United Kingdom case studies

Case study: Mira Showers

In just five years HomeServe has built up an impressive customer base, selling over 73,000 policies. It has grown our extended warranty offer year on year by handling our warranty registration process extremely effectively, backed up by a series of proactive measures.

Rob Stanley
Customer Service Manager,
Kohler Mira Showers

Established in 1921, Mira has been leading the way in UK showering for decades, supplying design classics backed up by quality engineering and attention to detail. HomeServe has been working with Mira since 2003.

Building a highly productive partnership

The partnership between Mira and HomeServe has created a real asset out of the Mira after sales core business, taking an innovative approach to product and channel development.

Success drivers

Mira's market leading position is underpinned by its commitment to innovation and reputation for quality.

HomeServe and Mira have developed and implemented a range of shower protection products that complement the Mira product range.

Mira's comprehensive national network of engineers ensures that any claims are dealt with quickly and efficiently.

To add even more value to the partnership, over 10,000 relevant home emergency products have also been sold to Mira customers.

We meet regularly to discuss performance and plan future activity. Next in the pipeline is a service to enable customers without warranty. When they experience a problem, they will be able to buy cover and pay for the repair at the same time.

Case study: Thames Water

Thames Water has chosen to work with HomeServe for the last twelve years as we believe it understands our long term goals and commercial strategy. Our vision is to deliver a quality product, a quality service and great customer value and we know that HomeServe has the expertise and resources to support us.

Nicola Higgins
Consumer Marketing Manager,
Thames Water Utilities Ltd

Thames Water is the UK's largest water and wastewater services company. Every day, they supply 2,600 million litres of tap water to 8.5 million customers across London and the Thames Valley. They also remove and treat 2,800 million litres of sewage for an area covering 13.6 million customers.

Thames Water began its affinity partnership with HomeServe in 1997 when it identified the potential for HomeServe to add value to its customers' experience by offering additional products and services.

A growing partnership

From a standing start, the partnership now has 797,000 policies and 321,000 customers. Despite facing several key demographic challenges, the partnership has developed several highly successful creative acquisition campaigns with a high proportion of customers renewing year on year.

Although Thames Water is a customer focused organisation, commercial focus is equally important. As well introducing the full range of water based protection products to Thames Water's customers, a programme has been created to cross sell a comprehensive portfolio of HomeServe products. This proposition has demonstrably improved the customers' perception of Thames Water and indeed, once a customer renews their policy-holding they become increasingly loyal to both brands.

The partnership is continually looking for new ways to deliver growth. One example is the development of targeted marketing that aims to reach an audience not typically receptive to direct mail. These include HomeServe's new flats and apartments products, a discount offer across 16 products for transactions completed on the Thames Water website and a successful "Value Added Service" offering 'Instant Cover' or a 3 month free trial to customers calling the Thames Water Call Centres.

Case study: Vaillant Group UK Ltd

In the four plus years we have worked with HomeServe, our policy base has grown considerably. We transferred 32,000 policies from our previous provider to HomeServe and since then, it has grown this to over 110,000 plus cross selling an additional 60,000 policies for associated products. In 2006, we signed a new long term contract with HomeServe and are confident that HomeServe's plans will achieve over 250,000 policies by the end of the agreement.

Martin Cox
Business Development Manager,
Vaillant Group UK Ltd

Vaillant Group is Europe's number one boiler manufacturer and has been setting the standards for domestic heating systems for 130 years. HomeServe has been its UK partner for after-sales boiler breakdown cover since 2005.

Building success

The success to date reflects HomeServe's market focused approach to developing warranty products, designing competitively priced products that match consumer requirements.

A central heating breakdown in the middle of winter is a major disaster for most people. If Vaillant customers experience a problem, efficient management of its engineers and excellent first time fix rates mean customers are very happy with the service they receive and as a result, retention rates are high.

Multiple channels are used to maximise sales, including:

• Traditional 'in-the-box' channel – customers register their boiler on purchase and then receive timely added value warranty offers via mail
• Direct mail to existing databases – carefully targeted mailings are send to customers who have had a previous relationship with Vaillant Group
• Instant cover – customers are offered cover when they experience a central heating breakdown
• Cross-sell – relevant home emergency products from HomeServe's portfolio are presented to customers, including plumbing and drainage and gas supply cover

To ensure we are always ahead of customers' changing needs, Vaillant Group and HomeServe work together constantly to develop innovative product and channel solutions. We set shared objectives that will drive value for both our companies and monitor these through regular meetings and busines reviews.