Water efficiency pleas must be tailored to specific customers

An effective water efficiency campaign cannot take a one-size-fits-all approach and requires a deeper understanding of what motivates customers to alter their behaviour.

Comprehending and removing the perceived or actual barriers may be key to helping householders change the way they use water, according to an in-depth study into billpayers’ relationships with water and the companies that provide it.

Research firm Accent is working with households across the south to learn how, when and why water is used to improve water efficiency messaging to customers. The analysis also includes a literature review of campaigns from around the world to assess what measures have been most effective and, crucially, why.

“There have been a lot of initiatives around how to reduce water usage, with limited success, so we wanted to try a different approach,” said Accent director Rachel Risely.

“That’s why the behavioural insights team was brought in,” she explained. “We are gathering solid evidence by getting under the skin of 24 households to see how they use water.”

Risely said the initial findings show a “multi-layered, hierarchy of barriers” to cutting consumption, both rational and emotional. These included people living with illnesses, faith-related hygiene rituals and people who used their daily bath to unwind.

“By understanding what they are we can develop propositions and campaigns to chip away at those barriers. There is not going to be one campaign that can address all the multi-layered barriers people have got to reduce water usage.”

The project, involving Southern and South East Water, will next develop proposals to address these barriers and then test them with the participating householders to see which have the greatest resonance.

Meanwhile, the behavioural insights team will assess campaigns from other sectors that have worked and filter down the ideas that received positive responses.

As well as understanding habits, Accent is working with South East Water to gauge customers’ attitudes to the water sector.

Risely said: “Early on in lockdown there was talk that people would appreciate the work water companies are doing more because the services continued running despite everything going on.

“People were meant to be saying: ‘look, isn’t it great they’re continuing to do that,’ but that seemed quite a laudable assessment of utilities because customers are much more likely to think ‘that’s what companies should be doing’.”

She said there was a desire to test this belief and see if perceptions of companies have changed; if they indeed are under greater public scrutiny, as Ofwat’s Rachel Fletcher wrote in April.

“If we see an uplift in how people think and feel about water as the ‘halo effect’ the industry thinks it will have, then does that last? Will people go back to thinking the same? Do people even think about water?”, she asked. “If there is an enhanced attitude towards water, then the sector will have missed a big opportunity around communicating with their customers to elevate water.”

With water usage changing alongside lifestyles during the lockdown, Accent said companies need to talk to their customers within this context and accept that water efficiency might not be a concern for many.

Risely continued: “People were warned in lockdown of a dip in pressure if everyone used water at the same time but, unsurprisingly, people said: ‘who cares? The companies need to take a different tack.”

Although recognising the potential of a joined up nationwide campaign around efficiency, Risely said it would be more effective to personalise the message.

“Finding what has resonance is the challenge. A single joined-up message is not necessarily the right way to go because customers in different areas have very different concerns.”

She explained the motivators and attitudes vary even within a single company’s region, so understanding the customer base is essential.

This view is echoed by Southern’s head of strategic customer insight, Nick Eves, who told Utility Week the company is exploring a personalised communication system to inform consumers if water levels are low.

Eves carried out a lot of work on perceptions including between April and June on how customers viewed water during lockdown.

He said earlier in the period there was “a lot of resistance” to water efficiency discussions as people felt there had been a long, wet winter, however attitudes changed as the dry weather continued.

There was also a general acknowledgement that householders were using more water either in the garden, carrying out DIY projects, or cleaning cars, patios and furniture.

He said during this time people got “comfort and enjoyment” from paddling pools, hoses and playing outside, so householders were reluctant to change their habits especially in warm weather.

“There needs to be long-term messaging that water doesn’t fall from the sky and land in pipes,” said Eves.

He found practical hints and tips to be most effective to drive change and said the more tailored messaging can be to the community the better.

Southern is exploring implementing a system to communicate with billpayers involving three colour warning system.

Eves explained Yorkshire Water has successfully used a similar method with green, amber and red alerts being sent to consumers to let them know if water levels are low and ask them to adapt their behaviour appropriately.

At present, communications ramp up if a hosepipe ban looks likely, which Eves said at a broad level, customers respond favourably to but admitted there tend to be negative views and these are the most vocal.

“The media tends to latch on to the negative and talk about mismanagement but giving attention to temporary usage bans in that way does drive down consumption. It would be better to get the message out without worrying people, so different approaches are needed.”