Affinity takes to text as part of debt help push

Affinity Water is stepping up its outreach to customers who may be struggling with their water bills.

In National Debt Week this week, the company said it will soon proactively text customers offering help, and provide a single web page consolidating all relevant information to customers on how they can make payments, set up payment plans, and access social tariffs and debt advice.

Director of sustainability and communications, Jake Rigg, said: “We will soon be sending an SMS message that functions as a signpost for customers where they can see what different payment routes are available to them. We are improving how we communicate with our customers to help prevent them getting into debt in the first place. We are going to be much more proactive across multiple channels – SMS, email, letter, and calls. We want to help customers before an overdue bill gets out of control.

“We have already sent out proactively 20,000 emails to customers who we believe are financially vulnerable. This work follows on from our industry leading partnership with National Debtline. There are now over 62,000 customers registered on our Priority Services Register so we know we are managing to cut through to customers to tell them what help is available but we would welcome the opportunity to give them more advice through the media during Debt Awareness Week.”

Affinity has already offered 6,800 customers payment breaks of up to three months during the pandemic. The company said it has also delivered over 2,000 free virtual home water efficiency check since January 2021 and since September 2020, saved an estimated 350,000 litres of water as a result of tailored advice and free water saving devices.