Eneco.nl
Eneco is a Dutch energy supplier committed to accelerating the energy transition. The company supplies green electricity and gas to consumers and businesses, and invests heavily in sustainable generation. Eneco wants to contribute to a CO₂-neutral future with smart energy solutions and makes this possible through wind and solar energy, heating networks and innovative technologies.
The energy market has changed dramatically in recent years. Eneco actively responds to this and consciously chooses the role of energy expert.
To gain insight into brand preference and customer behavior, WUA mapped the buyer journey extensively. This enabled Eneco to understand the changes in the energy market and align the customer journey accordingly.
"The energy crisis has fundamentally changed the market. Customers compare more often, invest in sustainability, and place different demands on their energy contract. This leads to more variation and a more complex customer journey: energy is no longer a commodity, it has become a lifestyle."
*Cynthia Kuipers,
CX Marketer at Eneco*
Better understanding of brand considerations in the purchasing process
Regulations, prices, sustainability – the energy market is in full swing. The wishes of customers and businesses are also evolving: fixed, certainty or moving along? More and more options have been added, making choosing an energy contract challenging. That's why Eneco positions itself from March 4th in a new brand strategy as energy expert with the brand campaign: Eneco enlightens – a promise to provide clarity to consumers and businesses in the energy transition.
"The energy crisis has fundamentally changed the market," states Cynthia Kuipers, CX Marketeer in the Go2Market sales team. "Customers compare their energy contracts more often. Consumers and businesses are also increasingly investing in sustainable solutions such as solar panels and heat pumps, and they're switching to electric vehicle fleets. This significantly changes their energy needs. As a result, many new energy contract variants have emerged in a short time, such as a dynamic energy contract with electricity prices that can change hourly. All of this impacts the customer journey: energy is no longer a commodity, it has become a lifestyle."
Eneco had previously collaborated with WUA to map the energy market. "With a rapidly changing market, we felt it was time to seek collaboration again. We see a shift from telephone to online contract closure and wanted to better understand how brand considerations are made in the purchasing process."
“The energy market has taken a sharp turn and is no longer as predictable as before. It’s increasingly difficult for customers to keep up with all the developments. Where energy used to be a ‘boring’ product, it has now become a topic everyone is involved in. But which choice suits your situation? And how do we achieve the energy transition together? Our ambition is to accelerate that transition and help customers on their way.”
'You're looking for an energy contract'
WUA had 400 consumers orient themselves online to a new energy contract and mapped the websites of various players. "At Eneco, it's crucial that everyone understands how a user experiences the customer journey with Eneco and what friction they encounter along the way," says Cynthia. "For the research presentation, I therefore explicitly invited all stakeholders to the office: from the campaign team and brand team to marketers, developers, the media purchasing team, product owners, data analysts and designers. We want to be truly customer-driven as an organization, and this presentation helped make the underlying sentiment tangible for all stakeholders. Bias always plays a role. You think you understand the customer but the market changes at lightning speed."
All customer research, web analytics and customer data come together in a customer journey tool that shows per touchpoint where customers get stuck in the customer journey. WUA's insights formed a valuable addition here. "The Digital Market Tracker shows exactly in which categories we perform strongly or less strongly, how our performance compares to the competition and where opportunities lie. With the Website Experience Deep Dive, we then dove into brand perception and product offering, allowing us to identify customer problems very specifically."
As CX Marketeer, Cynthia translates these insights into action. She keeps stakeholders continuously informed: some she speaks to weekly, others receive a monthly update. "The best moment is when I can share that another A/B test is running on the website that stems from customer insights. Then the circle is complete and you see the direct impact of our efforts on the customer experience."
“The Digital Market Tracker shows exactly in which categories we perform strongly or less strongly, how our performance compares to the competition, and where opportunities lie. With the Website Experience Deep Dive, we then delved into brand perception and product offerings, allowing us to identify customer problems very specifically.”
Evidence for the business case
At Eneco, work is done daily to optimize the ordering flow on Eneco.nl. Performance is continuously measured through a process in which both qualitative and quantitative data are combined, Cynthia explains. "You can't just propose to 'optimize the entire sales funnel' – that's not specific enough. The WUA benchmark study helped us improve the buyer journey in a targeted way. We could pinpoint exactly which parts of the buyer journey needed to be improved and why. This substantiated and strengthened the business case for optimizations."
"WUA's insights substantiate and feed hypotheses for optimization opportunities within our customer journey. Currently, the development team is working on a redesign that will improve the customer journey and provide a conversion uplift. What I appreciate about our collaboration is that WUA responds quickly to questions about the interpretation of reports and insights."
The benchmark study also substantiated the brand positioning that had been implemented earlier. "It gave us additional confirmation that we're on the right track with the new brand strategy. Additionally, the interactive presentation of the insights generated a lot of engagement."
“The collaboration with WUA feels like embarking on a project together. Thanks to Marc’s on-site presentation of the initial findings, we were able to involve stakeholders from various disciplines in the results. This not only created enthusiasm but also led to broader adoption of the insights within the organization.”
Bringing customer insights to life in the organization
Cynthia is particularly satisfied with WUA's service delivery. "In a corporate organization like Eneco, you deal with many stakeholders. A valuable study like WUA's can't simply be sent around as a PDF, that doesn't land. To truly convey the message, it's essential to invite people to the office for an interactive workshop. That's how you really bring customer insight inside and make the outside-in perspective leading."
"Besides consumers, we also serve the business market. Although we serve both groups through the same platform, the customer journey differs significantly. My colleagues from the business division are certainly curious what a benchmark study specifically for their target group could deliver."
