3P Project : Park Pay Pass
Metropolitan Waterworks Authority

A. Problem Analysis

 1. What was the problem before the implementation of the initiative?
Bangkok consists of people from various nationalities. Bangkok has it own unique cultures and is considered to be a source of business investment from all over the world. Metropolitan Waterworks Authority is a state enterprise that has provided the infrastructure (tap water) to customers in Bangkok, Nonthaburi and Samut Prakarn for more than 40 years. The population in Bangkok and its perimeter has increased by more than 10 million within a short period. This has increased the need for basic infrastructure, such as request for water connections, transfer of ownership, request for installing water meters, making complaints and bill payments. MWA has divided the service area and established 18 branch offices to serve 120,000 people per branch. The customers at each branch office have increased annually from approximately 300,000 in 2005 to approximately 700,000 at present (an increase of 120 percent). More than 70 percent of customers coming to branch offices are paying bills, so this causes traffic congestion in branch office areas. Branch offices cannot expand the space to accommodate more customers, especially parking lots, customers need to use more time for parking. This causes inconvenience for customers as they need more time to pay bills. (In busy periods, it takes about 7 minutes per bill since getting queue slip) and also discredits the company’s image. Because of these reasons, MWA has created a project for customers to drive-through and leave immediately after paying bills. This project is called “3P Project: Park Pay Pass”

B. Strategic Approach

 2. What was the solution?
In 2010, Ms. Suchada Panichayakul, Prachachuen Branch Office Manager mentioned the problems of traffic congestion in the branch office area because of the limitation of parking lots to Gen. Vichit Yathip, MWA board and Mr. Chareon Passara, MWA Governor when visiting the office. This problem occurred because the area could not be expanded through renting or buying land because the location is in a residential area and would require a high budget. This impactsthe company image and customer satisfaction of service at all branch offices. This causes the concept of “Drive thru” to focus on reducing waiting times for parking while increasing the number of customers driving to branch offices to pay bills. This concept set the condition that one customer pays one bill only. The payment process at drive thru is the same as in the office, only that payment points are located at a convenient area for short-time parking and payment. At the drive thru point, customers arrive and show their invoice, make payment, get a receipt and leave the service area within 1.30 minutes. This project, supported by Information Technology Department in IT installation, could explicitly raise service satisfaction and improve the company’s image.

 3. How did the initiative solve the problem and improve people’s lives?
This project has applied scientific knowledge and technology to increase economic and service values, which are an important basis of large organizations. Moreover, this concept also creates social benefits such as Drive thru is a new concept for state agencies. This is a different approach from the traditional one that focuses on only modifying work environments.This completely changes the way of thinking, improves work processes, reduces the limitations of work (originally could be done in the office only) and the most important factor is to create new options for customers which could be considered as an ‘Idea Innovation’ of MWA.

C. Execution and Implementation

 4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
MWA has applied Information Network Technology to improve services for customers, to improve convenience for customers and have them spend less time when accessing MWA services. The objective of the project can be specified as follows: 1. Improve customer service levels by applying Idea Innovation with technology developed by MWA and satisfying stakeholder needs. 2. Improve ways to access branch offices for customers by considering the problems of insufficient car parking and other unsatisfactory factors faced by customers. 3. Increase service levels by eliminating weaknesses in working of public sectors and decreasing budget for expansion of service areas. Strategies applied to achieving the objectives of the project are: 1. Planning working process: to analyze the possibilities, consider rules and regulations to create a working plan, time frame, person in charge etc. to implement the project. 2. Design and construction: to consider the possibility of allocating space for drive-thru points, under design representing images of MWA, standardized construction but flexible with real locations within a reasonable budget. 3. Project publicity: to make customers understand howto access the office, rules and regulations and to draw customer attention as much as possible. 4. Monitoring and evaluation: to specify working processes, following up and evaluating the results for summarizing data, value of the project and impacts to improve the project.

