This summer drought threatened major disruption across the UK and Europe. In the UK we experienced the driest July in more than 20 years, with rainfall down by 76%.1 Southern England experienced its driest July since records began in 1836. But it’s not just the dry summer that’s affected our water supplies. In the first three months of the year, England’s rainfall was down by 26% and in Wales it was down by 22%.1
In response to river and reservoir levels running low several water companies in southern England and Wales announced hosepipe bans. Millions of customers were affected, with rule breakers potentially receiving a £1,000 fine.
Impacts of water shortage
It’s never been more essential that we use water more wisely in our homes, gardens and workplaces. Not only does drought reduce the available water supply for drinking, showering and washing clothes, but we need to ease the pressure on our wetlands and rivers. Saving water will ensure more stable, resilient habitats for the birds and wildlife which depend on our water environments for their survival.
Drought also leaves less water available for farmers to water their crops and escalates the risk of invasive pests, thereby increasing the risk of crop failure and potentially causing disruption to our food supplies.
So how can water companies encourage the public to reduce their water use?
With Advizzo’s behavioral science based customer engagement programs.
We work with water companies around the world to help them engage with their customers and motivate them to use less water. You can read about some of our recent projects on our case studies page, including our work with Anglian Water, South East Water and Yorkshire Water.
How can we help?
Our data science and behavioral science based customer engagement solutions are proven to help customers reduce their water consumption. Here are four ways we help water companies to reduce the public’s water consumption.
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Increased customer engagement and insight
With our software, we send program, behavioral science based communications to individual customers, relating to their household’s water consumption. Our customer engagement platform and communications approach increases engagement between customer and supplier and is proven to motivate customers to make behavioral changes to reduce their water consumption.
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Use smart meter data to reduce leaks
Recent advances in intelligent water meter technology have improved the quantitative monitoring of water supply and consumption. Using smart meter data we can indicate high water consumption to individual household’s that might have a potential leak – encouraging customers to monitor consumption and helping water companies be proactive in detecting and fixing leaks.
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Help water companies cross sell/up sell products to reduce consumption
The increased customer engagement that our platform and solution delivers serves to increase customer confidence in their supplier. Growing traction in engagement offers water companies the ideal opportunity to gain a better understanding of their individual customers, enabling them to target market households with suggestions for products and services that could further reduce water consumption.
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Help with expanding water meter program
Water metering is considered the best tool for cutting water use, with customers that have a meter using 33 litres a day less than the national average of 141 liters a day. However, it is estimated that water meters have only been installed in around half of households in England and Wales. Our customer engagement programs can help educate customers to the benefits of having a water meter and nudging them towards having one. Discover how we can help with smart meter deployment.
There’s really no time to waste. Which is why that fact that we can get your customer engagement program up and running incredibly quickly is such great news! Discover how our off-the-shelf solution is such a no brainer!
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1https://blog.metoffice.gov.uk/2022/07/27/july-2022-a-dry-run-for-uks-future-climate/