Continental Europe case studies

Case study: Veolia

The customer view

Recent customer research, carried out by Veolia, demonstrates that its partnership with HomeServe has enhanced perception of Veolia as a service-oriented company. 88% of respondants agreed that Veolia offers useful services to its customers and 93% thought it was good for Veolia to offer assistance policies.

Veolia Eau, a subsidiary of Veolia Environnement, is France's largest water company, with €12.5 billion in revenues worldwide, 93,000 employees and over 6 million residential customers across France. In addition to water, Veolia Environnement is also active in waste management, energy, and transportation.

Homeserve and Veolia Eau launched their partnership in 2001, creating the first service contract in France to provide assistance for plumbing and drainage emergencies beyond the water meter.

We work closely with Veolia Eau, sharing marketing strategy and service standards. Together we develop the marketing plan and any new product propositions.

Core products offered by HomeServe to Veolia Eau customers include water supply pipe, electrical wiring, plumbing and drainage. Positive feedback from Veolia Eau's customers has given us the opportunity to cross sell a range of new products that include boiler emergency coverage, gas supply pipe and water loss policies.

Success so far

To date we have built a portfolio of 1.6 million home assistance contracts, sold more than 700,000 Veolia Eau customers under the Veolia brand.

Our partnership currently has marketing access to more than 5 million households serviced by Veolia Eau, as well as an additional 10 million households beyond Veolia's supply area. We are working together to develop new marketing channels to address these highly attractive targets.

Case study: Endesa

Looking to the future

Our partnership has access to all 9.2 million households currently serviced by Endesa.

Endesa sees its relationship with HomeServe as a key part of its customer service strategy in Spain and expects to generate substantial value through the partnership.

Endesa has revenues of €29 billion and 40,000 employees worldwide. With 9.2 million residential customers for electricity and 0.5 million for gas, Endesa is Spain's largest energy provider.

During 2006/7 HomeServe and Endesa worked together to test the market for home assistance products in Spain. A close working relationship developed and in 2008, we signed a 10 year affinity partnership to market home assistance products to Endesa's customers under the Endesa brand.

This agreement allows HomeServe to market a range of home assistance products, including electrical breakdown, plumbing and drains and supply pipe repair. As part of the partnership, HomeServe also aquired 30,000 Endesa Hogar home assistance policies, previously marketed by Endesa.

Several new initiatives to support policy sales are under consideration, including billing home assistance costs on utility bills and selling policies through Endesa customer service call centres.

Success so far

After a highly successful marketing campaign the portfolio of new HomeServe home assistance policies, sold under the Endesa brand, has grown to 55,000 during a six month period. We are on track to continue this growth during the first 10 years of the partnership.