When you install a water cooler in your home, office, or public space, you’re helping everyone stay hydrated and refreshed with great-tasting, pure-filtered water. But you should always be satisfied and happy with the service and quality you’re getting from your supplier. So what should you expect from a new water cooler supplier?

What you should expect from a new water cooler supplier

As a leading, independent supplier in the bottled water cooler and mains fed water cooler sector, Thirsty Work has seen plenty of industry change recently. As other suppliers are being merged or bought out by multinationals, it’s their day-to-day service and deliveries that suffer, leaving their customers feeling let down and dissatisfied with a disrupted service.

Sadly, this is common in today’s water cooler marketplace and if your current supplier isn’t delivering for you, then you’re probably already looking for a new supplier. So we’re stepping in with some advice to help you understand what you should expect from any new water cooler supplier as standard.

We’ve listed some of the most common topics and questions every supplier should be able to answer. If your new supplier isn’t telling you about them upfront, here’s what you should ask them.

Antibacterial & antiviral protection for your water cooler

Office surfaces and equipment can harbour plenty of microscopic germs and bacteria that can easily be passed from one person to another. And it’s the same for any high touch areas on your water cooler too, such as taps and cup dispensers.

Firstly, what antibacterial and antiviral precautions will your supplier be supporting you with on your water cooler products? And secondly, have they spoken to you about how they can protect you and your staff against COVID-19?

Workplaces have made increasing the cleanliness of shared spaces and equipment a priority over the last two years. That’s why Thirsty Work can apply Puraguard – a protective, antimicrobial coating – to your dispenser’s high touch-points. Puraguard provides 24hr protection against the growth of bacteria and is clinically proven to prevent the growth of viruses, including COVID-19, on non-porous surfaces.

Does your new supplier offer you that level of protection?

Water cooler service and delivery response times

A water cooler that’s well stocked with water, cups, and accessories is essential to keeping everyone hydrated for longer. For any call-outs and deliveries you need, whether speculative or planned, it’s good to know your water cooler supplier will deliver when they say they will. Unfortunately, this often isn’t the case.

What are the response times for service call-outs and water deliveries from your new supplier? And do they measure them to give you accurate and definitive information?

Any water cooler supplier should be able to give you specific details on their average call out and delivery response times. If you ask and you’re told it’s “roughly” this or “approximately” that, then the chances are they’re not measuring or managing them and can only give you their best guess.

All of which could result in deliveries and call outs being delayed or slower than a supplier who is measuring their response times. That means you could wait anywhere up to 10 days for your water delivery.

At Thirsty Work, we accurately measure our response times and have agile, responsive processes. So we can tell you with absolute certainty that every delivery or call out is between 0.73 and 1.91 days (depending on the depot and the time of year) and is guaranteed to be the fastest in the industry.

Does your new supplier offer you those accurate response times?

Water cooler exchange and sanitisation

Keeping your water cooler clean and sanitised is crucial to everyone staying healthy while enjoying the cool, refreshing taste of pure-filtered water. And regular cleaning and sanitisation, with a cooler unit exchange, is the best way to achieve it.

How often does your new supplier exchange your existing water cooler with a brand new unit within their normal contract cycle?

While other suppliers will carry out regular water cooler cleaning and sanitisation, their cooler exchange policy might not match such strict regularity. In short, that means you could be using the same water cooler unit for the entire life of your contract and beyond. Once installed, easily forgotten.

When you join Thirsty Work, our maintenance and service package ensures qualified engineers will carry out regular cleaning and sanitisation of your cooler. But while this keeps the unit clean inside and out, there will be a gradual build-up of natural calcium and mineral deposits from the spring water that deep cleansing and sanitising can’t reach.

So, we’ll switch out your current unit for a brand new water cooler every six months as standard for cleaner, healthier, and better-tasting water.

Does your new supplier regularly exchange your water cooler?

Real customer service with a real person

Contacting any service supplier means keeping your fingers crossed for a smooth and easy call while talking to a real person at the other end who can help you. But all too often, you’re faced with too many options and the risk of being put on hold or getting cut off. Sound familiar?

Does your new supplier answer your call with a real person who can help or direct your call quickly and efficiently?

After dialling an impersonal 0800 or 0845 number, many national water cooler companies use automated phone systems with multiple options, keeping you on hold or redirecting you, usually to the wrong place, before you have to start the process again.

Thirsty Work does things differently. When you call us, you’ll only ever call a local number and your call is answered within three rings by a real person, every time. If they can’t help you in the first instance, you’ll be personally redirected to someone who can.

Our emails are also monitored all day, every day so your message will always get to the right person or department. And our website live chat feature also has a human team who can deal with real queries in real-time for you.

Does your new supplier have real-person customer service and call handling?

Trust Thirsty Work to deliver for you

These are the key points to look out for when choosing your new supplier for a bottled water cooler or a mains fed water cooler. If they can answer just some of these questions specifically, you know they’re a good supplier. This is why only Thirsty Work can answer them all with complete confidence.

If you’re tired of being let down and need a new, local, and independent water cooler supplier who does all these things and more, contact Thirsty Work today. Call our customer service team today on 01392 877 172 or email us at hello@thirstywork.com and we can give you a free quote or start you off on a no-risk, 10-day free trial.