Yorkshire Water is a water supply and treatment utility company servicing West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, the East Riding of Yorkshire, part of North Lincolnshire, most of North Yorkshire and part of Derbyshire, in England. They serve a large student population and wanted to improve the experience for this customer group.
Challenge
During the months of June, July & September, Yorkshire Water experience an increase in telephone calls from customers believed to be the ‘student population’ requesting to either move home or close their account. The key challenges were:
- Online form was too long + not integrated into the back end systems. This drove contact as it does not provide any feedback to the user when they complete it.
- The information online was not targeted at a persona level as there wasn't enough understanding about Students & what they need and want from Yorkshire Water.
- Yorkshire Water collate a lot of information from customers and it was unclear what the minimum requirement was for this population.
Solution
- Understood from a Student’s perspective what was holding them back from using the online service to move home or close down their account.
- A user centred workshop to understand the ‘Student’ persona and their specific needs , motivations and pain points.
- Designed a future experience that would motivate a student to interact with Yorkshire Water through their online channel.
Outcome
- Two personas created and validated by Students themselves.
- Opportunities across the student experience provided to target students at the right time using things that interest and motivate them (even if that is a free Tote bag !) in order to build awareness.
- Designed a new Student area on the website with targeted information based on their specific persona.
“This approach helped us to design and build what the customer wants and not just what we want - Invaluable!” Jennifer Poole, Project Manager, Yorkshire Water
