As the water retail market picks up momentum, Charley Maher, managing director at water2business shares her thoughts on what’s next for the retail market.

Charley Maher: The opening of the market brought competition, the opportunity for business growth and an imperative to truly put the customer first.

It’s encouraging to see that businesses are now starting to recognise that they have choice, the possibility of higher service standards, savings and a better value proposition to meet their needs.

But has the new market delivered this in its first six months? At water2business, we believe there is still much to do in terms of raising awareness of the change in regulations, particularly with small and medium sized businesses, to make sure they are exercising that choice.

Significant effort was made by wholesalers, retailers and industry bodies ahead of market opening, but it’s important that we keep up the momentum and share our stories of success to demonstrate the benefits that can be achieved. Those stories where we have made water consumption reductions and savingsfor customers by educating them about their water use, or where we have installed automated meter reading technology and identified leaks. Each of us have similar stories to tell and it is through this celebration of the service we deliver to that we can help the new unregulated market to succeed.

At the same time we need to manage customers’ expectations of what the new market can offer. We want customers to recognise the value of services like water audits, automated meter reading and leak detection. Given the narrow margins of the market we operate in, alongside offering exceptional levels of customer service, this is where we can really excel and truly serve the customer best.

At water2business we’ve invested in people who share our values. We believe in being helpful, providing a warm, personal service that puts customers at the heart of everything we do. We aim to give customers’ total understanding by being pragmatic and transparent in our dealings with them and delivering on the promises we make. We’re also passionate, combining our knowledge with leading edge innovation to help customers reduce costs and improve environmental performance.

Six months on from market opening,we’re marking the occasion with a number of employee events celebrating what has been a rewarding,if a little bumpy, journey to success.We acknowledge that some of those bumps affecting retail still exist. I’m currently talking to Ofwat about the provision of meter reading services nationwide and the impact differing levels of service has on customer satisfaction and our cost to serve them.

As retail market matures we must enable customers to self-serve

The first six months were an opportunity for us to learn what transfers well into the retail world and what doesn’t and in doing so, we have become more operationally agile and responsive to evolving customer needs.

In a recent survey, nine out of 10 customers rated our service as ‘good’ or ‘very good’, something we’re very proud of. We were delighted to be shortlisted for Customer Excellence at the Business Leader awards this month; six months into the market it is a great place to be.

We’ve also bolstered our team with the recruitment of Lynne Stephens as chief operating officer. Lynne has more than 35 years’ experience in the water industry and is ideally placed to build on our early success over the next six months. Expansion of the account management team, who provide tailored advice and services to businesses with more complex needs, has also led to recent national and local contract wins such as Wagamama, Boston Tea Party and Marriott Hotels.

As we see the water retail market mature I believe we must enable and empower customers to self-serve. Operating efficiently and being able to streamline services will mean savings can be passed on to customers. We give our customers access to their information through their online customer account which also allows them to submit meter reads and pay their bills 24/7. However we must also ensure we continue to ask our customers what they want and strive to deliver services that meet and go beyond their expectations.