Sector:
Water

Over the last two decades our utilities team has worked closely with numerous companies across the UK, providing robust and actionable insight and supporting organisations through four price reviews and countless business as usual projects. We have also worked with the regulator Ofwat and the independent consumer statutory body Consumer Council for Water (CCW), conducting detailed qualitative and quantitative studies across a wide range of topics. With years of sector experience between them, our researchers have a deep understanding of the utilities market and draw upon the latest innovations in research methodology and analysis to design bespoke solutions for our clients. From the ongoing optimisation of our annual surveys with household customers, such as the CCW Water Matters report, to ensure they remain fresh and fit for purpose, to exploring new ways to stimulate behaviour change in water usage, we seek to continuously enhance our approach to ensure our recommendations meet requirements. Our utilities research spans the full breadth of the sector and its many distinct audiences including household customers, future bill payers, business users and underrepresented groups. Key areas we have specialised in over recent years include: Business planning Our experience in full business planning covers everything from identifying customer priorities, developing performance measures, understanding ODIs, Willingness to Pay (WtP) and acceptability and affordability research. In addition, we have extensive experience supporting the development and acceptability of Water Resource Management Plans (company and regional) and Drainage and Wastewater Management Plans. We look forward to supporting clients, new and old, with their PR29 customer and stakeholder engagement.  Customer vulnerability and affordability We have extensive experience engaging customers in challenging or vulnerable circumstances, who may be considered hard to reach, including individuals with health and/or financial difficulties, the digitally disengaged and those in rural or more isolated areas. We also have a bespoke online panel, Different Perspectives that give this audience a voice. Our work with these groups transcends the water and utilities sector into medical and healthcare, the charity and not-for-profit sector and beyond. We have a proven track record conducting detailed research, with care and consideration, with patients, medical staff and groups supported by charitable organisations. The depth and diversity of our audience and project experience informs and enriches our work across all sectors. Project examples which illustrate the breadth of our work with vulnerable audiences for the water industry include: customer needs analysis; post-incident research with bespoke creative outputs (including a 'lived experience' video, documenting real customer experiences to share with internal stakeholders); surveys to monitor awareness and performance of financial support packages and priority services registers; and studies into the acceptance and willingness to pay towards social tariffs (for over a dozen water companies). Our affordability report for CCW – ‘Water Worries’ – can be found in the public domain and viewed here. Changing customer behaviour When asked, consumers have little trouble offering their self-declared reasons for why they will – or why they will not – use less water, save more energy or flush nothing that shouldn’t be flushed. However, the conscious part of our brain has not evolved sufficiently to be aware of many of the innate influences, and natural instincts, that drive our actions. Through behavioural deep dives using robust frameworks (including COM-B and the Transtheoretical) we help our clients unpick what really drives their customers’ behaviours and identify how these behaviours can be changed over time. Combined with big dollops of creative thinking to break free from the shackles of industry norms, we can design behavioural interventions backed up by robust evaluation to provide proof of behaviour change and impact. Find out more about our expertise in the field of behavioural science.  Brand and reputation tracking We conduct brand tracking studies for clients across a host of different sectors including utilities. As well as designing and building tailored trackers from scratch, we are confident and comfortable inheriting and developing existing models; we don’t have an off-the-shelf brand tracking package, each project is bespoke and so are our solutions. We believe the key to success for all our tracking studies lies in the on-boarding of internal stakeholders: we work closely with our clients to understand output requirements in detail from the start, including how results and insights will be disseminated, to ensure stakeholder needs and expectations are met. In addition to brand trackers, we have also conducted ad hoc research to identify the key factors which impact upon sector, brand and company reputation and measures to help turn poor perceptions around. Community engagement Proactive community engagement has increased markedly across the utilities sector in recent years and we’ve found ourselves being asked more and more frequently to conduct research within local communities. Areas of focus have spanned the UK with a range of locations earmarked for resilience programmes, communications campaigns or financial support. Our work has included ethnographic and quantitative studies in specific geographical areas and our research has helped tailor and inform communications including customer consultations, social media campaigns, door-drops and working partnerships. Working side by side with members of the local community, our outputs reflect local knowledge and nuance. Recent examples have included the recruitment of cohorts of ‘community champions’ (to ensure resources were being targeted in the most effective way) and engaging community Imams to help disseminate sewer misuse messages at local mosques. Environmental research More and more of our utilities research explores solutions which aim to enhance and improve our natural environment. These have included bioresources, sustainable drainage solutions, catchment management and water efficiency initiatives. We have explored some of these solutions, and the complexities of these proposals, in great depth with a wide range of customers. We have also supported numerous water companies with their climate change adaptation plans – head to our climate change and environmental market research page to read more about our experience in this field. To find out more about our expertise in the water industry and wider utilities sector and how we can provide the actionable insight you need to meet your business objectives, contact our team today. 

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