by Fern Shaw | Jul 16, 2018 | Africa Trust, Christian Aid, Water, water cooler, Water Coolers
As the temperatures soar throughout the UK, so does the demand for chilled, refreshing drinking water.
At AquAid, where we’ve been in the business of providing a range of high quality water coolers and water both spring and bottled at source for over 20 years, we understand this more than most. That’s why it’s important to us to be able to ensure that we’re able to offer the very best in both water dispensers and bottled water.
But we’re not just about the provision on water coolers – we also firmly believe that providing water to those that may not necessarily have access to water as we do – is absolutely vital.
If we struggle with keeping hydrated in this heat, take a minute and imagine what it would be like experiencing hot weather but not having access, not only to drinking water, but any water, at all. Sadly, this is a reality for millions of people across the globe, and in particular, in many Third World countries.
Then, to this rather scary scenario, add this: If you want drinking water, you need to walk to find it. And not just down to the corner caf, but a few miles. If you’re lucky enough to find a water source, you can’t just buy a bottle of water (or any liquid for that matter); you have to fill the bucket that you brought with you and walk back home, carrying the now full bucket.
Not enough Bear Grylls for you? The water that you’ve just fetched is most likely not fresh, not clean and may be so full of bacteria, that even while trying to hydrate yourself, you may very well be making yourself ill without even realising it.
Remember, this is just water for you (and possibly, members of your family) to drink. This is not water that is needed to wash your clothes or your dishes or to water your meagre produce crop with. This is just water to drink to keep you going. This is basic human survival type of stuff.
This is the day to day existence for many communities throughout the Third World and in the summer months, lack of potable water is amplified by the heat.
That’s just one of the reasons, since our rather humble beginnings in 1998, that we chose to work with sustainable charities like the Africa Trust and Christian Aid. Using donations from AquAid, both charities work tirelessly implementing sustainable water projects for communities in need.
So, although we’re always tooting our own horn about being one of the top water cooler providers in the U.K. we also (truly) believe in helping others less fortunate to help themselves. So, while we have you to thank, most valued customer, for your support and through your purchases making it possible for others to help themselves; isn’t it rather nice to know that when you’re sipping cool spring water from one of our water coolers, there’s another water well or water project being installed in Africa, bringing fresh, clean drinking water to yet another community in need?
I think so. Good on yer. Toot toot!
by Fern Shaw | Jun 4, 2018 | Water, water cooler, Water Coolers
… Rain (blizzards, snow, and sub-zero temperatures) or shine (weak lemony coloured sun that wouldn’t tan a meringue) you begin to notice that your staff is a tad dispirited, if not outrightly unproductive. No spring in their step, no whistle in their walk.
So, at great cost, you institute an Independent Board of Enquiry to establish the cause of this general malaise that’s affecting everyone from Mrs Tibbins, usually the whizz bang accountant, through to Mr Oogle, usually the zoomiest bike messenger ever (but sadly not for the past few months.)
While all of this is in motion, the meeker than the proverbial mouse IT person, Tad, squeaks up.
‘We’ve no water in the water coolers’, says Tad, ‘so everybody’s most likely dehydrated’.
‘What?’ splutters HOD Mrs Furthingstoke, ‘what does that have to do with everyone not performing at their peak? Pure poppycock, I’m sure!’
‘Incorrect’, corrects Tad, ‘not drinking water regularly is one of the leading causes of many illnesses, especially fatigue’.
As it turns out, Tad was proven correct. The Board of Enquiry was dismissed, the water coolers were kept replenished, productivity soared and absenteeism dropped rapidly.
Take it from Tad, dehydration can happen sooner than one thinks. Some early warning signs are:
- Light-headedness, dizziness;
- Tiredness, irritability, headache;
- Dry mouth, throat and eyes;
- Sunken features (particularly the eyes), flushed skin and skin that is loose and lacks elasticity;
- Heat intolerance;
- There may be a burning sensation in the stomach, urine output will be reduced and may appear darker than usual.
