Raising awareness while raising rates: Targeted, ongoing, and sensitive communication strategies build customer acceptance of utility rate increases and infrastructure investments

A 2016 Value of Water Coalition national poll highlighted several key gaps between customers’ engagement with clean water and their willingness to pay for it:

Given the disconnect that community members have between the true costs and value of water, it is vital for utilities to engage in proactive and sustained communication with their ratepayers to prepare for future and ongoing rate increases.

To pay off bonds secured to fund its $4.8 billion Water System Improvement Program and begin planning efforts for their Sewer System Improvement Program in 2013 and 2014, SFPUC completed a cost-of-service study, which determined that rate increases were necessary. Fortunately, based on years of community engagement and outreach, SFPUC has a strong history of trust and credibility within the...

In 2013, after decades of planning and the critical overuse of groundwater coupled with severe drought conditions, the City of Fresno, Calif., was ready to proceed with its infrastructure program to capture, treat, and deliver surface water through a network of source water pipelines, a 364,000-m3/d (80-mgd) treatment facility, and miles of distribution pipelines. The system would...

There are some essential elements that build understanding and foster community acceptance for rate changes. Of these, one of the most important elements is to make sure the community is aware of the water and wastewater services provided to them well before it is time to ask for a rate increase. With regular communication under way year-round, you can then lay out the investment and rate...

Without context and understanding, rates are just rates. They don’t represent the people providing the service, the infrastructure and facilities in place, or the 24-hour efforts to keep services “invisible.” Comprehensive, intentional education helped the San Francisco and Fresno communities place a higher value on water and wastewater systems, and as a result, ratepayers were...