Launched in conjunction with a new website, brand look and feel and offering a seamless customer journey, the automated welcome programme has been such a success that it's left them wondering why they didn't make the move to marketing automation earlier.
Energy Online's customer on-boarding communications consisted of an individual email sent manually to customers on sign-up. It was basic, had limited branding and the process was time consuming. Energy Online wanted to introduce a new welcome programme to make sure they were offering the best possible user experience for their customers, living up to their 'brilliantly simple' brand promise. They also wanted to reduce the high volume of inbound calls the centre was receiving during the customer on-boarding process.
We recommended an automated welcome programme delivered via email, to answer the key questions new customers have without losing the human touch that Energy Online customers have come to expect. We held a workshop to uncover the key drivers of call centre queries. We discovered new customers were confused about timelines, their account details and when to expect their first bill. This informed the timing and content of the emails.
The welcome programme includes a series of three fully personalised, mobile optimised emails that are automatically sent to customers based on which stage of the on-boarding process they have reached. To support the fully personalised email content, we set up flexible email templates, with dynamic data-driven content blocks that include variable content based on each customer's details and their plan type, as well as any marketing campaigns that are live in market. To make sure that each customer receives the right message at the right time, we set up both real-time and daily data processes to integrate with the Energy Online website and back-end systems.
Welcome programmes often have a high hard-bounce rate, where the new email addresses provided are incorrect. To counter this we set up an automated TXT programme - if we email a customer and can't get through, they are sent a TXT message asking them to reply with their email address. Their email address is automatically updated in the UbiQuity database and their email is re-sent. All updated email are sent back to Energy Online in an automated daily file to their back-end systems.
"The timely and personalised communication programme is well appreciated by customers, while retaining the human touch of Energy Online."
- Zelda Kalmeier, Digital Marketing Manager, Energy Online
Customers are well informed from initial sign up right through to their first bill, meaning they don't need to call in to the call centre. The volume of calls to the Energy Online call centre from customers in their first two months dropped significantly since implementing the automated welcome programme.
The programme is fully automated, freeing up Energy Online resource to be utilised in other areas of their business. All email communications are fully on-brand providing a seamless customer journey from email through to the website and printed communications. The customer database is highly accurate and current to help them nurture long term customer value.
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