Holaluz, improving by researching what matters to your customers

Holaluz is a one-of-a-kind electricity company that arose from the need to want to do things differently, to change the world. They were always clear about their purpose; connecting people with 100% green energy, the only solution to safeguard the planet, customizing rates for customers and betting on a new decentralized energy model. Today, 12 years after their birth, they continue to grow and transform roofs into producers of green energy for everyone.

Due to the expansion of these years, the company needed a detailed analysis of all phases of the onboarding process to optimize communication and retain new customers.

We started by putting together a team tailored to the customer and the project consisting of:

• 1 Digital Business Consultant
• 1 Head of Experience Research
• 1 Product Owner
• 2 Researchers

The ultimate goal was straightforward: to help Holaluz learn more about itself so as to identify opportunities, moments of truth and touchpoints which could be improved.

The self-knowledge process involved a number of stages:

1. Context. At this stage we seek alignment between stakeholders by drawing a consensual framework for collaboration, that is, we lay the groundwork and make sure we are all on the same page. Only by getting an x-ray of the context in its complexity and of the relationships could we improve it.

2. Discovery. We still wanted to find out more, so we set out all the information we had compiled in additional studies and reports on how the energy sector operates. We took a closer look at the conversion funnel and gathered more data through research: we conducted 12 in-depth qualitative surveys with the company’s customers and former customers which we then used to validate the insights gleaned from quantitative analysis of over 1,200 surveys.

3. Interpretation. In this stage we put ourselves in the user’s shoes to find out what they want and how they want it. We explored step by step the whole process new customers go through and mapped out the ‘customer journey as is’. Then it was time to look at and identify the moments of truth, the pain points and the resulting opportunities for improvement.

4. Ideation. Now that we had all the information we needed, it was time to create, come up with ideas and craft bespoke solutions. We ran an ideation workshop with the Holaluz team and invited along experts in areas such as gamification, social innovation and venture capital to add an outside view which would bring fresh input and enhance the session.

5. Prototyping. This led to a proposal for the ideal customer journey for Holaluz, a forecast of its impact on the company, and the action plan which would make it happen.

An essential part of the project was shedding light on the purposes and needs of the company’s customers so as to provide evidence-based decision-making principles. Using research, analysis and ideation, we helped them to understand what the real Holaluz customer experience is by validating (or not) the existing assumptions.

Furthermore, apart from the fieldwork we also turned the insights and friction points identified while shaping the journey into actionable opportunities.

The result: 458 final ideas, 35 prioritised actions and three actions currently underway.

This teamwork lays the foundations for future Holaluz research projects as an example of Best Practices in CX Research in the company.