Radically Redesign Your Utility’s Customer Bill Using Design Thinking

June 26, 2018, 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. ET

E Source’s recent ethnographic research revealed some major conflicts between the way utilities design their residential bill and the information customers actually desire. Customers not only articulated frustrations with language (what’s a kWh/therm?) but also voiced displeasure with the frequency and timing of usage feedback, the anxiety produced before opening a bill that could be higher than expected, and the disconnect between what they are charged and the real value they receive from their energy use. More often than not, this created a negative brand experience with their utility.

E Source has transformed the typical bill redesign process to create a far superior billing experience for customers. We’re looking for utilities who want to partner with us by pairing design thinking, ethnographic research, and voice-of-the-employee in this innovative project.

Part 1: Educational, 25 minutes
During the first half of this web conference, we will reveal some findings from our recent ethnographic research with real utility customers. We’ll cover:

How utilities approach the bill redesign process today and why they fall short in the customers’ minds
Why explaining utility terminology is a fruitless exercise
Some examples of what a radical bill redesign might look like
How customer segmentation fits into the need for bill redesign

Part 2: Partner Opportunities (sales pitch), 20 minutes
During the second half, we’ll describe the design thinking project that we are proposing to engage with utilities. Elements will include:

Conducting specific ethnographic research with the target customer group in your service territory
Interviewing internal stakeholders to determine the broad array of wants/needs
Synthesizing the information gathered in the research
Holding internal utility workshops to go through the design thinking process of Observing-Understanding-Point of View-Ideation
Creating prototypes using approaches such as Design Tetris, and conducting iterative rapid feedback/design sessions with customers
Finalizing designs for Pilot and Roll-out

These projects can either be done on a pure consulting basis, or if several utilities wish to pool their resources/research/results, we can accommodate that as well. E Source is willing to cost-share with the first utility who engages in a consulting project, as we want to demonstrate the value of this approach going forward.

Although used for decades in competitive technology companies, design thinking is relatively new in the utility industry. We are not aware of any utility bill that has been redesigned in this fairly radical way. Instead of the objective of creating an “easy to read, utility-oriented revenue bill”, we focus on creating a “customer-centric engagement and experience tool that also collects revenue”.

Speakers:

Bill LeBlanc, Chief Instigation Agent, E Source

Jeffrey Daigle, Associate Director, Customer Experience, E Source

For more information about attending this event, please email us or call 1-800-ESOURCE (1-800-376-8723). Registration for this event is limited to utility professionals only.

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Who Should Attend? This web conference is open to utility professionals working in a utility in North America

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