In a new column, Natasha Wiseman, founder & chief executive of Make Water Famous and WiseOnWater, urges water companies to take the case to customers on water scarcity.
The major step-up in investment expected in AMP8 is a great opportunity for customer engagement, said Ofwat chief executive David Black, speaking at British Water’s spring reception on 27 April. He also commended some of the water companies who had enhanced their communications work on water efficiency during the challenging drought of summer 2022.
Recently I helped identify water customer campaigns from around the world for a fascinating Review of Behaviour Change Campaigns carried out by Community Research and published by CC Water on 24 May. This was a joy, especially given the cultural creativity at play – from bald Australian humour on water efficiency to a Spanish film noir on the unseen horrors lurking down the loo.
One of my favourites was a campaign from the Balearic Islands targeting tourists at the airport, called ‘Can a suitcase make you think?’. A video on YouTube shows how visitors from the UK, Spain and Germany, waiting by the luggage carousel at Palma de Mallorca, are visibly surprised as plastic ‘suitcases’ of water emerge ahead of their luggage.
Messages about the chronic situation with water in the Balearics are displayed on the water cases, while we hear water-themed tannoy announcements. In interviews, the visitors reveal how shocked they are at the scarcity situation and pledge to change the way they use water on holiday.
This campaign gives us – in the water industry – a window into how much people do care about water and the environment. We also find out just how far they are prepared to go when directly and creatively confronted with the challenges – and given clear information about how to change their behaviour.
For many years there was an assumption that people did not care and were not prepared to make the urgent and necessary changes to their lifestyles. Since the pandemic, we have instead been blindsided by the raw passion of the public for their rivers and seas – it could be argued that they now care too much.
Misinformation abounds and water company social channels are clogged with fury from activists and customers at the levels of pollutants being reported. This should be the perfect time for the water sector to start to reclaim the narrative on water.
There is a need for the situation to be explained clearly, consistently and creatively, showing a way forward for all of us. The collective ‘sorry’ from water companies, swiftly followed by a £10 billion projected bill has inevitably only generated more heat.
One of the learnings from the CCW report, is that a coherent joined up national campaign could galvanise action. WaterSense, a national voluntary partnership programme run by the US Environmental Protection Agency shows a way forward.
In a vast and intensely fragmented market, local operators can opt into highly publicised national campaigns – like ‘fix a leak week’ – by developing their own localised materials and mini-campaigns.
Another learning from the research is that there was scant assessment by utilities about the effectiveness of their own communications campaigns. Routine data and analytics that should be interrogated to inform companies about successes (and failures) was mostly unavailable.
This information is not required by any of the regulators, yet without it, companies might struggle to drive improvements on any communications activities or their behavioural outcomes.
It is likely that the communications teams are so stretched supporting the reporting on other metrics – and responding to other demands – that they do not have time to quantify their own. Given the extraordinary reputational issues they are facing down, surely this should be a much higher priority – and could even be drawn into regulatory requirements.
Another recent report from CC Water – Lifting the Lid: The Secrets of Our Water Habits shows that there are myriad ways people waste water – 29% pretend to shower to get a bit of “peace and quiet” away from family and housemates! Our challenges are too great for the almighty potential of people to make change to be neglected any longer.
Water companies need to invest to rein in sewage overflows and fix leaking pipes, but with drought looming and more customers being drawn into poverty, they also need rocket-boosters under their customer communications campaigns. The winners will be those that work together, embrace creativity and use data to embed best practice and keep learning.
