Customer management

Study of the structure of a Customer Department

• Three models considered (pyramidal, decentralized)
• Comparison and definition of services
• Types of overall organization of a customer department

Analysis and implementation of the legal framework

• The rights and duties of the water company and the customer
• The subscription contract
• The water and sanitation service regulations

Treatment of unbilled water

• Implementation of a high-performance customer information system, mapping of delivery points
• Updating of the information system, re-establishment of the ICRL cycle (Invoicing Collection Recovery Litigation)
• Implementation of management tools
• Improvement of working capital

Remote reading – radio reading

• The Smart Metering market in the world
• Remote reading of water meters
• Services associated with these technologies
• Multi-fluid, fears and objections of the solution
• Elements of costing
• Example of application of a project in an African country

Customer service and call centre

• Service delivery approach (leakage insurance, products for professionals, etc.)
• Online sales of products (rainwater harvesting, etc.) derived from the resource
• Setting up and analysis of a call centre

Henri BARTHALAN is a graduate of the Ecole des Mines de Paris. He began his career in 1972 at Lyonnaise des Eaux as a technical engineer, building water production plants and distribution networks.

Since 1981, he has been in charge of various administrative missions, including management control, but mainly customer service management. He has managed complete customer services (back-office and front-office, including call centres). At head office, he was in charge of coordinating the customer activities of the 30 regional centres (harmonisation of methods – creation and coordination of a network for the exchange of best practices – expert and assistance missions to the regional centres). More recently, in Italy, he was Customer Director for a company serving 350,000 customers and set up a new organisation based on a systematic approach to rationalise working methods and organisations. During his career, he has also carried out expertise and assistance missions in various countries.