Adding a Spark to the energy market

Spark

We created an entirely new brand for this challenger energy supplier - then built a chatbot that transformed customer experience and call-centre culture.

We created a new identity, plus a friendly and efficient chatbot.

Spark is the leading energy supplier specialising in the private rental sector in the UK.  At a time when the entire business was taking knocks from Ofgem, Spark needed to differentiate. They came to us for a complete brand makeover.

 

In a later, more technical project, we created a bot to handle up to 60% of Spark’s calls during peak times, while increasing customer engagement and satisfaction.

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A friendly, trustworthy new look

We created a unique proposition, language and imagery to help carve out Spark’s niche in a busy market. A new strapline, ‘bringing energy to life’, underlines the company’s promise on communications across all channels, digital and analogue. The visual identity is applied right through from above-the-line advertising to bills, letters and emails.

 

The impact of the new identity was positive and immediate, with a 25% increase in new customer sign ups.

“Ami is friendly, engaging and most importantly, capable of handling 60% of calls at peak times.”

Keeping it amicable

We built Spark’s bot to handle customer readings, online signup, balance enquiries and, crucially, payment. We made it friendly and engaging, so customers wouldn’t miss dealing with a live voice. On the contrary, we were sure they’d prefer using the bot for quick, routine transactions.

When it was ready for deployment, our innovation team made sure the bot was fully connected to Spark’s systems and able to process calls, all within a 48-hour window.

We reasoned a bot could handle over 60% of Spark’s inbound calls, slashing the time callers had to wait for attention and freeing staff to do more profitable tasks.

The solution to a call-centre nightmare

Every month, thousands of customers were calling Spark to make payments, query bills and submit meter readings. Customers were on hold for as long as thirty minutes, staff were demoralised by repetitive calls, and it was costing Spark a fortune. We knew we could help.

After trawling through records to classify type, length and repetition of calls, we created an automated service assistant - what’s widely known as a ‘bot’ - to handle the most common types.

Results

The new brand identity for Spark has seen incredible results

25% increase in sign up

Customers are able to carry out transactions on the phone in seconds.

Trustpilot rating has moved from mid-table to overtake the big six energy suppliers.

20% rise in meter readings

Mobile site usage increase from 24% to 33%

Live chat volume up by 100%

Costs are down, staff are more motivated

Spark’s CustomerSure score has risen to 7.9