So, in the interests of having a healthy, happy, productive work environment, take the simplest route – ensure that there is always fresh, clean drinking water from source available in the workplace.
How to ensure that your cool drinking water is kept replenished? Speak to us at AquAid Water Coolers. We have over 20 years’ experience in the provision of the right water cooler for your space, required capacity and all your drinking water requirements.
by Belinda Ollewagen | May 8, 2018 | aquaid, water cooler
Choosing the right water cooler or water boiler for your company is not always an easy task. Once you’ve established what your needs are, you have to shop around for a reputable supplier and then choose from a myriad of different models and plans. It’s a long-term investment and can seem costly, which is why when choosing between suppliers, people sometimes tend towards the cheaper option, thinking they’ll save money in the long run, but what so many forget is the service element and how that can incur unnecessary costs and lost productivity over time, particularly when a machine breaks down or your office runs out of water.
Imagine the following scenario: an employee discovers the water cooler is broken and spends a few minutes trying to figure out what’s wrong; eventually they realise there’s nothing they can do, so they report it to the office manager – 10 minutes wasted. In the interim, other staff members attempt to use the water cooler only to be disappointed; they then spend a few minutes complaining amongst themselves and struggling to get back to whatever tasks they were busy with – 10 minutes wasted. The office manager puts a call through to the supplier – if it’s a national call centre, research shows that we can spend upwards of 27 minutes on hold waiting for someone to address our problem – 27 minutes wasted. Once the office manager finally reaches the right person who can deal with their issue, they then spend more precious time explaining what’s wrong and why they require a call out – 5 minutes wasted.
If you ever want to know what constitutes bad service, spend some time reading through any of the review aggregators online – it may take days before someone can come out to repair your machine, and if the supplier runs an inefficient service where miscommunication runs rife, it may take more than one visit before your water dispenser is fully functional again. Let’s assume, conservatively, that it takes three days before your water cooler is up and running again. During that time, frustrated employees will spend time querying the progress of the repair and even more time complaining about their lack of access to water – over those three days, there will be at least 60 minutes wasted. Not only will they waste time complaining, but studies show that their general unhappiness will further impact their productivity, so even when they’re not specifically querying or complaining, their efficiency will still be affected.
With a bad supplier, each step along the way is wasted time, lost productivity and eventually lost revenue. If we add together all that lost time, it comes to a total of 112 minutes wasted and if we want to allocate a monetary value to that loss, we can work on the average wage in the UK of £13.94 per hour or 23 pence per minute – which means your company has wasted £25.76 thanks to a bad supplier.
By contrast, when you use a leading water cooler supplier like AquAid, you can rest assured that excellent service and customer satisfaction are of paramount importance. AquAid may be nationwide, but they don’t have call centres; each office has its own administration and delivery department which means your call goes directly where it needs to, and if the above scenario was to happen, they would provide a quick and efficient turnaround that would have you back online in typically 24 hours. AquAid customers spend on average £30 per month or £360 per annum. When shopping around for reputable water cooler suppliers, people will often choose the least expensive option allowing a saving of 5% or in this case £18 per year to sway them, but as becomes evident over time and in the scenario above, that saving is quickly lost to bad service. While AquAid may seem slightly more expensive than some of the entry-level water cooler suppliers, their efficiency and attention to detail will ultimately save you time and money in the long run – unlike a bad supplier, which could end up costing you far more than you’d envisaged.
by Fern Shaw | Apr 10, 2018 | aquaid, water cooler, Water Coolers
When we see the most recent statistics of how many people in the UK make use of the internet, these figures probably won’t come as any surprise. What may be surprising though are the demographics of online use.
According to a statistical bulletin from the Office of National Statistics:
- In Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2017, 89% of adults in the UK had recently used the internet (in the last 3 months), up from 88% in 2016; while 9% had never used the internet, down from 10% in 2016.
