Staff provide good customer service

I refer to the letter from William Lam (South China Morning Post, April 9) regarding the emergency service of the Water Supplies Department.

The department has a well-manned customer telephone inquiry centre.

The centre is one of the Government's best-equipped call centres. As stated in the water bills we send out and in our publications, the telephone inquiry hotline 2824 5000 handles all inquiries from the public on the disruption of supply and general matters 24 hours a day.

In many cases, we obtain main-burst information from the traffic police, and we are in close contact with other relevant government departments. The call centre is headed at all times by engineering staff with more than 10 years' site experience in dealing with technical matters. Our department handles thousands of technical problems every year. We have detailed departmental instructions for the handling of supply disruptions and other emergencies.

Our staff provide a good customer service, and we meet our service standards, which are reflected in our performance pledges published annually. Engineering staff are required to attend emergencies in a prompt manner. If the emergency is complex, professional engineers will attend the site. For major incidents, top management are also on call to respond. We have stringent instructions to record the performance in handling each disruption case. Our department also has a designated working group headed by the Director of Water Supplies to review the procedures of emergency management on a regular basis.

Despite our efforts to respond promptly to emergency repairs, sometimes it takes longer than expected to complete the repair works in technically difficult underground situations. We will keep trying to achieve the fastest response and provide the best service to our customers.

ROGER LAM

Water Supplies Department