Focus First on Service: The Voice and Face of Your Utility is a new employee training workbook written specifically for water utility customer service representatives. Designed for either classroom or individual study, the workbook covers all aspects of water utility customer service, from what is meant by water utility customer service and why it is important, to specific types of issues and problems employees will encounter on the job.

Chapters include exercises that allow trainees to immediately apply what they learn to solve a variety of customer problems that they might encounter on the job. Sample scenarios provide typical conversations between customers and the utility representatives on a variety of problems, such as a billing question or service cutoff. The scenarios offer acceptable and unacceptable ways of handling a variety of common customer encounters.

Sample letters and e-mails are included to reply to customer problems, such as high bill complaints or taste-and-odor problems.