Message from the Ombudsman

During 2020-21, electricity made up the bulk of our caseload, accounting for 83 per cent of the 6,064 cases closed. Our total cases closed fell 20 per cent from 7,621 cases in 2019-20. This decrease was consistent with the experience of other energy and water ombudsmen offices across Australia.

We believe the protections set out in the Statement of Expectations and steps taken by our scheme participants to improve their internal dispute resolution processes to better support their customers has contributed to the downward trend of our case numbers.

We encourage these initiatives as they are in the best interests of consumers. Our efforts to raise awareness of our service and continued promotion of the requirement for consumers to contact their retailer or distributor first is also reflected in this result.

Billing disputes continue to make up the majority of complaints we receive, followed by credit-related issues (including payment difficulties, hardship and debt listings), which is consistent with previous years. Our third most common complaint area is provision, which are problems with new or existing connections, followed closely by customer service issues.

It was also interesting to note that water-related cases overtook gas-related cases this year for the first time in the scheme’s history.

As a free, fair and independent dispute resolution service for energy and water consumers, we are committed to ensuring our service evolves with both consumer and member expectations.

Over the past 12 months, we have continued to focus on streamlining our service, particularly around improving customer experience across case management, telephony and online channels.

Our new cloud-based telephony system, incorporating enhanced call and customer functions along with improved quality assurance and reporting, was launched in July 2020.

This allowed us to introduce a web chat option on the EWOQ website to provide greater contact options for customers in real time.

In May 2021, we launched our member portal which allows our scheme participants to update their team’s contact details and those with sufficient caseloads can view static reports about their cases. Development of the portal continues, with further reporting and communications functions planned in the future.

During 2020, we engaged Cameron Ralph Khoury to conduct an independent review of our scheme to help us understand how well we’re performing against the benchmarks for industry-based customer dispute resolution.

The review, which was undertaken during COVID-19 restrictions, involved broad stakeholder consultation, in-depth analysis of our processes, procedures, data and management oversight mechanisms and review of a representative sample of recent disputes.

The findings and recommendations of the independent review were released in December 2020 and concluded that EWOQ meets all six benchmarks for industry-based customer dispute resolution. The review found that ‘EWOQ operates with independence, fairly and impartially. It provides an accessible service that is accountable and transparent. EWOQ is, in our view, an effective ombudsman scheme’. The report findings and recommendations provided us with valuable insights and advice that have been incorporated into our strategic plan.

During 2020-21, we continued to invest in and support our people. Flexible working arrangements have been embraced across the organisation over the past 12 months and we continue to demonstrate our ability to all work remotely during lockdown periods.

Leadership development, succession planning and talent management has been a focus in 2020-21, with the leadership team taking part in a coaching program.

We continue to provide our employees access to learning and development opportunities. We strive to create a workplace where diversity is celebrated, health and safety is valued, the wellbeing of employees is prioritised and career development is encouraged.

I am proud of our results in the 2020 Working for Queensland employee opinion survey, with 92 per cent of our team sharing their thoughts and perceptions of what it’s like to work at EWOQ.

Positive results were seen across all areas of the survey, particularly in relation to leadership and engagement, performance and development, and effectiveness and innovations. Our results were higher than the overall Queensland public sector scores and showed significant improvements on our 2019 results.

Community outreach and stakeholder engagement are an important part of our service. During 2020-21, our outreach program focused on connecting with consumers in regional areas and customers in financial difficulty, who we reach through our relationships with financial counsellors and community organisations. We continued to grow and foster relationships with First Nations communities through our Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan.

During the time when face-to-face outreach activities were cancelled or postponed, we continued to create opportunities to raise awareness of our services by other means, including webinars and social media. In October, our webinar series about supporting energy consumers financially affected by COVID-19 brought together energy companies with financial counsellors and community organisations to discuss how to deliver fair and reasonable outcomes for energy consumers experiencing financial difficulty – often for the first time.

It was a great feeling to connect face-to-face with financial counsellors at both the annual Financial Counsellors’ Association of Queensland State Conference in Port Douglas in March and the Financial Counselling Australia conference in Darwin in May. As always, both events were a great opportunity to find out about the issues their clients are facing and how we can help.

Over the past 12 months, we’ve continued our future focus in meeting the evolving needs and expectations of customers as well as our scheme participants.

This year, we’ve spent a lot of time streamlining and improving our service with an ongoing commitment to improving customer experience while also meeting changing industry needs.

This has led to a new service model for our Assessment, Investigation and Resolution team. Under the new model, an early resolution team of investigation and resolution officers are the first point of contact for customers. They manage referrals to other organisations, refer backs and referrals to a higher level. If a case needs to be escalated, it is transferred to the investigations team. This approach enhances service delivery and customer experience and has shown positive results so far. I look forward to sharing more insights on this next financial year.

While we continue to weather the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic alongside ongoing changes within the energy and water sectors, I have been heartened by the support from across our industry, from my peers in the Ombudsman community and from my EWOQ team.

I am also grateful for the ongoing support and counsel of the Advisory Council, particularly Anna Moynihan who concluded her term as Chair in February.

Working together is a term we hear a lot these days, but collaboration really does make us all stronger and has helped us continue to deliver great results during uncertain times. I am confident we will continue to do so into next year and beyond.

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