Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 15TH - 21ST JUNE 2018 | 21 Customers the market are high enough to constitute success. Ofwat estimates that around 120,000 cus- tomers had "engaged with the market" at the 12-month mark. Research with customers conducted by the regulator found 35,000 had switched, 25,000 customers had "looked at switching" but decided to stay on their cur- rent deal, 10,000 had renegotiated a new deal with their current provider, and 15,000 were "actively considering" switching now. A further 35,000 said at the time they "plan to engage" in the market by April 2018. Most chief executives in Water.Retail's survey (71 per cent) said they didn't feel this number was high enough. One respondent said: "We know that almost all the switching to date has been focused in one key segment – large multi-site organisations. We'd like to see engagement and interaction across all segments, particularly SMEs [small and medium-sized enterprises]." Someone else suggested the switchers have been combining waste and water, or multi-sites, and that they expect switching to "significantly decrease" going forwards. How- ever, another predicted that early adopters will be "closely followed by the majority". A qualitative study by the Consumer Council for Water (CCWater), published last month, found that saving money was the main motivation of many small businesses to switch or renegotiate their water retail contract. However, smaller businesses said they had been "hampered by a perceived lack of information and interest" from market retail- ers. SMEs had also expected to find a price comparison website to make it easier for them to shop around. CCWater deputy chief executive Phil Mar- shall said at the time: "All of us in the sector need to work harder to change the percep- tion among many small businesses that this market has very little to offer them. "Retailers and brokers should see this as a golden opportunity to sell the benefits of switching or renegotiating to a group of customers that oen don't have the time or resources to go hunting for information that should be much easier to access." Market awareness Market players blame the lack of engagement in the market, in part, on a lack of awareness that it is open. The aforementioned Ofwat research suggested that awareness of the market has risen, with 89 per cent of large businesses and 48 per cent of micro-busi- nesses now aware. However, this is a figure that some market players are concerned is not high enough. 824 2016/17 398 2016/17 Complaints Enquiries www.ccwater.org.uk @WaterWatchdog 2017/18 CONTACT FROM BUSINESS CUSTOMERS 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018 2,782 2017/18 1,352 2017/18 Micro (0-10) Small (11-50) Medium (51-250) Large (>250) Size of business contacting us (complaints and enquiries) 66.3% 19.2% 6.3% 8.2% Water.Retail is a fortnightly Utility Week Intelligence premium product. To find out more information or to subscribe, email: JoNikiforov@fav-house.com WATER.RETAIL SURVEY WHICH OF THESE ISSUES TO YOU FEEL MOST CONCERNED ABOUT? OVERALL, HOW WELL DO YOU FEEL THE FIRST 12 MONTHS HAVE GONE? Lack of a level playing field Quality of completeness of data Interaction between wholesalers and suppliers Service to SMEs Customer engagement Customer awareness Complexity of wholesale market Other Very well Quite well Neither well nor badly Quite badly Very badly 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

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