Engine Service DesignThe Service Design Consultancy
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Engine Service Design
Faced by ever increasing competition and pressure from regulators, E.ON needed to fix broken journeys and simultaneously establish a service design team, with capability across European markets.
The Engine Service Design Team worked with E.ON to establish customer experience design as a strategic capability over seven years of work together. Today, a customer-centred approach and the tools of service design are baked-in to service improvement and the development of new products and services.
Client: ‘Client voice’ Duration:
As a result of the methods used to sell energy contracts to consumers, the energy industry in the UK was under intense scrutiny from regulators to implement large scale change. E.ON wanted to lead the change across the UK and asked Engine to help them redesign the sales and onboarding experience for customers.
Fixing the sales journey
The retail side of E.ONs business was structured traditionally, with Sales and Operations working in isolation. The culture was sales-driven and this was leading to a poor customer experience, many of whom would call in to cancel their contract after receiving their first bill. This revealed gaps in the sales and onboading process and an opportunity to improve. Using insights from Engine’s qualitative research during workshops with the client team, we redesigned the sales journey. An important outcome was a greater emphasis on service design for customers on low incomes, that needed E.ON to be flexible when it came to paying for energy.
New sustainable energy propositions
Once selling energy became more than just a connection to supply, businesses like E.ON needed to develop ways to start and build relationships with consumers, to engage them in a conversation about sustainable energy and their needs. Engine worked with E.ON Sweden, the first E.ON business to take green tariffs, products and services to market. E.ON knew they’d need a new approach to selling and their Future Energy Home proposition has now unified how E.ON sell solar panels, EV charging, smart thermostats and other solutions direct to consumers. Working with E.ON, the Engine Service Design Team designed the end-to-end experience, from choosing a provider to installing and after-sales support.
Project to programme
Engine’s work with E.ON has spanned 7 years and 12 major projects across 4 leading markets. Starting in the UK in 2011, E.ON integrated Engine’s Service Design System and Team into their existing process improvement team. E.ON introduced a Journey Management structure and core customer journeys were redesigned with Engine’s help. A network of International Customer Experience Managers was created to advocate and facilitate customer experience design. With Engine’s support, the CX Network delivered service design training to more than 300 managers across their European markets.
“Transformation has happened because of a continual focus on delivering our customer experience principles that define, for E.ON, what a great service and experience is.”
E.ON and Engine piloted customer journey design in the UK in 2011. Today customer experience design is built into every project that touches the end consumer in all of E.ONs markets.
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Identify the difference between what you do today and what your future customers don’t yet know they need. Reimagine the future.
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