Case Studies

Working in Partnership – How it Works in Practice

We've been developing our business partner model for over a decade, helping over 150 partners to enhance their performance and the relationship they have with their customers.

Read about two example partnerships here, told by the partners themselves:

• Anglian Water Direct
• Cambridge Water

Anglian Water – "Moving from Plumbing & Drainage Cover to Electric Wiring Cover"

The Anglian Water Direct brand name has been used to offer HomeServe's Plumbing and Drainage Cover with a great deal of success. It is natural extention of Anglian Water's core product offer, providing its customers with a quality repair service for pipework and drains.

Our experience has been that customers who enjoy the benefits of Plumbing and Drainage Emergency insurance cover, often then see the benefits of having cover for other domestic emergencies, such as electric wiring faults.

The customer reaction to these additional products has been overwhelmingly positive, which we believe is for the following reasons:

1. The customer has experience of purchasing a plumbing and drainage product, and therefore knows how simple it is to obtain cover.
2. The customer trusts the water company brand and the HomeServe offer reinforces the effective and efficient service they expect from their water company.
3. The customer understands the delivery mechanism and that it isn't actually the water company that provides the service, but a network of competent approved engineers whose work comes with a 12 month guarantee for peace of mind. And finally,
4. It is convenient for the customer to take out cover with one company.

From Anglian Water Direct's perspective, offering, for example, Electric Wiring Cover and other insurance products provides additional revenues which can offset other water company costs, thereby enabling Anglian Water to reduce the costs it has to pass onto other householders.

In addition, there is growing evidence that offering additional relevant, quality services to our customers, improves customers perception and satisfaction with the Anglian Water brand.

Tim O'Brien, Anglian Water Direct

Cambridge Water – "Seamless Service"

Cambridge Water made a strategic decision to offer additional services to its customers. This was both a commercial decision as well as one to improve the perception of the Cambridge Water brand as a relevant and supportive brand in its region.

Providing these services through an Affinity partnership, seemed to offer the ideal solution. Cost and risk was minimised and Cambridge Water customers could enjoy the benefits of accessing the UK's largest Home Emergency service, HomeServe.

• Over the last 13 years, HomeServe has built its way to being the market leader in its field. Almost all the other water companies are already partnered with them. This not only gave a comfort factor but also meant that the degree of relevant experience offered by HomeServe could not be matched elsewhere. They were the natural choice.
• The Product had a natural synergy with Cambridge Water's product. Customers and staff would realise that the sale was water related and therefore a natural association. For customer acceptance, Cambridge Water's first foray into offering other goods had to appear seamless as well.
• There was little or no distraction from the core of what Cambridge Water has to do for its householders. The systems and processes that HomeServe quickly deployed meant that once the decision to proceed had been made there was little opportunity cost to our business. Cambridge Water's staff were able to continue with their core tasks without being distracted. HomeServe takes care of everything.

Having made the decision to work with HomeServe, Cambridge Water has had no regrets. The standard of account management is first class and the wealth of knowledge concerning direct marketing is, in my opinion, without equal anywhere – and I include many top London agencies in that statement. Monthly reports and frequent communication mean that we are regularly informed about our customer's are user exeperience.

HomeServe are naturally keen to develop the relationship at all levels and I have often found the pace at which they work very refreshing. They are also well aware that the speed of change differs in different organisations and can accommodate accordingly.

I would have no hesitation in recommending HomeServe as an affinity partner.

Brett Fleming – Jones, Cambridge Water