Challis Water Controls Case Study

Campaign objective and Project Background

Challis specialises in the design, manufacture and distribution of a wide range of water saving products and key customers include the Ministry of Defence, NHS Trusts across the UK, Accor Hotels, top UK universities and the UK government.

Challis approached The Telemarketing Company to deliver a campaign into NHS Hospital Trusts promoting the Ag+ Scheme, with the aim of setting up 20 minute appointments with key decision maker contacts. The trusts can be made up of one large hospital, normally in high population conurbations, or a collection of several hospitals serving a large more rural and dispersed population.

The Ag+ Scheme is based around replacing showers and hoses with a brand new antibacterial disposable colour coded shower head and hose, instead of cleaning the old shower. The new hose and head are supplied to hospitals each quarter. Replacing with new disposable shower heads and hoses each quarter is quicker, safer, easier and more efficient than cleaning old showers and hoses. The Ag+ units are collected and recycled, enabling the trusts to meet their sustainability compliance targets.

NHS Trusts across the country are coming under huge budget cuts backs and as such are looking out for any opportunities to cut cost whilst at the same time increasing levels of safety, efficiency and compliance. The implementation of the Ag+ Scheme exceeds all these requirements.

Project execution

The target audience was decision makers within the Estates and Facilities departments and, specifically those responsible for water safety, Legionella control and quarterly deep clean of showers and hoses. Challis provided the data for the trusts The Telemarketing Company was to target, and briefed the calling team via Skype. Dataneeded to be managed in line with the brief – for example calls to larger trusts with a higher number of beds had higher priority.

All NHS Trusts have an Estates & Facilities department, which normally has responsibility for all the buildings within the trust, the supply of utilities and the day to day management of the facilities, including the quarterly deep clean of shower heads and hoses. Heads and hoses are cleaned at least once a week by the domestic staff within the hospital. This was not the focus of the campaign, however; rather the key interest was is in the quarterly deep clean carried out by Estates department maintenance teams.

Responsibility for the quarterly deep clean is often delegated to a particular Maintenance Manager who will most likely also have responsibility for Legionella control. This person is generally a main member of the particular NHS Trust WSG (Water Safety group). Getting to the right person with the right message was of the essence and it was critical for the team to qualify contacts correctly to ensure appointments were valid.

The brief included the main pain points and objections, which the callers were likely to encounter, and the corresponding benefits. In terms of messaging, the key facts were around the simplicity of the scheme and the reduced management requirement, cutting maintenance cost and time for more important tasks. This product is the UK’s only antibacterial disposable shower head & hose and helps trusts hit certain targets, including:

• Antibacterial protection 24/7 – Improved Infection Control

• Different Coloured showers for each quarter – Proof of Change Easy Auditing

• Delivery Collection & recycling included in price – Recycling Meeting Trust Sustainability Target

Whilst the unique qualities of the product provide a compelling proposition, callers still faced a wide range of objections such as the fact that in-house maintenance might be considered cheaper, or competitive products and processes were already in place.