Making Con Edison's My Account customer-focused
Clear transactional support content enabled customers to understand and pay their bills without calling customer service.
Role: Associate Director, Content Strategy
Agency: POSSIBLE
Client: Consolidated Edison of New York, Inc.
Third-party Partners: Sachs Insights (research), O Power (personalized data insights)
The challenge
Con Edison provides electric, gas, and steam service to 3.4 million customers in the New York metropolitan area. Customers rely on Con Edison’s service, but trying to manage accounts or pay their bills on the website was difficult:
There was a two-day to two-week time lag between opening an account and being able to log in.
When customers paid online, they didn’t receive a confirmation message or email and risked late payment fees.
While customers could view past bills, they couldn't easily compare their energy use or costs over time.
Customers couldn’t trust the website, so they called customer service.
The account section before redesign
Account information was overwhelmed by duplicative navigation.
The solution
Working with Sachs, The Possible team held multiple user research sessions to learn what customers needed from My Account. As the UX team built prototypes, customers used each and provided further feedback.
This allowed the team to define our goals.
Transactional goals
Make it easy for customers to get things done -- pay their bill
Make it easy for customers to understand what to do and what they've succeeded in doing
With clear error messages
With confirmations for all forms
By only including the steps needed to complete task of each form
Make customers trust the site; choose self-service on the transactional site
Testing transactional vocabulary
As part of user testing, I audited confusing terminology and created alternates to test. While testing, we asked customers if they understood terms and program names used on My Account. They often didn't.
The navigation of the new My Account
Unlike the old My Account experience, with an overwhelming amount of sub-pages, the new My Account grouped related data together so users could see their information more easily.
For example, being able to pay their bill is the customers' primary goal. Working with my UX designer, I ensured this primary content was first, and customers could see their bill amount and pay as soon as they logged in.
New My Account content
After we had a page structure approved, I worked with our UX Lead and Business Analyst to understand what content would be provided by a service call and how many states each transaction could have. I begin creating detailed copy decks, including:
Labels
Microcopy
Help Messages
Error Messages
As content was reviewed by our Con Edison product owner, and service call requirements changed, the copy deck was updated.
Pay My Bill copy deck
The wireframe for Pay My Bill
Together with the copy deck, a wireframe was shared with the clients to help them see and identify copy sections.
The final Pay My Bill page
After five tested iterations, the new Pay My Bill was released. The final version simplified the information users were required to input based on payment method.
The results
The new My Account was released at the conclusion of the second phase of the project, approximately six months after the redesigned site. Its improved functionality and clear content allowed customers to understand the status and amount of their bill (including if the balance was $0) at any time.