 5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
The stakeholders can be divided in three groups as follows: 1. Executives: MWA Board of Directors, MWA chief executives and Branch Office Managers have pushed the project to come up with successful results within a short period and with a clear working process. 2. Operation Group: Project Managers, Information Technology staff and branch office officers have planned the project, controlled work to be done on time (which was within the end of fiscal year 2010) to quickly solve the problems for customers. 3. Customers: customers have an important part as they reflect defects of the project from real situations after starting the first session. Those three groups lead to project follow up, evaluation and extend to other branch offices.
 6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
Financial: in 2010, Prachachuen Branch Office spent about THB 300,000 and, in the next year, the capital was raised by about THB 100,000 for each branch, the capital is for payment device facilities and other necessary facilities built to represent the image of MWA with no other financial cost. Technical: The technical program applied in the project is developed by MWA and is the same as in the normal office. Moreover,the risks in working operations are controlled by using CCTV for security when make payment. Personnel: each branch allocates two staff per day to be responsible for the Drive thru point. For other concerned tasks, the staff is from the Public Relations Department, Audit Department and Information Technology Department. This staff has a part in project publication, audit working, planning the information technology system and development in human resources so that staff can work in various conditions but still keep the impressive style of MWA as in the normal office. It could be said that, in this project, all the resources are used in a way so it will not cost any excess.

 7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
Since the project has started in July 2010 at Prachachuen Branch Office. The success outcomes of the project are: 1. This project could clearly reduce congestion in branch office areas so MWA executives have agreed to extend the project to other branch offices, especially those in urban areas such as Phrakhanong Branch Office, Sukhumvit Branch Office,Phaya Thai Branch Office, and Phasicharoen Branch Office. At present, there are eight branch offices participating in this project. 2. Because of the expansion of the project to other branch offices, the number of customers using this service has increased. From an initial level of approximately 2,000 customers at Prachachuen Branch Office, at present there are roughly 50,000 customers per office. 3. Improving convenience for customers is a key benefit of service time reduction.Initially each payment took 7 minutes. However, this has now been reduced to about 5.30 minutes. 4. Reducing customers’ expenses. Previously, some customers could not come to the office because of congestion. They had to pay an agency service fee of THB 10 per bill. This service fee totaled about THB 500,000 per month (50,000 customers x THB 10 service fee) 5. Raising the company’s service level to be more professional, improving the company’s image and raising customer satisfaction. The score of customer satisfaction towards our organization increased from 3.680 in 2009 to 4.259 in 2013.

 8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
Session 1: Project Initialization The project is evaluated by concerned functions and following-up the outcomes to avoid any delays in the project. The processes are updating working procedures, working rules and regulations, IT installation, staff training, payment point construction and any other necessary areas. In the meantime, the outcomes are reported to executives periodically. Session 2: Pilot Project The first project was launched at Prachachuen Branch Office. In the first three months, the project was followed-up by surveys of customer satisfaction from 300 customers, including questionnaires about any problems in order to improve the project. The customer surveys were from many channels such as websites and the 1125 call center, then the data was summarized and the results were reported to executives for further action. Session 3: Magnify an outcome The executives decided to extend the project to other branch offices and assigned the Monitoring and Evaluation Department to let credible institutions make surveys every year on customer satisfaction both at organization level and branch office level. Also, specify working standards both in quality and quantity. These procedures aim to achieve the ultimate results, that is, the trust in state agency services. The project follow up and evaluation have been done so that as they are now set as annual performance controlled by internal audits and considered as one of the main works of the organization.

 9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
During the beginning of the project, customers did not have much understanding about the service of the project because it was new and still had some limitations, for example, declining payments of temporary suspending fee and denying payments if more than 3 bills needed to be paid. So, we need to publicize the project through many ways such as television, radio and the Internet, to make customers clearly understand service processes and regulations. MWA has set up a special team to advise and clarify the project directly to customers. At present, there are no such problems occurring, so it can be said that the project is managed efficiently and successfully.

