With only a month to go until the water market opens, we’ve sat down with Bill Clarke, Sales Director at SES Business Water, to answer business customers’ most important questions.
Q. In your view Bill, what should businesses be doing over the next four weeks?
“Firstly, knowing who your current water and waste water supplier is and understanding your water consumption is really important, especially if you have more than one site.
Smaller businesses can do this by reviewing their water bills, while multi-site businesses may want to conduct a water audit.
Putting in the work now will get you on the front foot and help you to identify what you really need from your water supplier so that when it comes to getting quotes or tendering, you know exactly what your businesses water position looks like.”
Q. Will the hassle be worth it? What sort of benefits can customers expect to see?
“Switching suppliers is actually a straight forward process, from quote to supply the switching process can take as little as 3 weeks with minimal hassle. When the market opens businesses can expect to see immediate cost savings and although it’s unlikely that these will be as significant as those seen recently by Scottish businesses, we anticipate they will be substantial enough to prompt businesses to act.
As well as price savings, we’re hoping that there will be a renewed focus on water efficiency. As businesses start to pull together their water bills and consumption by site, they’ll start to spot anomalies and determine areas that would benefit from water reduction measures. We believe that businesses will see the most value from the new market when suppliers combine cost savings with reduced consumption.
Business can also expect to see more product innovation and value added services being offered by suppliers, from smart meters and water audits to flexible water buying solutions.”
Q. Will suppliers be ready for the opening of the water market?
“We’re working with our fellow suppliers, industry regulators and the government to ensure that we’re ready when the water market opens. We’re currently in a period known as ‘shadow operations’, which involves a lot of planning and preparation alongside testing all of the systems and processes.
SES Business Water obtained a licence to operate in Scotland in 2016, which has given us a solid grounding in how competitive water markets work in practice. Importantly we’re also engaging with our clients everyday, providing them with plans and costings so that they’re clear on where they stand financially.”
Q. In your opinion, what’s the key to making the water market successful?
“The full potential of the open water market will only be realised if businesses are engaged with the market. Ofwat have found that many businesses are still in the dark about the changing water market, with two thirds of eligible businesses being unaware that they’ll be able to change supplier from April 2017. We’re striving to make sure that businesses are fully informed about how they can benefit from switching suppliers, because if businesses are open to switching then suppliers will be prompted to improve their services.
Q. Final question - what can businesses gain by switching to SES Business Water?
“SES Business Water have seen the changes to the water market as a chance to offer our customers more innovative solutions to managing their water supply. Our Wholesale Tracker Plus product is a new solution that allows the customer to buy at wholesale price and create a tailored service package at a separate, pre-agreed fee. It tracks the wholesale price, changing when the water prices change once a year so customers know that they’re being charged the lowest price at that time.
Our customers are at the heart of what we do, so we’re looking forward to being able to provide even more businesses with a high standard of customer service.”
If you’ve got any questions for our experts about the imminent changes to the water market, get in touch today.