CASE STUDY: Analytics spark UX improvement for energy company

Background and aim

Genesis Energy is New Zealand’s largest energy retailer, serving more than 650,000 homes. The business also generates electricity through a thermal power station and a series of renewable hydro schemes. In 2013-2014 Genesis served 26 per cent of the retail electricity market and 42 per cent of retail gas while also producing 14 per cent of New Zealand’s electricity.

With such high market share, any increase in monthly online sales is worth a high amount of incremental revenue.

Unfortunately, whilst the company had strong web traffic, the business experienced issues converting those online visits into sales. Genesis didn’t know what users were doing on its site and was unable to track their movements. The company had no information regarding user behaviour, patterns or site drop-off rates. It wasn't even sure about the effectiveness of the online customer signup form and whether it was creating a potential roadblock. Genesis needed to gain more insight into online customer behaviour so it could redesign web pages to be more effective. To help achieve this, the energy company brought in Singapore-based digital analytics consultants, Sparkline.

Execution

Sparkline implemented Google Tag Manager (GTM) across the Genesis website. With GTM in place, and then Google Analytics implemented within it, every user action on the site could be captured, making it easier for Genesis to study user behaviour and related patterns. When it came to analysing the effectiveness of the company’s online forms, Sparkline also ensured that every user action was tracked, including, crucially, the dropoff point.

This analysis provided information that enabled Genesis to take the right action toward greater levels of user acquisition and increased conversion rates. Leveraging the online-form data allowed the energy company to pinpoint exactly where abandonment was occurring. Based on this information, the company was able to optimise its website and forms for superior user experience.

In a before and after example of the kind of optimization Genesis performed, the company added "Pricing Plans" to the "For home" section (highlighted in red on the left side of the page).

Results

The improved online experience, powered by analytics, led to a multimillion dollar revenue increase.

This improvement in conversion enabled Genesis to increase its AdWords investment. In addition it is exploring attribution analysis so it can continue to grow sales through other media channels.

The work helped to identify problem areas and enabled Genesis to make accurate and effective changes to online customer experience. The company is now poised to move to Google Analytics Premium and DoubleClick integration, segmentation and optimising the customer lifetime value, giving it more control and ongoing insight into customer data.