For 2017 I’ve decided to highlight all the things that collectively make ourselves, Seaton Spring, different to the other cooler companies supplying the North East region. As an organisation I think we’re fairly modest and hesitant about singing our own praises. However, since the Bulmer Family first established the business in 1999 and then I came on board in 2005 we have grown to become the largest supplier of water coolers and related products serving the North East and this has been achieved through doing some key things differently to our competition.

In a previous life in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s I ran what was at the time Germany’s largest water cooler company spread across seven regional service centres. I had a simple philosophy which I still maintain today; to provide high level customer service the optimum size for a regional water cooler company is around 2,500-4,000 coolers preferably with its own protected source located on site. Smaller than this and you don’t have the staff density to optimise a region and, more importantly, once an organisation exceeds this size internal lines of communication multiply and fracture leading to inconsistent service levels and inertia. Seaton Spring Water Coolers has remained a regional business with a commitment to the North East and is constantly striving to become that elusive perfect service provider.

There are some major things that differentiate us – our commitment solely to the North East with the only operating plant in the region, our focus on cooler hygiene as part of a wider health, safety and well-being initiative and the fact that with four WRAS qualified engineers we have twice as many as our largest rival meaning first rate service levels. However, there are many other things that we do which combine to make us unique and an excellent choice as a water cooler supplier.

In this first 'Water Coolers With A Difference' blog, I will look at the key differentiators surrounding our Sanitisation Service and why our water cooler rotation service is perfect for bottled water coolers.

Bottle Fed Water Cooler Sanitisation

Every three months our Bottle Fed Water customers have their on-site water coolers replaced with a pristine machine which has been cleaned, serviced and sanitised in our own purpose built clean room. The principal benefits of this is that your new machine each quarter has been sanitised in our purpose built ‘clean room’ ensuring the highest of hygiene standards rather than being sanitised in situ in your work place environment by a man with a bucket and sponge. There’s also a benefit to the environment, we rotate your water cooler at the same time as we deliver replacement water meaning just one trip; most of our competitors employ two separate operatives for these two tasks meaning two vehicles, two trips and twice the emissions.

Additionally we only invoice once we have sanitised your water cooler, many of our competitors issue sanitisation invoices every quarter irrespective of whether the work has been done or not, if you’re not a Seaton Spring customer but have a water cooler you might want to check this.

Mains Fed Water Cooler Sanitisation

Due to the pipe work installation it is unpractical to rotate Mains Connected water coolers and these have to be cleaned and sanitised in situ. As part of our commitment to training staff with four qualified Water Regulation Advisory Scheme (WRAS) Point of Use engineers we have the greatest concentration of qualified operators of any Water Cooler company operating in the North East region. Additionally, we record on your machine each time it is serviced and sanitised enabling you to check that your machine is in date; again not all operators in the region do this. To check just look on the back of the machine and you should find a sanitisation sticker.