Optimizing user experience for utility customers

How we combined a utility client’s disparate websites to offer a single, engaging online experience.

At a glance

A large utility company engaged us to redesign its marketing website, with the dual goals of generating excitement and increasing engagement with its existing customer base and reducing overhead on facilitating customer feedback.

Customer challenge

The client’s existing website was outdated and lacked personality. User experience surveys revealed that many customers didn’t know where to look for assistance on the site. Visitors were also not aware that there were any feature benefits of using the site other than accessing it in order to pay a bill. Information was convoluted, hard to find, and randomly placed. Many URLs were obsolete, and much of the content was outdated or not useful.

The client did not use any web content management systems to automate changes to the external websites. The home page was composed of PHP-based web applications running on Apache HTTP Servers with limited links to a limited number of J2EE applications hosted on an Oracle WebLogic Application Server. The client also had a microsite, hosted by a third-party hosting company, that was using Drupal as a content management system.

The client wanted to achieve three main objectives:

• Identify and select an implementation partner to help implement Oracle WebCenter Sites

• Redesign the current websites to present an updated and integrated “look and feel”

• Merge the microsite with the main website

Why they chose us

The client chose us for our track record implementing stunning websites managed through Oracle WebCenter Sites, and for our full creative team to assist with content creation and design. We also have implementation partners and development team members who are experienced with the installation and roll-out of infrastructure at two data center locations in a high availability, redundant, load-balanced model.

Our results: “The Wins”

Through an in-depth look into how customers access and search through the client’s website, our UX experts were able to identify several gaps in how the site as a whole functioned to engage as well as inform the customer.

As a result of this survey of customers and content, we merged all the client’s properties into a single site that customers can access and navigate easily. In addition, we revised or rewrote all content — more than 85 pages — to follow new branding guidelines, deliver more information to the customer, and boost engagement through a more conversational tone. Information is now easily accessible and locatable, giving customers a simpler web experience and keeping in line with the client’s goal to reduce call center activity.

Because we achieved the site’s new look through Oracle WebCenter Sites, nontechnical end users were empowered to author, edit, and publish web content, thereby streamlining the process of managing site content in real time.