KENYA · GUIDE 0200 · EDITION 4.2
Drinking water delivery coordination in Kenya: Customers and Market Demand
The buyer and the buying decision
Offices and households on a manageable route. The offer to test is: Coordinate delivery of sealed drinking water from a verified supplier.
Build the coordination offer around a verified sealed-water supplier and a delivery area, clarifying responsibility for stairs, unloading, damaged packs, and customer absence.
Separate interest from an accepted order
Confirm supplier authorization and traceability, then test a short delivery round.
The purpose of this test is to establish whether the buyer accepts the specified result, delivery arrangement and payment terms. An encouraging interview does not establish repeat demand. Ask what the buyer currently uses, what would make them change supplier and who has authority to approve the first order. Record a refusal as carefully as an enquiry so that unsuccessful offers do not disappear from the evidence.
Collect evidence specific to this offer
Record supplier batch information, ordered and delivered pack counts, access conditions, seal complaints, waiting minutes, redelivery causes, and the actual cost of resolving shortages.
| Question to resolve | Evidence to retain |
|---|---|
| What exactly will the buyer accept? | Check a trial handover against the supplier invoice and customer order, confirming seals, pack counts, product identity, and an accessible place for receiving. |
| What is included in the first trial? | Build the coordination offer around a verified sealed-water supplier and a delivery area, clarifying responsibility for stairs, unloading, damaged packs, and customer absence. |
| How will a prospect see the offer? | Offer a scheduled route to offices and state whether container deposits belong to the supplier. |
| What must happen before repeating the trial? | Coordination does not authorize repackaging, treating water or making unsupported purity claims. |
Decide whether to continue
Review the specification with the buyer before committing to tools or stock. A trial is commercially useful only if actual costs, rejected work, time spent and cash collected can be reconciled. The margin disappears when customers expect doorstep carrying beyond the agreed access point or the coordinator absorbs repeated journeys for unavailable recipients without clear terms.
If a buyer changes the required output, record a new scope and re-cost the test. Do not count a request for a different product as proof of demand for the original one. Keep personal contact details in your private records and use customer statements publicly only with permission.
Turn the example into a buyer test
Fictional coordination route: ten original sealed 20 litreMaisha water units delivered to five offices, two each. KETEPA’s catalogue lists a 20 litrepack, but current availability and whether the supplied SKU is returnable must be confirmed. The coordinator sells a delivery service for supplier-sealed units; there is no water treatment, refilling, repacking or unsupported purity certification.
| Buyer discussion | Evidence to retain |
|---|---|
| Specification to confirm | The offices approve the exact unit and source. |
| Output to inspect | Water, fee, cash and container records reconcile independently. |
| Failure that can defeat acceptance | A water-unit seal is broken |
Ask the buyer to describe one acceptable and one unacceptable result. Record the decision maker, price basis, quantity, handover point and payment date privately. A sample request, an encouraging conversation and an accepted order are different evidence. Keep the first commitment within your demonstrated capacity; no customer interview or successful trial is asserted here.
What a failed test should change
Inspect the original twenty-litre unit and supplier/dispatch record before loading and at handover. Do not interpret a shop-applied cap sticker as the producer’s original seal.. If the offer cannot meet that check, revise the specification or process before promising a repeat. Keep rejected offers and reasons in the same register as positive replies so that your record does not exaggerate demand.