The Problem.

The Energia Group's existing account management system was outdated and suffered from poor usability, resulting in a high volume of support calls from users to update and manage accounts and submit meter readings.

The high volume of calls was costly and put stress on the busy call centre and support staff. Energia identified this issue as a top efficiency saving and approached Made to Engage to modernise online account management to give their existing customers more confidence to self-serve, and create an intuitive switching experience to encourage customer growth.

Approach.

Initially heavily focused on research, a survey of users was conducted alongside a deep dive and analysis of user behaviour analytics of the existing system.

Call centre shadowing and 1:1 interviews with call centre staff augmented findings by gathering further insights and helping to prioritise user tasks before authoring and sharing detailed research findings reports with all stakeholders to create a user experience strategy.

An iterative cycle of low-fidelity design followed, initially focusing on information architecture design and detailed user journeys before moving on to responsive wireframe design. A heavy focus was placed on optimising the content and experience for the user type (personal or business, new or existing) and device.

Working in collaboration with the Made to Engage team, the system was usability tested in-house with a series of in-person sessions.

Outcomes.

The new Energy Online portal launched in 2015 alongside supporting material and promotion, resulting in an immediate decline in support calls and positive customer feedback.