Empowering energy customers with new digital interactive communication connection

Building on a long track record of innovation within the Spanish energy sector, electric utility company Cuerva wanted to explore how it could provide new value to customers, specifically around its customer service platform. Cuerva’s electricity distribution customer service teams had been primarily based in physical locations such as local offices and call centers. Lacking a more readily available digital customer service option, many of Cuerva’s customers had trouble finding easily accessible and digestible information about energy consumption and who to contact in the event of technical issues like blackouts. 

Cuerva asked propelland to help build a transparent, informative, 360º customer service digital platform, strengthening their perception in the eyes of the end-user and reinforcing their reputation as a reliable and transparent energy provider with 80 years of experience in the whole energy value chain: generation, distribution, and commercialization of energy, together with an extensive background in the design and construction of electrical and energy infrastructures. This in turn would carry on Cuerva’s legacy of people-centered innovation, further solidifying its status as a leader in the Spanish energy market. 

We brought together all of Cuerva’s customer touchpoints, both digital and physical, and unified them within a new web management platform, which includes a Customer Interaction Portal as well as a chatbot virtual assistant. We started off by developing the mobile-first user experience. The mobile version was challenging because it required us to incorporate complex information into an approachable, user-friendly mobile interface. This mobile first option grants instant portal access to users on the go, regardless of where they are. This aims to streamline the energy supply permits or initial paper requirements process for new clients. The new Cuerva Distribución portal is meant to make life easier for new and existing customers.

Accessible through desktop and mobile devices, the Cuerva Distribución portal is purely designed to be an interactive communication tool and resource for Cuerva’s electrical grid users. It allows users to reach out to the customer care team with energy-related questions, view their real-time home energy generation data, and learn important information to help them understand their energy consumption habits so they can make better decisions about their energy use. The portal is also designed to educate users by offering information about the energy supply chain and how it operates. We want them to become the center of their energy ecosystem.

We realized that opening a new line of communication to Cuerva customer care in addition to the existing customer service line would likely overwhelm Cuerva representatives. In a co-creation session with the customer care team, they helped us identify the most common questions asked by customers. Equipped with this knowledge, we built a virtual assistant chatbot to answer customers’ most common questions on the spot. The chatbot utilizes a multiple-choice system to understand and address customer needs without requiring them to call customer care. If a call is deemed necessary, the chatbot includes a call-back feature to easily schedule a call with a Cuerva customer care representative and avoid waiting on the line.