Energy Australia

Energy bills simplified

Project

Paper and electronic distribution bills for 3 million + customers.
Multiple modules combined into a single template for more than 140 user cases

Client

EnergyAustralia

Role

Lead user experience designer

Situation

Energy Australia, an energy company with 3 million + customers. They noticed a persistent increment in the number of bills that were paid late in correlation with an increase on call centre activity related to energy bills complaints.
I lead the user experience team to investigate the cause of this correlation and provide a design solution.

Achievements

Significant reduction on call centre enquiries related to bills
Simplified production of the paper bills by reducing multiple templates into a single template with modular components
Paper weight was reduced from 2 paper sheets to a single paper

Design process

Discovery

Objectives: understand what was causing spike on bill related enquiries

What people have to say about their energy companies

Activities:

Analysis of common topics in thousand of call transcripts using call mining software
Quantitative research tools to explore common topics in hundreds of social media posts on the official channels

The common topic was “energy bills”

Qualitative research

Objectives: understand the specific problems with their energy bills

User interview notes, grouped in common topics for further analysis

Activities

Interview call centre agents to hear their point of view on common topics on bills related calls
Interview about 30 real customers country wide from diverse demographics and industries who expressed concerns about their bills

The emerging patterns indicated a problem with the existing energy bill design:

Customers were willing to pay their bills but only if they understood what they were paying for

Human centred design

Objectives: let customers to show us what they would like to see on their bills so they can understand what they are paying for

Activities:

We ask customers to express what they wanted to see using words, notes on their bills or simple drawings

They told us:

Final or estimated? – “Clearly tell me upfront if this is a real or estimated bill, that way I can plan for variance in the next bill”

Date and season – “show me clearly the dates the bill is for and what season is for“

Plan and benefits – “Tell me what type of plans am on, what are the benefits of that plan“

How do I compare? – “Show me how I relate to normal”

What is a kWh? – “Give me a human friendly value of how much a kWh equates to. I.e. Hairdryer for 4hrs, fridge for 86hrs, air conditioner for 13hrs, etc…“

Same time last year – “show me a rolling graph of the last 18 months so I can compare with previous time last year“

Email me the summary – “Give me all the key information via email, as that way I don’t need to go to the full bill“

Final or estimated? – “Clearly tell me upfront if this is a real or estimated bill, that way I can plan for variance in the next bill”

Date and season – “show me clearly the dates the bill is for and what season is for“

Plan and benefits – “Tell me what type of plans am on, what are the benefits of that plan“

How do I compare? – “Show me how I relate to normal”

What is a kWh? – “Give me a human friendly value of how much a kWh equates to. I.e. Hairdryer for 4hrs, fridge for 86hrs, air conditioner for 13hrs, etc…“

Same time last year – “show me a rolling graph of the last 18 months so I can compare with previous time last year“

Email me the summary – “Give me all the key information via email, as that way I don’t need to go to the full bill“

Customer’s notes on their energy bills

Competitor analysis

Objectives: understand what competitors do better

Pros and cons of bills on other energy providers

Activities:

Extensive competitor review across all major national and international energy companies
Revision of legal and technological requirements and constraints

Requirements

Objectives: determine all necessary and legally required information on energy bills

All necessary components of an energy bill, grouped and categorised

Activities:

Gather information on all existing and future energy bill categories: commercial, residential, solar, gas…
Workshops with key stakeholders to determine kind of information needed to be presented for every type of energy bill
Legal team run through regulations and functional requirements for each bill type

Collective generation of ideas

Objectives: generate alignment and participation of key stakeholders by running a collective creative exercise to produce an improved energy bill

Group discussion of initial mock up concepts for first feedback iteration
Mockups for energy bills components combination

1 2

Activities:

We gather all experts in the team and ask them to bring their ideas to the withe board.

High quality wireframes

Objectives: unify best whiteboard ideas into detailed wireframe

Detail of energy usage by appliances
Solar energy fed in vs usage
Modules required to create an energy bill.
Potential 2400 combinations

1 2 3

Activities:

We grouped design concepts into the most suitable ideas to respond to customers requests.
Produced a unified modular design into wireframes

User testing prototype

Objectives: test bill prototype with customers

Activities:

Testing plan and questionnaire guide
Unbranded prototypes for multiple kinds of energy bills
Recruited and tested prototypes to a sample of 50 energy customers from diverse energy companies country wide

Interviewees were asked to respond to the same original questions we heard from customers:

How much do I have to pay and when?
Is this bill final or estimated?
What is the date and season?
What is my plan and my benefits?
What is a kWh?
How do I compare with others?
What was my consumption same time last year?