Water Utility Management – Using Social Media to Communicate and Keep Levels of Service

In our previous blog post, “The Manila Water Model – Community Engagement with Water Utility Management” we mentioned how the water utility company goes to the grassroots level in water management.

Well, we based that blog post on the article that we read on the Malaysian publication. In the process of learning about the Manila Water Company, we discovered that they are using social media to engage with their consumer community

While it is customary for companies to have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google+ accounts on their websites, the Manila Water Company uses these social media sites to deal with water utility asset management issues.

The water company posts their service advisory mostly on Twitter and Facebook. They would also publish job vacancies, water conservation tips, inspirational quotes and the season’s greetings.

Among the four social media sites, the Manila Water Facebook page gets the most intensive engagement.

For a country that has 73 million Facebook users and the Metropolitan Manila with almost 13 million residents, Manila Water has chosen the right social media portal to communicate with customers down the grassroots level.

The company’s social media community managers are very responsive to what their clients are posting on their FB page.

Some of the water utility issues that they are addressing are:

Service advisories, maintenance, supply stoppage, and resumption in specific areas;
Water pressure and quality issues and how and when they are resolved;
Tankering schedules on areas where supply has been shut down due to maintenance;
Water meter and fee issues – functionality, usage reading, and charges;

The Manila Water’s FB page has a total of 260,000 people “Likers” and “Followers” that makes it a very viable public relation portal where they could engage in real time the community, dealing with water utility infrastructure management issues.

Manila Water’s Facebook page provides a good example of using social media tools to communicate, engage, and respond to customers. This communication and engagement assist Manila Water in being a responsive organisation, and in meeting the agreed levels of service.