Success story

Charging e-cars just as easily as smartphones with Stadtwerke Langenfeld

By using epilot, SWS Energie GmbH has already noticed appreciable improvements within a very short time:

Sales in the energy industry have to adapt to new conditions: The demands from customers’ private everyday lives with Netflix, Amazon & Co. have long since been transferred to the requirements for services. Digital and customer-friendly systems are a prerequisite for services of all kinds. Products should be configurable and orderable online on all devices. In order to be able to achieve this, an uncomplicated and agile online sales system is needed.

This was implemented with Stadtwerke Langenfeld within a few weeks: In January 2021, a corresponding analysis revealed that the website had high visitor numbers on the topic of electromobility and that there was therefore both potential and a need for new and improved sales. The joint implementation took place until July 2021. Since the relaunch of the wallbox click track, the proven success (80 leads in 3 months) has increased enthusiasm and openness to new structures, so that Stadtwerke Langenfeld would like to follow up with other products, such as photovoltaics, in the future.

What was the initial situation?

The established solution in the sales process was a handling of data and inquiries via Excel spreadsheets. This exercised work practice meant an avoidable manual effort. In addition, these manual entries were not only slow, but also more prone to errors. The way of working was no longer up to date and ran the risk of no longer being able to meet the needs of customers in the sales process in the long term – after all, digital, data-driven customer relationships in particular are the way of the future. For this reason, Stadtwerke Langenfeld decided to reposition itself for the future.

After aiming to support the expansion of the charging infrastructure in the area of e-mobility together with the city and installing 8 public charging stations, Stadtwerke has also been offering commercial as well as private charging points since summer 2021. In order to be able to satisfactorily serve the increasing customer demand, it was decided to comprehensively improve the customer experience as well as the service in this area and to create digital customer loyalty. Charging your car as easily as charging your smartphone – that’s the motto of Stadtwerke Langenfeld.

"The service concept is becoming increasingly important due to the agile and rapidly growing market. We want our customers to be able to use our services as straightforwardly as possible. We want to deliver convincing concepts and incentives to meet customer demands."

Stefan Figge

Managing Director

Together with Verbandswasserwerk Langenfeld-Monheim GmbH & Co. KG, Stadtwerke Langenfeld GmbH reliably supplies its customers with natural gas, electricity, broadband services and drinking water, while also working on innovative services. Climate protection is one of the local utility’s most important guidelines. Dhe green electricity, which has been consistently awarded the official “TOP Local Supplier” seal of quality since 2011, comes from to 100 percent from sustainable energy sources and was supplemented in 2020 with the switch to climate-friendly energy in the natural gas sector. Thus, at swL-Eko-Erdgas offsets the unavoidable emissions caused by the combustion of natural gas in the home or business through additional climate protection projects.

Fields of application of epilot:

Turnover:	€ xx million (xx)
Company size:	100 employees
Location:	Langenfeld

Grid

Integrations with epilot:

SIV Integration

Customer Journeys

Software as a Service promotes innovation. This fact is best illustrated by customer testimonials that set new standards with cloud computing systems. If you want to learn more, contact us. We are also happy to arrange contact with our references.

"We need to try out new things and want to be more daring for a contemporary appearance. As a first step, we have decided to offer bundled household electricity as well as electricity for charging electric cars. We offer our customers a full-fillment service, from acquisition and installation to commissioning and connecting the wallbox."

Stefan Figge

Managing Director

What was implemented with epilot?

Stadtwerke Langenfeld is determined to streamline processes and launch an automated digital future.

For this purpose, a click track for the e-mobility section was integrated on the website. If there is interest in a wallbox/charging station, the request is now received via epilot and is then processed.

A key factor in the success of the project and the “one-stop shop” concept was the firm and efficient integration of partners: in concrete terms, this meant cooperation with selected local electrical contractors.

The special feature: The customer is given the opportunity to have a precheck performed. For a fee, a check is made to see if the grid connection is available and sufficient. If the contract is concluded and the device is installed, the customer is subsequently refunded the amount. During the precheck, all important electrical and spatial conditions are checked. Communication with the executing installers also runs with and via the epilot partner portal.
With the integration of the appropriate partners, the customer can be offered the one-stop experience: The municipal utilities take care of the purchase, installation, commissioning and power access of the wallbox. With the green electricity used from 100 percent sustainable energy sources, an environmentally friendly and low-priced tariff can be offered.

The epilot inquiry form for the installation of a wallbox consists of a click section in which three essential parameters of the customer are requested. After completing the contact form, the precheck can be performed.

This is followed by order confirmation, installation and commissioning. Connection and billing of the required electricity are simple and convenient via the household electricity.

Outlook for the future

So far, the e-mobility area has been configured with epilot. Further subject areas can now follow at any time and new business areas can be developed. This includes, among others, the lucrative B2B market. The important thing here is the flexible approach: you have to be able to try out different products and change them again later without any losses. This is essential for future-oriented sales. This is made possible by epilot's flexible licensing solution. With the epilot cloud solution, Stadtwerke Langenfeld has the right solution to adapt to the digital age, get started easily, learn based on customer feedback, and optimize continuously in the process. They also have the chance to position themselves as digital pioneers among Germany's municipal utilities. The next steps planned are the introduction of PV and storage products, as well as the optimization of internal processes with the help of epilot workflows.

Conclusion

The live launch of the new click section triggered additional demand from the municipal utilities – the conversion rate increased. Coupled with the result that inquiries can be processed more quickly, efficiency has been noticeably increased. The fast response to requests also increases the quality of service. The load input is now transparent, the Sales automated and scalable. All processes are self-sufficient and functionally intertwine. Because: A good holistic system architecture with all standard processes built in avoids unnecessary process loops. Overall, Stadtwerke Langenfeld can now act in a data-driven manner and control data dynamically. This also includes that the leads are accessible to all employees, so that every employee has insight and, above all, an overview. Moving away from individual closed systems and isolated solutions lays the foundation for a digital future.

The integration of the new software went quickly and smoothly. The advantage of a cloud infrastructure is that it can be easily rented, adapted and customized instead of expensive and time-consuming programming. The new software-as-a-service increases the digital competence of Stadtwerke Langenfeld – without overburdening employees or making it necessary to hire specialists. The easy-to-use software interface allowed staff to learn the system quickly and efficiently, so that it could be managed reliably.

Functioning data collection is essential for sales. All relevant information, such as inquiry figures, must be accessible to sales staff in order to react agilely to the market and provide customers with the right offers or even product bundles. Cross-selling and upselling potential can also be exploited in a targeted manner.

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