.
And probably another one that I get a fair bit is new customers who have just come into the area. They will want to understand how they can place an order with GMW, using waterline which is our online water ordering system which we have got available as an app on the phone. It can be used on an internet browser as well as telephone. So just helping people with that and how they can understand how they can purchase allocations if they dont own permanent water, place orders and those type of things.
That would probably be the 3 most common things I would deal with.
Question: And over the years, things like technology as well as conditions changing every year, that changes the way you deal with customers. So can you just explain how your role and the environment has changed over the years?
In the very early days of this role, I found that things were always quite manual and always dealt with a lot of paperwork with customers. That has slowly, slowly changed. What probably accelerated it a fair bit was the impact of COVID. Where most people obviously didn't have the ability to operate in ways that they used to, due to the lack of contact that was available. So, even leading up to that but it more so accelerated as it hit customers just needing a bit of assistance with getting set up with things like online water trading, for example. So traditionally a customer would come to the counter. They would get some assistance filling out the forms, they would sign and pay for them, then we would process them manually effectively. So that is one of the things that have changed. I had customers often that would call in to the offices that I would work at a few times a year doing trades. During the pandemic I assisted them getting set up online and I would very rarely see them now. They just got that ability to do it from their home at a cheaper rate as well obviously and instantaneously. So that is one of the things that have changed.
But I am also seeing less interaction I would say now at the customer service centres across the district, compared to what it used to be. So, there are a lot of people now engaging with the online work and also just touching base with us over the phone and requiring a lot less of that farm visit.
Question: Yeah and, I would imagine you would cover big areas so it can be a bit easier for you not having to travel so far and being able to communicate more effectively with them online.
Yeah absolutely and adding to that it also gives you the ability to be able to offer assistance a lot quicker as well. Sometimes we can have stuff sorted within half an hour of the phone call. Rather than a drive out there and a visit and taking documentation back. It has certainly sped things up with a lot of the services and made things better for customers in that sense as well.
Question: Yeah definitely. So what matters are customers usually thinking about now in particular
We open the irrigation season on of 15th of August, so obviously the irrigation season has now been open for approximately 6 weeks at the moment. What customers would normally be looking at around this time is just looking ahead at their requirements for the season. What water that they may need for this season. They would also be looking at what their carry over from last season, if they carried any over, checking out allocation and seeing what allocation is available today. And also they would be in a lot of cases, if they are requiring water, chatting with brokers. Seeing what they need to buy, checking prices and those sort of things.
Obviously the circumstances at the moment are actually quite different. So the season has started, it is very wet locally. Basically we havent really got anyone irrigating at the moment other than a few dam fills and a bit of frost protection. So things are quite different at the moment because we have also got 100% allocation on the Goulburn system where I am based and 100% on the Murray system. So, it is certainly a different year at the moment.
Question: As customers might be aware Goulburn-Murray Water is working through the pricing submission that is due next year, so we are really ramping up our engagement. How have you been engaging with customers in the lead up to the submission?
Throughout 2021 and 22 we have been engaging with customers on our service plans which has helped inform our pricing submission engagement. So to help with the submission we are eager to engage with customers in a manner that suits them best. So for example we have got the ... field day. I will be attending that on the Wednesday. So that is one way we will be engaging with customers as part of the consultation. We are also eager to engage with customers in forums, through surveys, online surveys as well as workshops that we will probably run across the Goulburn-Murray Irrigation District.