Our behavioural economists teamed up with a creative agency to design immersive research – the first of its kind in the water sector. See what the results were…

The Shape of Water

Our large utility client needed to know how much to invest in preventing disruption to their service. They knew they wanted to use behavioural economics and carry out customer research to inform this investment decision, but had a sticky problem. How do you ask customers how they feel about something that has never happened to them?

Testing the water

Most customers have never experienced a long-term disruption of service like having their water cut off. To ask them how that would make them feel and how it would affect their lives, we needed to find a creative solution.

We led the design of the first immersive research in the water industry, and teamed up with a creative agency to do this. Their creative materials helped customers to imagine what it would be like to experience a long-term disruption to their water supply. We then carried out customer research to find out how much customers would like the company to improve in this service area.   

Solutions solutions

Our immersive workshops delivered cognitively valid results for the water company to use to inform how much it should invest in this area. The insights have since been reflected in the company’s business plan.