Our friends at Glide Student, glide.co.uk know what makes students tick. In the best tradition of successful student businesses, Glide was set up by James Villarreal who was a student himself at the time.
As the business has evolved they have stayed close to their customers by conducting a detailed, formal market research programme. Their major survey into the needs of students, What Students Seek, is produced each year, and this time the team at AFS has been lucky enough to have an early look at the 2018 results.
Of this year’s students 62% taking the survey have utility bills included a part of the rent. Bills includes a wide range of things, but most students with bills included have electricity (80%) followed by water (79%), gas and broadband.
Perhaps the stand out statistic from this year’s survey is that a massive 87% of the students who took part in the survey felt that having bills included in the rent was important. Furthermore a further 62% felt that having bills included was worth paying a small premium for – it seems that students are happy to pay a little extra for the convenience.
It seems that it is more than just about convenience though. The home environment is increasingly important to the modern student. For example, more students do their coursework at home (53%) than on campus (46%), so having a comfortable place to work is going to be important. It can be source of friction – 46% argued about heating with their housemates, even though the majority of students (66%) claim to have a good relationship with their housemates.
However, many students are plagued by broadband issues – 61% have experienced problems including connection issues, slow speeds and drop outs. Having high speed, high quality broadband is a vital aspect of student living which is why Glide Student focus on providing a super fast broadband for their customers.
If you are interested in finding out more, head over to glide.co.uk today.
