Aquarion Water Looks to Improve Customer Service in Hingham

The Aquarion Water Company may be tucked away behind  the woods on Main Street, but this Hingham water service is looking to make themselves known to their customers  

Newly appointed Aquarion Vice President of Operations John Walsh and Community Relations Manager Ronit Goldstein are focusing on enhancing their customer service and improving their  lines of communication with the people of Hingham, Hull, and Cohasset.  

The water company implemented a new “red code” communication system which will notify customers via a recorded telephone message  about information  pertaining to their water supply.  Aquarion’s new “reverse 911” system would be used to inform customers if there is a water main break in their neighborhood and was recently used to alert residents of the new sprinkler and irrigation system restrictions.

Customers will have the option to receive “code red” alerts from Aquarion via text messages an emails  by registering their information on the water company’s website.

“We have a good idea of what the town’s concerns are and what our customers’ concerns are,” Walsh said. “We want to do everything we can to get more feedback in that area and we learned from that and we think things could have been smoother in the past”

Last year at a selectmen meeting, after he was not notified when a water main broke on Free Street.

“Our communications with main breaks- that was an issue in the past,” Walsh said. “Customers let us know they were not happy and we changed how we communicate.”

Aquarion now notifies the Board  of Health and the fire and police departments immediately when there is a main break.  The company has also developed a better relationship with town engineers, the DPW and Hingham officials.

By building stronger relationships,  Aquarion is also able to change water pipes on roads before they are paved by the Hingham DPW .  In the past the roads would be newly paved, and then the water company would have to fix pipes and repave the roads again.

The Hingham water company also believes in giving back to the community, Goldstein said.  At town events such as the Taste of Hingham and the South Shore Kids’ Pan Mass Challenge at Wompatuck State Park, they hand out water, and during the school year, they offer tours of their facility.

In addition to improving customer service, the water company has worked with the town in providing the information needed for their study to acquire the water system.

when voters supported the town spending $320,000 on a feasibility study to explore the possibility of the town purchasing the water company.

“We have been providing them with the information that they have been asking for and we  plan to continue doing that,” Walsh said. “We want to work corporately with the town and the study committee in town.  We want to keep the lines of communication open with them and we want to continue to be a good neighbor.”

Aquarion hopes their improved service will leave a lasting impression on its Hingham customers.

“My plan is to do a great job here with a hope that by the end of this year, the folks in town will feel that they don’t need to acquire the water system to get the service that they want,” Walsh said.