18990_Authority_Feb_2026

As utilities know, sending mail to 20,000 customers or more is not the end of the conversation. I trained the customer service call and billing staff on anticipated questions, and discussed how to log interest in LSLR, and how to turn customer inquiries into added service line inventory data. After all, an investment in contacting your customers should be worthy of their time, while also showing a return to the utility in the form of more service line data. Making the mailers memorable also can have other benefits, as I learned while volunteering with the American Water Works Association. Data from the AWWA poll, Public Perceptions of Tap Water, shows the reputational benefit to making your communications efforts memorable, even when discussing topics that we would think of as negative. I was on the steering committee for the poll for its first three years. Poll data from all five years it was run shows the benefit to making your communications memorable: The Key Performance Indicators or KPIs of the poll were Perceived Safety, Satisfaction, Perceived Quality and Trust in the respondent’s utility. Even though AWWA’s contractor Morning Consult polled different people each year, the benefits remained consistent – an increase across the board for all four KPIs when the respondents recall a communication from their utility, other than a bill. And some of the communications that respondents remember were negative, like cost increases, or water quality warnings. When I make presentations to industry groups, I tell them I like to think that this means customers appreciate when you are honest with them. That brings me to a core philosophy of mine – every problem can be an opportunity. While it’s not emphasized in the 30-day mailers, MAWC has stressed in our LCRR door hangers that regulations are changing, but your quality water is not. This is meant to convey that while a customer will be hearing more about lead in the coming years thanks to the EPA’s revised and then improved Lead and Copper Rule, MAWC’s water treatment and water quality has not changed. This phrase ‘regulations are changing, but your quality water is not’ is mentioned in the 30-day mailers as well. In summary, there is a benefit to approaching customer communications with creativity, and to view them as an opportunity, even when the subject matter is something difficult to discuss, like lead. Performance numbers In 2024, MAWC received about 100 images of service lines from customers, sent directly to our database without further contact or data input from us. These are checked and then approved, or if there is not enough information in the submission, we attempt to schedule a service visit to catalog the service line material ourselves. An example of a submission lacking enough information to properly classify the service line material was in one instance, a line painted white. While it lacked the sometimes typical “bulb” flare of a lead line, we still needed a visit to properly classify that line. Continued on page 63.