The 4 most unexpected consequences of poor water service

Disruption to daily operations

If your water service isn’t reliable, one of the first and most obvious consequences is that it can cause disruption to your daily operations. That’s especially true if you operate in a particularly water-heavy industry, such as hospitality, manufacturing, or healthcare, where even a short interruption can cause significant problems. Your staff might not be able to clean equipment, kitchens might not be able to prepare food safely, and healthcare teams might not be able to follow strict hygiene standards. Every delay can build into wasted time, unfinished work, and staff who have to wait for the service to return to normal.

By the same token, it can also cause logistical challenges. Your managers may be forced to reschedule jobs, bring in external contractors, or rely on temporary fixes that aren’t designed for long-term use. That in turn can cause your staff productivity to fall if they have to spend time dealing with these obstacles rather than focusing on the work you’ve employed them to do. Crucially, in industries that can run on tight schedules or customer bookings (hospitality is a prime example), this disruption can even lead to lost revenue and damage to credibility.

Financial impact

There’s also the financial impact to consider, which can reach far beyond your utility bill. We’ve already touched on some of it above – you may face extra costs from overtime, rescheduled work, and additional maintenance to fix equipment that can become vulnerable when your water supply isn’t consistent. For example, a factory line that runs with interrupted water supply can produce lower-quality goods that you have to scrap or rework. And of course, each mistake can increase your operating costs and eat into your margins.

There can also be hidden expenses, which can build gradually into significant costs. If you have to resort to temporary measures like water storage tanks or bottled supplies for example, those costs can build up quickly over weeks and months. Similarly, your insurance premiums can rise if you need to claim for damages caused by poor water quality, such as corrosion in pipes or contamination in production. Irritatingly, even when your supply returns to normal, these financial aftershocks can continue to affect your budget for a long time afterwards – making it all the more important to get on top of the situation early.

It can affect staff morale

Again, you may well have already inferred this from a few of our previous points, but they’re worth highlighting specifically regardless – your staff can feel demotivated if they’re constantly forced to work around problems caused by poor water service. Staff tend to want to feel equipped to do their jobs properly, and when they face regular interruptions, that can create ripe conditions for frustration and disengagement. Staff in areas like catering or cleaning can feel undermined if they don’t have the resources to meet the standards expected of them. Over time, this can create stress and dissatisfaction that may even make it harder for you to retain employees.

Equally, managers and team leaders can also face pressure when they have to handle complaints and patch together solutions. If they need to spend hours dealing with water-related problems, it can take energy away from developing teams and growing your business. Temporary workarounds can help provide some relief, but relying on them for too long can start to make the business feel unstable. In the most extreme cases, this can even lead to higher staff turnover – which can open up a whole new range of budgetary and logistical challenges.

Damage to customer relationships

Right after staff loyalty, customer relationships are one of the cornerstones of any business, and a poor water service can start to make it harder to keep those relationships in good health. Delays in production, missed appointments, or reduced service quality can all potentially affect the way your customers see you. If a restaurant has to close its doors due to water problems or a manufacturer delivers late because the line was halted, customers (and suppliers) can start to look elsewhere.

It’s also worth noting that in today’s ever-more-interconnected world, news travels faster than ever. Word of mouth, online reviews, and industry networks can all accelerate the news of poor experiences – and frustratingly, even if the water problems lie outside your direct control, customers and partners often focus on the end result. And once your credibility erodes, it can often be exceptionally difficult to rebuild it, which again makes it a top priority to ensure that it doesn’t get to that stage in the first place.

So, if you’re already struggling with your business water supply, for all the above reasons (and more) it’s always a good idea to address it as soon as you can. And if you find that your business water supplier is too slow to resolve the issues, or doesn’t achieve it to your satisfaction, you may even think about whether it’s time to make the switch.

If so, that’s exactly where we can help at The Business Water Shop. We have a network of trusted suppliers at our disposal that spans across the UK, so all you need to do is give us a few quick details, and we’ll search our network on your behalf to find the water supplier that best suits your goals and requirements. In fact, we’re able to save some customers up to 55% on their water bills, and you can count on us to use all our resources and industry expertise to get you the best deal.

It only takes a few minutes to get your online quote – so if you’re thinking about moving to switch business water suppliers, there’s never been a better time to do it!