KINGSTON, Jamaica — The National Water Commission (NWC) delivered the best overall customer experience among Jamaica’s major utility providers, according to the Office of Utilities Regulation’s (OUR) 2025 Mystery Shopping Study.

According to an OUR release, the annual study evaluated customer interactions across multiple service channels, including in-store locations, call centres, website chats, social media platforms and mobile applications. While it found that the country’s major utility providers have made notable improvements in customer service, performance continued to vary across channels and companies.

NWC achieved the highest overall customer experience score of 79 per cent, representing an increase of 21 percentage points over the previous year. The improvement was driven by a 43-point increase in call centre performance and a 22-point rise in in-store service, although its digital engagement score declined by three points.

Digicel followed closely with an overall score of 76 per cent, up 12 percentage points from the previous year. According to the release, its gains were supported by improvements in call centre and in-store performance, despite a four-point decline in digital engagement.

Jamaica Public Service (JPS) recorded an overall score of 74 per cent, an increase of four percentage points, with improvements largely attributed to its mobile application performance. Flow ranked fourth with 67 per cent, benefiting from stronger in-store and digital service but recording a significant 25-point decline in call centre performance.

The release noted that NWC and Digicel’s call centres have become key strengths, while JPS demonstrated relatively consistent performance across service channels.

The study also identified several recurring weaknesses in customer service across the industry. Mystery shoppers reported limited greetings and courtesy from staff, long waits without updates, weak empathy when handling billing issues and service disruptions, and low enthusiasm among some customer service agents.

According to the release, the research was conducted by Market Research Services Ltd between August and October 2025 and involved 437 interactions by mystery shoppers representing a cross-section of demographic groups.

Participants visited stores, contacted call centres and engaged with online chat services across the various utility providers.

OUR Director of Consumer and Public Affairs Yvonne Nicholson urged service providers to strengthen their digital platforms by enabling full case resolution through mobile applications, introducing artificial intelligence-based triaging to seamlessly transfer customers from chatbots to human agents, and allowing users to upload documents, track requests and receive status updates online.

The regulator also recommended improving customer engagement skills through frontline staff training focused on greetings and acknowledgement, active listening, empathy, clear communication of processes and timelines, and ensuring customer queries are fully addressed before interactions end.

According to the release, preparations are already under way for the OUR’s 2026 Mystery Shopping Study.