The challenge
The Customer Experience team at Alliander, one of the largest grid operators in the Netherlands, was tasked with designing the journey to apply for and realise a new electrical connection for projects such as hotels or industrial buildings. This journey can take up to 2 years given the backlog.
The research focused on communication to B2B applicants. The team had sketched out a draft communication approach. Key questions to answer were:
- Who are the different applicant types and what are their needs in terms of communication?
- How do they experience communication with Alliander today? Why?
- What do users think of the draft communication flow?
- How to improve?
The outcome
The research uncovered that the communication flow needed to be adjusted in many ways. Given the lengthy time period, many users had issues following up on where an application was and the steps needed.
The team improves the journey significantly, making changes not only to communication, but also to internal processes getting in the way of a successful experience. The journey was able to pin point the three key areas to address in the revised journey:
- One central point of contact: frequent changes in contact persons, inconsistent knowledge, and limited availability made it frustrating for users to realise an electrical connection. They longed for one contact person.
- More complete start to a project: kick-off meetings for projects weren’t always covering all possible issues, leading later on to project delays.
- Effective follow-up: many experienced the communication to be reactive and not clear (especially for one-time users). They also missed a central place to find all documents.
The nitty gritty
- 3 sessions with Alliander customers
- 5 questions on experience today and draft communication flow
- Sessions explored the needs and assumptions
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Ellen Bark-Lindhout
Strategy Director
Tess van Logtestijn
Research Lead
Talk to our expert on this story
Talk to our expert on this story
The challenge
The Customer Experience team at Alliander, one of the largest grid operators in the Netherlands, was tasked with designing the journey to apply for and realise a new electrical connection for projects such as hotels or industrial buildings. This journey can take up to 2 years given the backlog.
The research focused on communication to B2B applicants. The team had sketched out a draft communication approach. Key questions to answer were:
- Who are the different applicant types and what are their needs in terms of communication?
- How do they experience communication with Alliander today? Why?
- What do users think of the draft communication flow?
- How to improve?
The outcome
The research uncovered that the communication flow needed to be adjusted in many ways. Given the lengthy time period, many users had issues following up on where an application was and the steps needed.
The team improves the journey significantly, making changes not only to communication, but also to internal processes getting in the way of a successful experience. The journey was able to pin point the three key areas to address in the revised journey:
- One central point of contact: frequent changes in contact persons, inconsistent knowledge, and limited availability made it frustrating for users to realise an electrical connection. They longed for one contact person.
- More complete start to a project: kick-off meetings for projects weren’t always covering all possible issues, leading later on to project delays.
- Effective follow-up: many experienced the communication to be reactive and not clear (especially for one-time users). They also missed a central place to find all documents.
The nitty gritty
- 3 sessions with Alliander customers
- 5 questions on experience today and draft communication flow
- Sessions explored the needs and assumptions
Talk to our expert on this story
Talk to our expert on this story
