WM is driven by our commitments to put people first and achieve success with integrity. Our daily actions and decisions are guided by our core values, which include placing our customers at the center of what we do and aspiring to delight them every day through our dedication to providing excellent and reliable services. We provide collection, recycling, disposal and sustainability services to millions of residential, commercial, industrial and municipal customers throughout the U.S. and Canada to help them pursue their sustainability challenges.

To ensure we are providing high quality, reliable service to meet the developing needs of our customers we identified three critical actions we can take to help us place our customers at the center of all that we do:

• Gather the voice of our customer through surveys distributed via email, phone calls, or embedded in self-service exit pages, and available across our web and mobile applications
• Engage with WM teams to expand customer advocacy by understanding how strategies and upcoming changes may impact customers, while also providing actionable insights based on evolving needs
• Transform the way we make decisions by focusing on each step along 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 acting to strengthen our customer experience and WM brand through updated technology, communications and continuous process improvement. Please refer to the Operations section of our Sustainability 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, manufacturing and industrial customers receive surveys.

WM measures customer satisfaction through the use of Net Promoter Scoring (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 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) as well.

Post-Contact Survey

WM gathers feedback from customers following interactions with our customer service team. Whether they contacted us by phone, email or online chat, WM validates the quality of those interactions. Every customer service agent receives 10 to 20 surveys per month designed to quickly identify emerging trends from customer input, so we can evaluate and improve our internal processes. Each customer service agent receives between four and eight quality evaluations per month per agent which are used to coach and develop employees. 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 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.