We aim to offer our customers high quality services. For us, this implies the need to both keep our infrastructures under strict control, in terms of reviewing, extending and maintaining efficient networks and systems and optimise our business processes so as to ensure that our customers and all the residents we serve are provided with continuous and timely assistance.
The drive towards digitalisation has significantly improved our customer care service, which is increasingly based on operational excellence with a view to providing quality, timeliness and consistency in solving problems. The progress achieved can be seen in the trend of the toll-free calls and in the results of customer satisfaction surveys.
Acea8cento
Acea8cento assists the Group's main operating companies with the management of certain remote channels - telephone, fax, webform, mail, social networks - for mainly commercial use. The service is managed from a One Call Solution (OCS) perspective in order to carry out customer requests in an effective and timely manner via a single contact point.
In 2019, Acea8cento helped to prepare two tenders and allocate the management of water service traffic volumes and core activities and energy services and to consolidate:
In 2019, the total number of calls to the Acea toll-free numbers totalled around 4.2 million (+1.7% compared to 2018) and recorded a global level of service - based on the ratio between responses and total number of calls received – corresponding to 92%.
The slight increase concerned both the energy business call centre services and the water service calls, while there was a downturn as regards commercial toll-free numbers for Acea Energia enhanced protection service customers and breakdowns reported by Acea Ato 2 water service customers.
For many years we have carried out regular surveys in collaboration with specialised institutes to measure customer and residents’ satisfaction with regard to the services provided for electricity, water and public lighting.
As in previous years, two six-monthly surveys were carried out in 2019, giving the results indicated below.
Global opinions on services provided
Water
We are responsible for the Integrated Water Service (SII - Servizio Idrico Integrato) for various Local Authority Water Boards (Ambito Territoriali Ottimali - ATOs) in the regions of Lazio, Tuscany, Campania and Umbria, based on an Agreement entered into with the Area Supervisory Body (EGA). The SII covers the entire drinking and waste water cycle, from collection of the natural resource at the springs to its return to the environment. The Group Companies operate in compliance with the procedures set forth in our QASE management systems, with a view to continually improving and providing widespread, top quality services and transparency in our interaction with stakeholders, whilst minimising our environmental and social impacts.
The most important activities we are carrying out on our networks concern the technological modernisation and digitalisation of the infrastructures, and specifically:
Proteus for remote water meter reading
In 2019, Acea Ato 2 moved ahead with a project aimed at developing increasingly effective solutions for the remote reading of water meters pertaining to its managed utilities. The collaboration with Areti led to the development and testing of “Proteus”, a product capable of transforming pulses transmitted by a device installed on the meter into readings to be sent to the Management Centre, connected to the billing systems. In 2019 around 17,000 Proteus devices were installed and put into operation on a corresponding number of water utilities and further evolutions of the system were developed, with a view to maximising effectiveness and efficiency.
Prospectively, Acea Ato 5 will also use Proteus technology.
With the support of Acea Elabori, we take great care to check the water quality not only of springs and wells, but also of the storage tanks and distribution network. Control frequency is established according to the volumes, the population served, the condition of the network and infrastructures and specific characteristics of the local sources.
The integrated water service includes the collection and purification of the waste water in order to return it to the natural environment. We analyse water quality both on entry into and exit from the treatment plants in order to constantly monitor the impact of the business on the receiving water bodies. Thanks to the use of state-of-the-art technology, the Acea Ato 2 Environmental Operation Room continually monitors hydrometric and pluviometric information in the Rome area and provides data on water quality of the urban stretches of the Tiber and Aniene rivers.
It is essential to monitor the condition of the networks and to promptly intervene in the event of a fault: we do not merely identify and repair any damage appearing in the network, we also extend our analyses and interventions to a wider stretch of the network in order to be able to plan and, if necessary, carry out any restoration work.
Public lighting
In 2019, the refurbishment interventions on Artistic LED technology lighting included the Trevi Fountain, the Castel Sant’Angelo, the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano and the Theatre of Marcellus.
Under the Service Agreement drawn up with the Municipality of Rome, through the company Areti we manage the Capital’s public, functional and artistic-monumental lighting, serving a network of about 199,780 lighting points, in respect of which we perform design, construction, operation, maintenance and restructuring activities, always in compliance with certified QASE Management Systems and working in synergy with the Public Administration and the Supervisory Body.
The main quality indicator of the public lighting service is the time taken to repair faults. Times are calculated from the moment of a report being made, either by the control systems in operation along the network or directly by citizens or by the Municipality of Rome via special channels, such as call centres, website, fax or letter. In 2019, 97% of the faults reported were resolved within the year.
The new lighting of the parks
We want to best illuminate the beauty and improve the accessibility of our parks. We are carrying out work on some of the City of Rome’s important green spaces and, in 2019, our interventions included the Park of the Aqueducts, Romanina Park and Baden Powell Park – in synergy with the local authorities, in order to enhance the value of our natural heritage without interfering with the arboreal essences and ensuring, wherever present, the full integration of our lighting systems with the park’s archaeological area.
Energy
We also use Areti to manage, modernise and expand the electricity distribution infrastructures in Rome and Formello, a network of over 1.6 million delivery points.
In addition to the objectives of efficiency, improved service quality and reduction of environmental impacts, the most interesting interventions carried out on the infrastructures concern the application of innovative technologies, especially from a smart city distributed generation perspective, electric mobility, storage systems, connectivity and resilience. This also includes our commitment to extend the fibre optic communication network to "ultra-broadband" in Rome.
