The Four Water Industry Secrets Businesses Should Know
When you think about the water industry, you’re not going to instantly think of secrets, scandals, and ways in which your firm might be being dramatically overcharged for your water supply. You’re likely to think of dull and drag firms that achieve very little, other than keeping the pipes flowing to your business and thousands of other industrial plants and facilities across the UK.
Bu the truth is that, if you know a little more about your utility providers and how they charge for water, you might be able to save a good deal of cash in the long-term – either by negotiating or by learning workarounds to save your firm cash. So here are four industry secrets from the water utility providing space.
Public-Private Owned
This is the first thing that UK businesses need to get their heads around in the modern world. Like most other utilities, the UK’s water supply is largely nationalised – and, while you’ll still pay for the water that you use as a business, the understanding is that this keeps prices down, while also making sure that access to water is constant. As your firm will know, downtime on your water supply could be catastrophic for your business – so trusting your provider is of paramount importance.
The truth, though, is that the UK is like a patchwork quilt of different water providers – some national, some regional; some private, some public. Only through a little research – or by talking to our team here at Utility Bidder – can you work out what kind of water supplier you’re using. In doing so, you’ll learn the best way to negotiate a new contract with them.
Routine Overcharging
As with all utility companies, it pays for them to overcharge. That’s not to say that utility companies are performing a racket – and holding their customers to ransom with increasingly higher charges. That’s the sort of behaviour which would alter the regulator and ultimately be quashed. But water companies – and other utility companies – are routinely overcharging their customers, as an alternative to undercharging them.
Here, it’s certainly worth scrutinising your contract, and the payments system that your water provider has set up with you. If you feel that you’re being overcharged for the water that your business uses, get on the phone to Utility Bidder experts, and we’ll see what we can do to bring that charge down for you.
Pay by Use
This is one of the biggest overlooked features of the water utility world. Most water providers will be happy to offer pay-by-use options for your monthly water contracts, so long as you’re able to fit a meter somewhere in your business that’ll measure how much water you use in a week, a month, and a year. This will help the water company determine how much to charge you based on your average use of water.
This isn’t something that’s offered by all water providers, though. So do check before assuming that you can go down this path to save money, or to get a fairer deal on your water fees. Nevertheless, it’s well worth trying to get pay-by-use on all of your utilities. This incentivises your managers and your staff to reduce their use of water and other finite resources like electricity – so that your firm can save money. If you operate with this mindset, you’ll also be doing your part in saving the environment, too.
Negotiation is Possible
Water companies are not large and static monoliths, crouches over local municipalities and providing water to everyone on one flat fee. They’re dynamic businesses with customer services representatives who are keen to make sure that their customers are happy at all times. If your business feels that you’ve been short-changed in your deal with the water company, it’s perfectly possible to get on the phone to complain – and even to negotiate.
This might mean that you launch an initial inquiry with a customer services representative, who will then email you a pricing structure that you might be able to consider moving your business onto. It might mean simply asking for a reduction in the fees that you pay per month. Or, as we’d advise, it might mean getting in touch instead with a Utility Bidder expert, who will do much of their legwork for you – and who’ll know exactly what to ask and how to negotiate to get you the very best business utility deals.
These four secrets of the wet world of water are important for all businesses to know – to make sure they’re getting a smart and fair deal from their water supplier.
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