Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County
Matthew Junker
Public Relations Specialist
Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County
New Stanton
Pennsylvania
Display
Leaks & Projects Map
Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County
Matthew Junker
Anthony Pologruto, GIS Analyst
MAWC maps service outages on the same page as its infrastructure upgrades and investments. Called the Leaks & Projects Map, the objective was to use the opportunity of a service outage to communicate the investments we are making on behalf of the customer as well. Another objective was to reduce calls to customer service agents.
Members of the public who are trying to determine why their water service has been interrupted, and whether the MAWC is aware of it and working to restore service. And if so, when that service is estimated to return.
Since the publication of the map, calls are down 10,000 a year, and anecdotal customer interactions point to adoption and appreciation of the map's functions.

Google Analytics shows that the map is the fourth most visited page on the site.
The 2019 J.D. Power Water Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction Study has validated the strategy of mapping outages with leaks:

In a recent story in Water Finance & Management, Andrew Heath, the senior director of utilities intelligence at Power stated “(C)ustomer awareness initiatives focused on infrastructure investments can significantly offset the declines in customer satisfaction that come from service interruptions and water quality issues.”

"Satisfaction among customers who say their water utility does a good job maintaining current infrastructure are 248 points higher, on average, than among those who are unaware of utility infrastructure investments."
The map was the subject of a presentation to the American Water Works Association's Annual Conference and Exposition 2019 in Denver.
https://www.mawc.org/leaks-projects-map