News
Did You Know Your Business Can Switch Water Provider?
Ever since the retail water market in the UK was opened up back in April last year, businesses and organisations around England have been able to choose which company they want to supply water services, no longer restricted to buying these from their regional water supplier.
But it seems that there are many small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that are still unaware that they can take advantage of this, more than a year after the market was opened up.
New research from the Consumer Council For Water (CCWater) has just revealed that low awareness of the retail water market is still the biggest obstacle for SMBs in England when it comes to securing better deals on price and service, with just 41 per cent knowing that they can switch providers.
However, among those SMBs that were aware of the market change, 45 per cent had looked for information and a quarter had made moves towards switching suppliers. And 31 per cent said they had plans in place to move in the next six months.
Commenting on the findings, chief executive of CCWater Tony Smith had this to say: “Customer awareness increased significantly ahead of the market opening but in the past year it appears to have hit a brick wall and that really concerns us.”
“We know that once small businesses are aware they have a choice they are interested in exploring their options but at the moment too many are being sold short by a lack of awareness and information.”
The survey also found that bigger companies are still more active in exploring their various choices, while medium-sized companies (those with between 50 and 249 employees) about twice as likely as those organisations with fewer than ten employees to have looked for market information, negotiated better deals or switched completely.
Of course, it can be hard for smaller operations to find the time to devote to researching the new retail market, which is why it might be a good idea to consider enlisting the services of water management consultants like H2O Building Services.
We’ll put together a water and waste water database using historical water billing data to get a clearer picture of your billing in the past and to date. We’ll also carry out a water and waste water audit to identify any under or overcharges and then complete all work to deliver your water audit savings and refunds, and update your water database to demonstrate what has been achieved.
Once all these savings and refunds have been delivered, we’ll send the billing data to all relevant suppliers based on your agreed criteria, with our experts on hand to guide and support your company through the whole process to completion.
Large water users can take advantage of a unique water supply package, with discounts available on water supply contracts of 25 per cent.