E.ON Solar Panel
Digital Transformation
For Energy Business
Project Date: 2016 - 2017 , München | Clients: E.ON Solar | My Role: Service Design, UX, UI Design
In close collaboration with the world energy market leader e.on, we ( 2designers, 1PO, 1 scrum master, 2 front-end devs and 3 backend devs, ) increased the solar panel conversion rate to 300% in 2 months after the 2C landing page launched and continuous improvement.
The E.ON landing page on www.eon-solar.de digitalizes the early phase of the customer journey, providing the transparency of the offer and whole process. In the vision, e.on solar panel users will have the opportunity to receive an offer and to sign a contract in less than 1 minute.
"Who is the clients?" is the key question we need to answer first.
Based on the existing data, 2/3 of customers who installed solar panel lies in age 45 - 65. People of this age are rational customers. They compare multiple suppliers' offers and carefully make the final decision. How might we earn their trust in the early stage is the core of the design.
To detailed and target precisely the digital product, we asked two following questions:
"When the clients use e.on service?" "Which the most valuable touchpoint to improve as the first step?"
We collected insights by talking to Marketing, Sales, e.on customer, as well as the solar panel leads. In the Co-creation workshop with stakeholders, by using different canvases, e.g. Empathy map, Business Model Canvas, Value Proposition, AARRR framework, etc. The scope narrows down to the activation phase, the first 24-48 hours when the user landed on the landing page. This's the entry point to collect user data and hook them into the next phase.
"What's the trigger to purchase a solar panel?"
To answer this, a German moderator and I ran in-depth interviews with the target group. We found out the following 4 main reasons attract qualified leads to purchase solar panels.
Technique enthusiastic: Who likes to try out the newest technology and digital services.
Return on investment: Investment and saving calculation is very important.
Transparency: The solar panel from beginning to the end is very complex nowadays. Transparent progress is important to the user.
Sustainability: This is a one-dimensional Quality. In the green energy world, this is a must-have wording.
To meet the needs, the landing page is designed solar calculator, solar products, steps to installation, reviews, quality guaranteed. Here will only show how did we iterate the solar calculator.
On the landing page, we use dual-track agile to speed up the iteration process. The first version of the Solar Calculator was tested offline in the usability test. Here are our key user findings ( please hover over the pic to see)
Based on the feedback, the new iteration adds the roof highlights on the map view and provide the example address and expected the outcome in the calculator area.
In this 2nd version, we use Google Analytics and Hotjar (has heatmap and video recording) to track users' behavior from a different perspective. At the same time, we recruit users to understand the behavior behind the silent data and video.
Surprisingly, users told us they are losing control feeling by using this calculator. We evaluate the rest solar calculators again and add steps for the user to do customization. For example, in step 2, users fill in yearly electricity consumption.
Result
The conversion rate for solar pannel purchasing increased to 16.8% after 2-month launched in the whole of Germany. The website is translated into English and used for the UK market.