- Virtually all adults aged 16 to 34 years were recent internet users (99%), in contrast with 41% of adults aged 75 years and over.
- 90% of men and 88% of women were recent internet users, up from 89% and 86% in 2016.
- Recent internet use among women aged 75 and over had almost trebled from 2011.
- Northern Ireland is catching up with the other UK regions in recent internet use, reaching 84% in 2017; however, it remained the region with the lowest recent use.
At AquAid, we believe it’s of paramount importance to be at the forefront in being able to offer our customers easy access to our wide range of water coolers, water related products and water services.
In view of this, we developed a website some 12 years ago, which we’ve constantly striven to keep as user friendly and informative as possible. In keeping with this philosophy we launched a new website in January 2017, introducing a cleaner, more modern look whilst also incorporating a significantly more user-friendly operation.
Looking at the above stats and considering the marked increase in online queries we receive on a daily basis, this has definitely been of benefit to both our customers and ourselves.
Based on the successes brought about since the launch of our new website, we’ve looked at a number of customer-centric options. The most recent addition is the new Place an Order / Book an Engineer feature.
Should you wish to contact us online, whether you have a query or enquiry, require information or would like to order a water cooler, order your bottled water or book a service, all you need to do is simply click on the Place an Order / Book an Engineer button at the AquAid website, fill in your information, press send and we’ll take it from there
by Belinda Ollewagen | Mar 28, 2018 | aquaid, Hot Water Taps, instant tap, Water Coolers
Many studies have examined the varying effects of dehydration on performance. Apart from the obvious fact that our bodies need water to survive, all studies unequivocally prove that dehydration negatively affects mood, cognitive performance, mental recall, and therefore productivity. The law stipulates that there needs to be easily accessible drinking water at any place of work. Responsible employers provide this in the form of water coolers, water boilers or hot water taps for health and safety reasons, but an added benefit is that hydration aids productivity which is always good for business.
While we are all familiar with the well-documented, adverse effects of dehydration, we turn to another study which takes a more positive approach – rather than withhold water, what happens when we give water? In their paper entitled Effects of hydration status on cognitive performance and mood, Masento and Reekum looked at studies across a variety of different subject groups to ascertain if water intervention improved performance.
Drinking water improves visual sustained attention
Young adults were given varying amounts of water and then asked to complete a rapid visual information-processing task. The researchers found that the group receiving the most water (330ml) performed the best while the group that received no water performed the worst. Across a number of studies, where the experimental design and also the amounts of water given were changed, the result remained the same – water consumption improves the cognitive function of visual sustained attention.
Drinking water improves simple reaction time
Adults were asked to rate their thirst levels, they were then assigned to a nil-water or water group and asked to perform a simple reaction time task. Those subjects who’d identified themselves as thirsty and were in the nil-water group performed significantly worse than their counterparts. Not only did the study show that drinking water improved simple reaction time, it also showed the importance of baseline hydration levels – those participants who were thirsty at the start of the experiment were potentially mildly dehydrated which already slowed reaction time.
Drinking water improves mood
Young adults were randomly assigned to nil-water and water supplementation groups, and then asked to complete a range of cognitive tasks and mood ratings. In the groups that were given water, their mood ratings were improved – they reported feeling calmer and more alert immediately after drinking the water.
It’s clear to see that water intervention enhances performance, and as improving productivity is essential in the workplace, it’s also clear to see why water dispensers are crucial to the office set-up. At AquAid we have a wide range of water coolers to choose from, but if you’re in the process of updating your current breakout area or refreshment point, consider installing AquAid Instant Taps. Hot water taps can provide instantly ready boiling, ambient or chilled water at the touch of a button; they are also stylish, compact, efficient and cost-effective. If you want to increase productivity in your office, contact AquAid today – we will help you find the best water solution for your needs.
