Case Study · E.ON · Energy · Personalization · Strategy

Electricity isn't just electricity.

One product that is the same for everyone, and still customers with very different expectations. With E.ON, we turned the vision of a personal customer journey into a strategy: three customer types, four prioritized personalization streams and a five-phase roadmap.

Results at a glance

3 customer types

instead of one message for everyone

4 streams

assessed and prioritized along the customer journey

9 action areas

reviewed in the assessment of current and target state

Starting point

One product without differences. Customers with many.

A retailer can personalize assortment, brands and colors. An energy provider has electricity and gas. The product looks the same for everyone. The reasons why someone switches, stays or cancels are not.

E.ON had formulated the vision clearly: create maximum relevance and deliver it consistently along the customer journey. The path to get there was still open.

The questions at E.ON

Who are our customers? What needs do they have that we can address in our digital communication?

What are we already doing right? Which measures were already running, and with what effect?

What do we steer with? Which data, methods and tools are available to deliver messages individually?

Where do we start? Which journeys and offers can support personalization, and which come first?

Approach

First understand, then calculate, then personalize.

Personalization is not a question of tools. Without a plan and without knowing the value of the measures, buying a tool gets you nowhere. That's why we started with an assessment, not with software.

Assessment with the personalization canvas. We reviewed nine action areas: strategy and vision, business KPIs, team and skills, methodology and process, offering, user typology, customer journey, data and technology. For each area, we described the current and target state.

Interviews across the company. We spoke with everyone involved in personalization: conversion optimization, marketing, business intelligence, tech and data. A standardized questionnaire made the answers comparable.

Data strategy together with Datentreiber. In parallel, a workshop on data and analytics strategy took place. It clarified which data is needed for which maturity level.

Three customer types instead of one target group

The data analysis showed that electricity customers need a different approach depending on their situation and motive.

The Skeptic needs clear decision aids and arguments. Teaser offers don't work on them.

The Bargain Hunter wants to know in the end that they found the best deal.

The Premium Buyer looks for exclusivity and innovation and likes to treat themselves.

Customer types from the data analysis at E.ON

Business potential

Four streams, one clear starting point

Not every journey is worth personalizing. It only pays off when the segments behave very differently.

Personalization streams along the customer journey and personalization canvas at E.ON

We organized E.ON's revenue streams by phase of the customer journey. That gave us four personalization streams, each with its own goal and its own metric.

New customer acquisition: Increase contract signups. Measured by conversion rate.

Existing customer development: Win customers over again and offer the right product, for example through cross-selling.

Support during a move: Make moving so easy that the contract moves along.

Customer retention: Learn faster than the competition why customers leave, and counter it.

We assessed each stream against three criteria: How much do customers differ? How much effort is the concept? How much effort is the implementation? We added a conservative calculation based on traffic, conversions, number of possible tests and expected uplift. That made clear where the revenue potential is greatest before the first test.

Implementation

From customer type to concrete messaging

From customer types and streams came ideas for every touchpoint, from the search ad to the landing page.

Bargain Hunter: Anyone searching for “cheap electricity E.ON” sees an ad with a best-price guarantee. The landing page lets them choose between plans and promotions until they find the best plan.

Skeptic: Seals and trust-building elements give them the arguments they need to make a decision.

Premium Buyer: Rewards and innovative offers appeal to them more than a discount.

Personalized messaging for the Bargain Hunter, from search query to landing page

The roadmap in five phases

The result was a plan E.ON can use to operationalize personalization on its own: kick-off, data and CX check-up, quick start, rule-based personalization and finally dynamic, automated personalization by customer type and journey. Complexity only increases once the simple measures have proven their ROI.

Client testimonial

What we learned

Personalization starts with a plan, not with a tool.

At E.ON, marketing, BI, tech and data worked from a shared picture for the first time. We take three insights into every project.

Even a uniform product can be personalized.

What gets personalized is not the product, but the reason why it fits.

Calculate first, then build.

The business case per stream shows where personalization pays off and where a good standard is enough.

Just get started.

Build, measure, learn. Anyone who earns ROI with rule-based measures gets tailwind for the next level.

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