One of the good things about working with so many different businesses is the huge spectrum of requirements, solutions and situations you encounter.
We talk a lot about water efficiency, and for good reason. While you could be forgiven for thinking that the sheer volume of the stuff that falls out of the sky (especially during a Scottish summer) should mean it’s a breeze to produce, it’s actually quite an involved process getting water fit for supplying to customers.
Once it gets there, there’s a whole other world of things to think about. For example, a pub on the corner has different water needs to a massive oil refinery.
If the barman can’t wash the glasses, the pub can’t serve. And on the few sunny days we get each year, that’d be a nightmare for anywhere with a beer garden.
If a refinery can’t rely on its water supply to cool pipes and equipment, it could be a genuine disaster on another scale.
Even among smaller businesses, there’s a lot of variety between what customers value.
Farmers, pubs and restaurants, for example, want to know their supply is secure, so many ask us for leak detection services and emergency repair cover.
Smaller office-based customers without a huge demand for water, sometimes doctors’ surgeries or retailers, want a high quality, reliable water supply at a good price. We are often asked to implement leakage protection measures, such as smart meters which allow inefficiencies in the supply to be quickly located and fixed, to reduce water wastage and maximise value for money.
Our SME customers also need to feel safe in the knowledge that their bills are accurate. Many small businesses, particularly start-ups, operate on a very tight budget and a billing anomaly can significantly impact their bottom line. We conduct regular meter readings and customers are invited to submit their own readings via our website to ensure water bills accurately reflect usage.
eBilling, or paperless billing, is particularly popular with our large, multi-site customers such as Tesco. Many of the UK’s biggest corporate organisations have stringent environmental policies in place and it is extremely important that their green ambitions are supported across the supply chain. To meet customer requirements, we might suggest anything from simply installing smart meters, automatic taps and low flush toilets, to rain water harvesting and grey water recycling. Since 2008, Business Stream has helped its customers save a massive 7.4 billion litres of water in Scotland alone.
So as you can see, there's no such thing as an 'average' water user; one of the reasons we think it's so important to be, ahem, fluid with how you approach a customer's water requirements - whether that's a farmer in the Outer Hebrides or a major high street retailer in the centre of Glasgow.
What can we do to help your business?