SAVING ENERGY BY UNDERSTANDING IT

CKW supplies Central Switzerland with a product that is particularly valuable today: energy. Energy consumption has become increasingly important to us in recent years. This is partly due to the availability of energy and partly to its price. This makes it all the more important that an energy provider like CKW offers customers transparent tools.

Ginetta has created a new customer portal for CKW that is as self-explanatory as it is easy to use.

Customer ≠ customer

The biggest hurdle in this project was addressing CKW's broadly diversified customer structure. First, there are private households who are mostly infrequent visitors to the customer portal – possibly engaging just a handful of times throughout the year. For them, the tool needs to be seamlessly self-explanatory. Then, there are the prosumers: households who have invested in solar panels and want to check their energy production. Further, there are businesses, diverse in size and energy needs, requiring comprehensive insights from the customer portal to effectively manage their consumption.

A fivefold solution

Our solution approach was based on five consecutive user involvements. (1) First, we conducted intensive interviews to determine customer needs. (2) This was followed by a “First Click Test” to create the top navigation of the portal: Users are asked to perform the first click that they think best suits the task. (3-5) Using three user tests – on mobile and on desktop – we were able to maximize the user-friendliness of the portal for all target groups.

Knowing what you’re doing

If you understand your own consumption, you can control it better. Therefore, the customer portal has some smart educational aspects. It shows customers as best as possible where they use energy. When heating or using the kitchen? By directly comparing different months or times of day. Now users can easily evaluate, analyze, and, last but not least, optimize their consumption themselves.

Time is Money

The customer portal is of course also a billing tool. The new portal offers customers various options. Customers can choose whether to receive the invoices digitally or by post. They can view payment information, view information on how to activate eBill or direct debit. And they can pay the bills in installments or postpone the payment date.

What you see is what you get

In the past, prosumers in particular requested more transparency. In the new portal, they can see both accounts at first glance: how much they pay for their consumption and how much they earn with their solar panels. They can also create forecasts of how the numbers will behave in the next month, generated from data from previous years.

A role model for energy saving

CKW's new customer portal empowers customers to save energy by providing them with clear insights into their consumption, including detailed usage data, historical trends, and personalized recommendations. But the tool is also an energy-saving measure for CKW itself: customers understand the tool straight away and can now take many things into their own hands.

A long-term side effect for CKW: Parallel to the customer portal, Ginetta was able to develop a new design system for CKW.

Project-Facts

Team members