Contact Energy in New Zealand has passed significant milestones on its path to becoming a customer-centric organisation. Their achievement has been acknowledged with their recent wins in 2022 and 2023 CX Awards organised by Ashton Media. Mark Atterby from CXFocus talks to Claire Raeburn, Digital Transformation Practice Lead at Contact Energy in New Zealand, about winning the Best CX Transformation.
Mark Atterby (MA): How has being involved in the CX Awards process and winning the Best CX Transformation 2023 impacted your team at Contact Energy?
Claire Raeburn (CR): “Our team achieved significant recognition by winning the ‘Best CX Initiative’ in 2022 and subsequently, the ‘Best CX Transformation’ in 2023. These awards were a testament to the successful outcomes of our transformation efforts, which yielded strong results for both our customers, employees and the organisation.
Beyond the accolades, the awards provided a valuable opportunity to:
- Celebrate the team’s hard work and dedication.
- Acknowledge the valuable lessons learned throughout the journey.
- Showcase the positive impact of our efforts on customer experience.
Our ‘end-to-end customer journeys’ transformation involved significant changes to our team’s ways of working and introduced new principles. Initially, these changes presented a learning curve for the team. However, winning these prestigious awards provided crucial validation, confirming that we were on the right track and that our chosen approach was indeed effective.”
MA: How has winning these awards inspired your team?
CR: “I’m fortunate to work with an incredibly talented team at Contact. Our transformation towards a more customer-centric approach has significantly inspired them.
By deeply understanding the problems faced by both external customers and internal users, we’re better equipped to find effective solutions. This shift in perspective has been particularly impactful for our delivery teams.
Gaining a clearer understanding of the ‘why’ behind their work has been a major source of inspiration for them and continues to motivate them in their roles.”
MA: What has it meant for you personally and professionally?
CR: “On a personal level, this success serves as a powerful reminder that all the stress, tears, and sleepless nights were undeniably worthwhile. It’s been incredibly gratifying to publicly share our achievements and highlight the exceptional work we’ve been accomplishing at Contact.
A key takeaway for me, and something I’ll likely emphasise often, is that true excellence requires a laser focus on the user experience, coupled with impeccable execution. This can only be achieved through a robust and supportive team environment. Building a strong team and fostering a positive culture are paramount to success.”
MA: Please describe the CX transformation journey undertaken by Contact Energy?
CR: Our digital customer experience transformation for our retail part of the business commenced in 2020. Our overarching goal was to establish ourselves as a world-class experience provider, significantly enhancing the lives of our customers and employees.
We began by defining our core principles:
- Reimagine customer experience end-to-end: This encompassed all touchpoints, business rules, processes, and underlying systems.
- Prioritise iterative change: We are committed to delivering near-term improvements while simultaneously pursuing long-term innovation and experience-led transformation.
- Customer-centric decision making: We pledged to place customer feedback and insights at the heart of all decisions and initiatives.
The initial phase involved extensive customer and employee discovery, including workshops, interviews, data analysis, and benchmarking our digital maturity against global best practices. This phase was crucial for securing buy-in from our board and leadership team.
Upon completing the discovery phase, we identified four key focus areas for the next three years:
- Billing: This area resulted in our first award.
- Enhanced self-service:
- Seamless experience for CSRs and Customers:
- Broadband Business:
Each of these areas had dedicated initiatives with their own set of milestones, guiding our progress throughout the three-year program.”
Claire is a judge for the current CX Awards for 2025 where winners will be announced on March 6th, 2025