Kennewick Irrigation District
When KID needed a fresh take on their brand and a new website for their 60,000+ customers, they came to Artmil.
The Kennewick Irrigation District — or KID (“kay-eye-dee”), as they’re locally known — has, by their own admission, had a bit of an uphill battle over the past few decades in terms of public relations. However, over the last 7 years, they’ve done a major overhaul of their staff, reorganized their departments, and streamlined their operations; the only thing missing was a new face and feel for the municipal organization.
KID came to Artmil initially for a website redesign. Through our discovery process, we realized (right along with the client) that a simple website upgrade wasn’t going to quite be enough to refresh their image and help them get back on track with the public; in addition to designing a new brand identity and taking a fresh approach to their customer service policies, they would also need all new public-facing materials (website, brochures, business cards, vehicle/building signage, and more).
“The entire Artmil team has always been professional and has always thoughtfully considered our needs and goals.”
— Jennifer Defoe —
Public Relations, KID
Better communication with the public was paramount.
Part of improving your image with the public is actually communicating with them and giving them an opportunity to understand what you do and how you do it. In addition to letting people know about scheduled road closures and water outages, KID also needed to have a single place for other outreach and public information activities.
Our primary focus was to create a News Center that would handle a lot of information across various topics, such as public documents, information on water conservation, helpful videos, and more. Once that was established, we set up a real-time news feed/blog for KID that allows for categorization and tagging of key phrases, making it easy for visitors to find the information they’re looking for.
The response to these changes has been positive: KID tells us that they get fewer calls and e-mails about various services and topics, and that users have stated how pleased they are with the new website.
Better communication with the public was paramount.
Part of improving your image with the public is actually communicating with them and giving them an opportunity to understand what you do and how you do it. In addition to letting people know about scheduled road closures and water outages, KID also needed to have a single place for other outreach and public information activities.
Our primary focus was to create a News Center that would handle a lot of information across various topics, such as public documents, information on water conservation, helpful videos, and more. Once that was established, we set up a real-time news feed/blog for KID that allows for categorization and tagging of key phrases, making it easy for visitors to find the information they’re looking for.
The response to these changes has been positive: KID tells us that they get fewer calls and e-mails about various services and topics, and that users have stated how pleased they are with the new website.
Real-time water map.
Integrating a live water outage map into the website was a high priority for KID. It’s critical to show customers where water is not flowing, in order to help them understand whether their neighborhood is experiencing an outage or not.
This live map can be updated — on KID’s end — by the GIS software that they already use, and the result is a map that automatically updates itself when conditions change.
Real-time water map.
Integrating a live water outage map into the website was a high priority for KID. It’s critical to show customers where water is not flowing, in order to help them understand whether their neighborhood is experiencing an outage or not.
This live map can be updated — on KID’s end — by the GIS software that they already use, and the result is a map that automatically updates itself when conditions change.
