Origin’s Digital Product Manager, Sarah Howard, has long been pursuing and championing the potential of technology to help solve problems and make energy smarter and easier for our customers.
For the last four years, Sarah’s role has focused on creating Origin’s digital solutions and improving the customer experience through accessibility and personalisation. Sarah has delivered Origin’s mobile app and live chat – tools that make energy easier and help customers take control.
“The world is changing rapidly, and so are our customers’ expectations. They want transparency and control and they want to engage with us anywhere, anytime. From web browsers to apps, smart home devices and voice technology – we’ll be there, where they want us,” says Sarah.
Inviting customers to the new Origin Customer Experience Lab, in our Melbourne office, to talk through products and ideas has helped us discover customer problems and test potential solutions.
Sarah continues, “We absorb customer feedback, data and insights to hone-in on what our customers want and expect. We then research and test new solutions until we land on the best result.
“We believe that energy should be easy, and we’re offering tools and services to do just that through our app and online. It’s about helping our customers to understand their energy use and get on top of their energy management – making a difference to their bills and their impact on our planet. That’s one of the ways we’re getting energy right.”
When it comes to our app, Sarah says, “I’ve been blown away by the response we’ve received. Energy is typically a low engagement category, but we’ve seen our customers using our app twice or more a week on average for everything from paying their bill, monitoring usage, submitting their own meter readings or booking a move.
“This is just the beginning of a smarter, simpler Origin with easier service for our customers. We’ll continue to expand our digital platform, making our online channels the channel-of-choice for customers.”
