Change and Transformation in the Private Sector
JCURV partnered with Southern Water to deliver Project 80, an ambitious customer service transformation that reversed industry‑low performance by introducing end‑to‑end ownership, agile experimentation and data‑driven decision‑making. Within months, the programme delivered significant, measurable improvements in customer satisfaction, service reliability and operational performance, while embedding sustainable capability to scale transformation across the organisation.
Southern Water (SW) were facing a business-critical issue; they were ranked 16th out of 17 in the industry, for customer service. As a result, they faced the prospect of significant regulatory penalties and further reputational damage.
In response to this, we partnered with SW to launch ‘Project 80’, an ambitious transformation programme with the remit of driving customer satisfaction (CSAT) towards 80% by fundamentally rethinking the customer journey.
Within six months, Project 80 increased CSAT in one of their main regions by 39% (as part of a pilot); this subsequently drove a broader increase of 8% across all SW regions, when the improvements were scaled. This was the direct result of various initiatives designed and delivered by Project 80, meaning customers received faster, more efficient and better-communicated service.
We delivered this significant transformation by:
- Establishing end-to-end ownership: We mobilised a flat, cross-functional team, empowering them to own the entire customer journey
- Accelerating value through innovative change methods: We introduced iterative delivery approaches, allowing the teams and their supply chain partners to rapidly test, learn and scale the most effective solutions
- Building lasting capability: We embedded sustainable practices to ensure SW could become self-sufficient and continue to build on this success independently, without our support and coaching
- Inspiring a future vision: We facilitated strategic workshops, using powerful cross-sector insights to challenge the client’s conventional thinking and reimagine their future customer service.
This submission details our collaborative approach to tackling a complex client problem and the outstanding initial outcomes that lay the groundwork for a company-wide transformation.
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