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SSE engaged Splendid as Lead Digital Agency to help define the digital product strategy
Overview
When SSE decided they needed to undertake a digital transformation programme, they engaged Splendid as Lead Digital Agency to help define the digital product strategy. Alongside a stated aim to transform into an inherently digital business, SSE set out bold plans to also seek to disrupt the energy market through awareness of usage. No mean feat, considering the general lack of engagement that utilities suffer from. We specified a digital-first strategy, aligning with challenger brands.
“Splendid impressed us with their existing body of work but also with their willingness to genuinely listen to us throughout the pitch process and adapt their strategy plan accordingly”
John Freeman, Head of Digital Design Transformation , SSE
50%
Increase in energy conversions
80%
Increase in non-energy conversions
17%
Reduction in energy usage for Smart Energy customers
SSE Digital Experience Programme - DXP
Digital transformation programme including definition and design of a new responsive website, focussed on new customer acquisition and help for existing customers. SSE had an ambition to develop a ground-up reinvention of how they engaged with prospective and existing customers. We worked with them to define best customer experience practice and design principles to guide requirements definition.
SSE Customer Acquisition
We developed a number of user experience propositions that were tested with customers nationally to define the best interaction model. The end result was a touch-enabled design of a new responsive website, focussed on new customer acquisition and help for existing customers.
The SSE design system works as a layered model allowing customers who want to complete a task quickly to get through the site without any friction, but those users who want to drill into the detail can.
SSE Customer Account Management
One of the drivers for the DXP programme was channel shift, moving people from call centres to digital channels. We undertook research with the call centre teams to understand the language used and to determine customer intent. This led us to designing a dynamic natural language interface model.
SSE Smart Energy
SSE wanted to develop a digital proposition to support the government mandated Smart Meter roll-out. Our brief was simple – it can’t just be a digital version of the physical in-home display and it has to be compliant. We developed 3 distinct propositions that we tested with customers nationally.
The digital propositions explored areas such as gamification, social challenges and connected home technology. The stand-out proposition was around informed simplicity – users can scan the app and get all the information they need and if they want the detail they can dig into their total energy consumption data.
A native app was the best solution to make the best use of notifications. Native iOS and Android apps were developed as well as an in-home gateway to enable future flexibility with Smart Home technology. A cloud-based analytics application was also developed that enabled predictive modelling of customers' energy usage.