Customer journeys in the energy sector

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Understand customers and lead the market

The energy and utilities sector is moving in a new direction and expanding its product portfolio of classic commodity products with customer-oriented services. In this regard, the following basic principle applies: to retain customers or acquire new customers over the long term, a company must be aware of their touch points with customers. Customers have got used to the benefits of quicker and more direct communication, and this is reflected in their purchasing and user behaviour. As a result, energy suppliers must manage the various contact channels with their customers systematically and place the information and decision-making process of the customer at the centre of everything they do. “Customer journeys” are a good way to provide customers with optimal support during the searching and decision-making process through to the extension of contracts and to determine precise customer requirements. The aim of customer journeys is to analyse the process from a buying impulse to completing a purchase and to derive concrete measures from these findings. Overall, it is clear the customer-oriented communication and sales channels provide a significant competitive advantage on the market.  Energy providers that understand customer’s wishes and use this information to influence their dialogue with customers are especially attractive to consumers, which is why they stay one step ahead of their competitors.

Generating growth by focusing on central customer journeys

Customer journeys provide a more in-depth insight into the behaviour and the underlying needs and emotions of customers. They provide a basis for decisions on how to use budgets and resources effectively, optimise processes and establish new products. We help you to identify the customer journeys that are relevant to you and answer the following questions:

  • Which specific expectations do my customers have of which products?
  • Where are there gaps between the customers’ expectations and the customer experience?
  • How can the customer experience be improved to meet the customers’ expectations?
  • Starting situation and objective setting: In a workshop, customer types, products and services for relevant customer journeys are identified and KPIs are defined to measure success.
  • Hypothetical customer journey: Internal knowledge is acquired and structured through interviews and workshops in order to create a hypothetical customer journey.
  • Collection of customer data: Customer surveys, data analyses and customer workshops are carried out in order to collect and present information about the expectations and purchasing behaviour of prospective customers, new customers and established customers. The information is presented in process maps and customer journeys.
  • Prioritisation of actions: Specific actions are named and prioritised to create a roadmap. The aim is to optimise the customer journey and find a balance between the competing areas of business objectives and customer requirements.
  • Target customer journey: The individual actions are implemented. This includes the coupling of internal processes with future interactions that have the biggest potential impact on customer behaviour. Company silos are broken open through the involvement of all company divisions that are relevant for the customer journey.
  • Monitoring of success: Continuous monitoring of objective achievement and deriving of appropriate corrective measures based on the agreed KPIs.