How can a good customer portal become even better? For the energy company Groupe E in western Switzerland, it was clear that good usability and a consistent focus on the needs of users are central to high customer acceptance.
The customer portal "My Groupe E" was technically modernized, enhanced with new functions and better adapted to mobile viewports. The previous portal was already an important support channel for the company with low costs. The company "cc energie" took over the project management and acted as an point of connection between client, developers and UX designers (Ergonomen).
Fig. 1: Previous customer portal
We analyzed the existing customer portal with a focus on layout, user guidance, comprehensibility and usefulness from the user's point of view and identified potential for improvement. In several sprints we built the new UX concept and deliberately made sure to reuse the elements and processes that worked. The Axure prototype - the clickable concept - was always accessible to project managers and developers, which allowed for short iteration cycles. At the same time, of course, the prototype served as a great basis for user testing.
The visual design was continuously integrated into the prototype. Users were also involved at a very early stage: The concept was validated in usability testing with end users before it was programmed by the developers. The functionalities were and still are extended step by step.
Fig. 2: Usability test with the high-fidelity prototype
In addition to the high-fidelity prototype, we supplied cc energie (and Groupe E) with a design system and style guide. Both serve as a basis for future developments.
Thanks to the close collaboration between project management, developers and Ergonomen, the customer portal was implemented efficiently and successfully. After the go-live, Groupe E has registered practically no support requests for the new customer portal! Already in the first days, the portal recorded an increase in registrations and many successfully executed self-service actions such as moving notifications or product changes. A complete success!
Fig. 3: Redesigned customer portal