D. Impact and Sustainability

 10. What were the key benefits resulting from this initiative?
This project achieved a good level of both quality and quantity. For the quality, that is the equal and easy access of public services. It is a new payment way of state enterprises and helps reduce costs of building renovation of MWA by over 30 million baht. It also promoted a good image, and as a result customer satisfaction of MWA has increased. From the satisfaction survey of academic institutions (third party) from 2011 to 2013, the 3P project got 4.711 out of 5, the highest point among all the surveys, and also helped raise the overall evaluation score of the organization. For the quantity and efficiency, it showed the improvement of performance in public service management. From the beginning of the project, this service has been provided more than 1 million times, and saved about 300 million baht. Most importantly, it saves time, 78% of improved performance** (calculated from the original 7-step procedure which took 7 minutes on average per a customer; the 3p project cut the process into 4 steps taking an average of 1.30 minutes, which means 5.30-minute reduction, representing 78.57% including the wait.) Moreover, it helps lessen hidden costs. Prior to the introduction of this initiative, some people needed to pay added fees to MWA representatives of 10 baht on average. If compared to the cost per person per year, this will save a total of 120 baht or be equally considered as an amount of water used per month.

 11. Did the initiative improve integrity and/or accountability in public service? (If applicable)
Due to the increase in population, traffic jams, competitive circumstances and the needs of convenient and fast services, it is necessary for MWA to offer services to meet demands. The 3P project achieves this and also helps gain popularity since the number of customers and service points is increasing every year. As well as there are always customer satisfaction surveys by credible external institutes and the feedback is analyzed to improve services. When considering the social aspects, customers get the maximum benefit in both deep and wide viewpoints. In a deep viewpoint, it affects the values of appreciation of customers: customers are satisfied and impressed with fast services due to the process reduction. In a wide impact, customers can easily access this channel in all types of vehicles, making quality of life better particularly during rush hour and is well suited to urban life. In an economic side, the linkage with business partners occurred to provide interchangeable payments and also created an added value of the organization. This solution was shared to seven troubled branch offices as well. This is a long-term integrated approach for solving the problem of insufficiency of parking lots and encourages sustainability of the entire procedure. MWA appointed this approach to be an example system for service divisions to be adapted to match other areas. There is a follow-up with ongoing projects including annual customer satisfaction surveys from each branch to fix flaws and maintain service standards. The information is publicized to people through various media to update the progress of the project. There were also study visits from water organizations in ASEAN countries such as Myanmar and Luang Prabang (Lao PDR). This project was sent to the Public Quality Management Awards (PMQA) of the Office of the Public Sector Development Commission (OPDC), which is a way to promote the project to the public or other government agencies to adapt this concept to solve their problems.

 12. Were special measures put in place to ensure that the initiative benefits women and girls and improves the situation of the poorest and most vulnerable? (If applicable)
A factor for the success of this service is to prioritize the problems, obstacles or needs of customers and find ways to meet their demand by relying on the support of executives and modern technology. However, the relevant rules and regulations should be amended to be more flexible. Finally, strengthening the attitudes of service providers is the key of success and also makes employees motivated and efficiently develops their work, based on the benefits of the organization and people together with building teamwork to drive toward the MWA’s mission, vision and value as ‘Quality Water for Quality Life’.

Contact Information

Institution Name:   Metropolitan Waterworks Authority
Institution Type:   Other  
Contact Person:   Ratmanee Kaewjinda
Title:   International Relations Coordinator  
Telephone/ Fax:   +66 2 504 0123 ext.1816
Institution's / Project's Website:  
E-mail:   teuyyea@hotmail.com  
Address:   400 Prachacheun Road, Laksi
Postal Code:   10210
City:   Bangkok
State/Province:   Bangkok
Country:  

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