World-class service delivery

Putting customers first

We value every single one of our customers and are dedicated to maintaining our focus on world-class service delivery, to provide quality services and achieve industry-leading results.

Our ‘Customers First’ initiative sets out key principles to help our employees concentrate their attention on ensuring our customers are always top of their agenda; and, in turn, these principles aim to help grow our business. With 'Customers First' champions in each of our business areas now, we aim to have implemented a customer service performance measure (a Customer Service Index) for all our areas in 2011.

Customer satisfaction survey

In 2010, we sent out our annual customer survey to help evaluate our strengths and weaknesses, and to identify areas of our business that we can improve on. We asked our customers to rate our services out of ten – where ten equalled an ‘excellent’ service and where seven is our satisfactory threshold.

Our annual customer survey showed a notable improvement with 90% of the indicators being above our satisfactory threshold (compared with 73% in the previous year).

We were delighted that our greatest improvement was in the area of service delivery, and that the survey findings rated our ‘friendliness and helpfulness’ at an average score of 8.24, along with our ‘reliability of on-time collection’ at 7.85 out of ten. Our attitude towards our customers also rated highly – a great reflection on our ‘Customers First’ initiative.

We genuinely want to go the extra mile and the feedback highlights a few areas (below our satisfactory threshold) that, despite being scored higher than last year, still need to be looked at.   

And our work doesn’t stop there. The Veolia customer survey will become a regular feature and we are determined to continually improve our scores.

Customer service excellence

A newly launched government standards test in early 2010 led to a rigorous assessment of our customer service towards residents in Sheffield. As part of the inspection, Veolia had to demonstrate clearly our commitment, engagement and involvement within the community; we were delighted to be presented with a Customer Service Excellence standard to confirm just that.

By listening to our customers, through schemes such as the customer survey, we are able to improve our working practices to ensure we can be recognised for our all-round great service.

Veolia named a Green Pioneer

Veolia and RecycleBank were named the UK’s leading ‘rewards for recycling’ companies as ‘Green Pioneers’ in Think London’s first ‘100 Companies to Watch’ report. This marks a great achievement and is a testament to the dedication and hard work of everyone involved in the programme.

City of Westminster contract

In Autumn 2010, we were elated to once again retain the prestigious recycling, street cleansing and waste management contract with the City of Westminster in London. This £260 million, seven-year contract will lead to further opportunities for Veolia, including a potential extension of the new contract for up to a further seven years.

In line with the City of Westminster’s own plans and strategy tied to its ‘Building a Living City’ programme, we identified numerous local initiatives that can help make Westminster part of an ‘Olympic capital’ and the best place to be.

These include:

• Extra investment in recycling education, to increase participation rates
• A commitment to reducing carbon emissions
• Maintaining an effective and impressive 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week, 365-days-a-year service

We look forward to building on a strong relationship that has been successfully forged over the past 14 years.

Staffordshire energy recovery

Staffordshire County Council confirmed that Veolia will run the county’s Energy Recovery Facility as part of
a 25-year contract. Planning permission for the plant on the Four Ashes Industrial Estate, in the south of the county, has been secured and the plant will generate enough power for more than 32,000 homes. It will also create 40 new permanent jobs, as well as many more during construction.

This contract is part of Staffordshire’s ‘Zero Waste to Landfill’ strategy, which will protect taxpayers from
the rising environmental and financial cost of landfill, maximise recycling and generate energy from the
residual waste.

Medway waste services

Veolia renewed a £200 million contract with Medway Council in October 2010 to provide recycling and street cleaning services for the next seven years, and waste treatment and disposal services for the next 25 years.

Veolia and Medway Council have developed a strong working relationship, which has led to recycling rates being doubled in comparison to the previous contract term. Veolia and the Council are aiming to boost recycling levels to 40% by the end of 2011.

For the disposal element of the contract, a new Waste Transfer Station has been built at Whitehall Road, Strood, to allow the transfer of recyclable materials to Veolia’s Materials Recycling Facility at Rainham in Essex, and to allow the transfer of waste to Veolia’s SELCHP Energy Recovery Facility in South East London.

Grounds maintenance at Regent’s Park

 

Back in 1992, Veolia won the tender for maintaining, landscaping and collecting municipal waste for one of London’s largest Royal Parks – and we are delighted to have retained this contract into 2010.

Regent's Park's impeccable 166-hectare landscape is cared for by a dedicated team of staff, who are responsible for seeing the gardens blossom. An extensive list of awards and trophies reflects the great success connected with this contract, including ‘Best Open Space’ and annual retention of the ‘Green Flag’ – an award designed to give recognition to the best green spaces in the country, which must be reapplied for every year.

Quality in Credit Management (QiCM) status

In 2010, we were extremely proud to receive the highly regarded Quality in Credit Management (QiCM) status, which recognises the improvement in, hard work and motivation of our Credit Control team. This achievement recognised the team’s performance in credit policy, compliance, customer service, staff development and performance monitoring. Following this, we have since been selected by the Institute of Credit Management (ICM) as a partner to launch its first Centre of Excellence, as part of its Credit Academy Scheme.

Debbie Tuckwood, ICM Head of Education, believes that this is a stride forward for learning and development in the credit world. She says: “This is a great chance for anyone who wants a credit qualification with excellent tuition, plus the opportunity to see how the credit world is run through working practices. This is a first for the credit industry.”