People First

WM puts People First, which is why it is our mission to be a partner for environmental services and solutions. In the simplest terms, our values come down to doing the right things, the right way. This philosophy sets the standard for our fundamental commitments and core values and guides our daily actions and decisions.

There are three critical elements that we have identified to help us place our customers at the center of all that we do:

• Gather the voice of our customers through a journey-based survey approach to recognize and acknowledge the moments that matter.
• Engage every WM team member in a culture of customer advocacy by providing actionable insights based on our customers’ evolving needs.
• Transform the way we make decisions by focusing on each step in the customer’s journey and implementing changes that improve their experience.

Through this approach to gathering feedback, we have learned that our customers value and expect partnership, reliability and trustworthiness. We are taking action on these components to strengthen our customer experience and brand through improved technology, communications and continuous process improvement. Please refer to the Operations section of our Data Center for our Customer Service and Satisfaction metrics.

Customer Satisfaction and Net Promoter Scores

We send surveys to customers in all major lines of business who receive solid waste and recycling service. Each month, a randomly selected group of commercial, residential, roll-off, and manufacturing and industrial customers receive surveys.

WM measures customer satisfaction through the use of the Net Promoter Scores (NPS). NPS poses a simple question: “How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?” This enterprise-level metric measures customers’ overall sentiment about a brand versus their perception of a single transaction and is used as a benchmark to evaluate and improve customer loyalty. This metric is an essential step for WM to continue to show our public commitment to customer satisfaction.

We leverage our surveys to gain more insight into our customers’ needs and their perception of the changes we are making to better serve them. WM has continued to track Overall Satisfaction (OSAT).

Post-Contact Survey

WM gathers feedback from customers following interactions with our customer service team, whether customers contacted us by phone, email or online chat. Every customer service agent receives 10 to 20 surveys per month. Customer insights are used to coach and develop employees, quickly identify emerging trends from customer input and evaluate and improve our internal processes. Our Post-Contact Survey(PCS) data also allows us to identify situations that our customers find challenging and take action to improve those interactions.

WM partners with a third party, BPA Quality, to validate the quality of call, email and chat interactions. Every customer service agent receives at least four evaluations per month. We use evaluation feedback to coach and develop employees. WM continually assesses our criteria to ensure it aligns with our customers’ expectations gleaned through our PCS program. Like we do with PCS, we use the review of these interactions to assess customer and employee responses to changes we make in our environment.