4 things we can learn about digital onboarding from energy companies

Getting digital onboarding right is essential for delivering a seamless customer experience from the start, increasing conversion rates and making a positive first impression.

Energy and utility companies have had to adapt and evolve in this area, prioritising user-friendly, conversion-focused processes to attract more customers and minimise friction in a competitive marketplace.

Here are four key things we can take away from the Big Six energy companies and their online quote processes, who are (mostly) nailing digital customer onboarding.

Minimise steps

People are short on time, and let’s face it, attention span. In fact, recent studies have shown that adult attention spans are dwindling in the digital age – with half of the public feeling that their attention span is shorter than it used to be. With that in mind, if you’re looking to increase the conversions through your quote funnel, it’s best to get customers where they need to be in as few clicks or inputs (i.e. fields they have to fill in or selections to make) as possible. In our report, we found that three out of the Big Six energy suppliers could serve users with a quote within three clicks. For British Gas, it took upwards of twelve clicks. If a customer is scoping out different options and gathering quotes – whether that’s for energy or anything else – how long it actually takes them to get the quote could be a real differentiator. Why go through a twelve step funnel when you grab three more quotes in less clicks?

Make it obvious and intuitive

If something requires too much effort, people won’t want to do it. Potential customers shouldn’t need to spend time figuring out how your website or app works – they should be guided seamlessly by familiar functionality. As we’ve spoken about on the blog previously, when it comes to UI there’s a fine line between being innovative and elevating the experience and being different for the sake of it. If you stray too far away from what the customer is used to, they’ll get frustrated, stuck or lost, and lose interest. 88% of consumers are less likely to return to a website after a poor user experience, meaning if they’ve been frustrated once you might have lost them forever. For the Big Six, a lot of their quote funnels hit similar stages and rhythms – that’s not necessarily a bad thing, as users can more quickly access what they need when they know what to expect. Attempting to stand out by diverging from standard conventions for the sake of it can backfire. For example, Scottish Power doesn’t prompt users to confirm their usage before reaching the tariff options screen, meaning they have to go back and personalise after they’ve reached the quote phase. Initially it may feel like they’ve cut out a step to enable the user to get a quote faster – but in reality, they’ve made the experience more clunky.

Scottish Power’s quote funnel requires personalising your tariff after you’ve already reached the options screen, which is a little clunky in terms of user flow.

Mobile experience and accessibility

Creating a high-conversion funnel requires attention to detail, but not at the cost of ignoring some of the fundamentals. Consistency and accessibility for all users—regardless of ability or device—are the bedrock of a good digital onboarding experience.

Mobile experience

The average Google Page Speed Insights mobile performance score for the Big Six is just 37.5 – with Ovo and EDF performing best. While several providers offered good desktop experiences, we noted certain elements and how they would present on mobile hadn’t been considered as carefully. For example, Scottish Power’s quote CTA was getting pushed below the fold, and British Gas’ Chat widget obstructed some of the buttons and text. Adopting a mobile-first approach, or at the very least carefully considering mobile experience, is vital for engaging potential customers.

Accessibility

An estimated 1.3 billion people worldwide (1 in 6) experience a significant disability. Catering for everyone when it comes to your website or digital product is not only the right thing to do, if you don’t it’s a massive missed opportunity. Perhaps quite worryingly, WebAIM’s most recent Million Report – assessing the accessibility of the world’s top 1,000,000 homepages – found that there had been a 13.6% increase in accessibility errors compared to 2023. Turning back to Google Core Web Vitals to assess our Big Six, the average accessibility score was 92 out of 100.. Anecdotally, we found that in E.ON Next’s quote funnel, some buttons and selectors did not have sufficient contrast in their active state (i.e. when they were clicked/selected). This tracks with the numbers as EON had the lowest score (77 out of 100).

Aiming for minimal accessibility issues ensures the best possible experience for every user, increasing your conversion rates.

Avoiding choice overload

Much of what we’ve talked about so far relates to the information the user is asked to input before obtaining a quote. But what happens once they get to the other side? Presenting users with too much choice or information is detrimental to their experience and to their likelihood of converting. People can end up experiencing something called choice overload – where they get overwhelmed with too many options (also known as Hick’s Law). Reducing the amount of options and information presented to the user increases the likelihood they will make a decision and convert.

So what can we learn from our Big Six? We found that with Ovo specifically, the tariffs page presented the user with a lot of information – additionally it was presented in side-by-side columns with different heights, making it feel even more unbalanced and clunky.

Ovo Energy’s tariff options page is overloaded with information and choice.

By contrast, Octopus Energy only present two tariff options, with minimal text for each and the option to click in and find out more.

In contrast to Ovo, Octopus Energy’s tariff options page is stripped back, presenting the user with only two options.

Key takeaways

• As consumer businesses focused on differentiating themselves in a competitive marketplace, we can learn a lot about digital onboarding and user experience from energy companies.
• Minimising steps and streamlining the user journey helps to increase conversion rates.
• Making functionality intuitive and familiar greatly enhances the experience for users.
• Paying attention to mobile experience and accessibility is essential to ensuring everyone gets a consistent experience.
• Reducing choice and limiting the amount of information you’re presenting a user with will increase the likelihood of a conversion.

Find out more about the Big Six and their onboarding experiences by downloading our report.

Looking to launch a new offering or service and need an industry-leading onboarding or quote funnel? Get in touch and we’ll discuss how we could help.