Where energy meets empathy
Vattenfall uses customer insights to deliver clearer, more relevant experiences at every step.
7X
faster time to market
16-point
increase in Net Promoter Score for the welcome journey
5%
decrease in calls to customer service due to clearer, proactive onboarding communications
“Adobe gives us the ability to truly understand our customers and act on that insight at scale."
Florine Klop
Program Manager Digital Innovation, Vattenfall
Connecting with customers in a rapidly shifting energy market.
Energy is changing, and for millions of households across the Netherlands, that change can feel uncertain. Rising energy prices and new sustainability choices are reshaping daily decisions, increasing the need for guidance people can trust. In a market where switching providers is easy, Vattenfall saw an opportunity to build stronger customer relationships by helping people feel more informed and supported over time.
Delivering on that ambition, however, required more than intent. Disconnected systems made it difficult to form a complete view of each customer. Marketing, IT, analytics, and customer experience teams worked in parallel rather than together. And campaigns were often based on batch data, limiting their ability to respond to real behavior or changing needs. At the same time, customers wanted tailored advice on reducing costs, insights into their energy usage, and guidance on more sustainable living.
To support this shift from mass communication to one-to-one engagement, Florine Klop, Program Manager Digital Innovation, and Marijke Bootsma, Senior CX Marketing Manager, led the effort to build a unified customer experience foundation with Adobe.
Designing onboarding that builds early trust.
Working alongside partner Merkle, Vattenfall unified behavioral, transactional, and profile data into a single, real-time customer view using Adobe Real-Time CDP. Those insights feed into Adobe Journey Optimizer to orchestrate timely, personalized communications across channels. Data is unified in Adobe Experience Platform, connecting signals from across systems and enabling teams to understand and respond to customer needs as they evolve.
The result is an experience that unfolds over time rather than through a single interaction. When a new customer signs up, a welcome message introduces services designed to help them better understand and manage their energy usage. Customers can activate proactive alerts for unusually high consumption or disruptions in solar panel back delivery, while personalized energy-saving plans provide tailored recommendations based on details such as the home’s heating source and usage patterns.
As customers open emails, log into the app, or explore new features, each interaction shapes what comes next. For households with solar panels, for example, loyalty boost journeys can introduce services that help track back delivery and shift energy consumption to better align with solar generation throughout the day.
Onboarding programs now achieve email open rates above 70% and click-through rates of 25%, well above industry benchmarks. Loyalty boost journeys have driven even deeper engagement, with click-through rates reaching 48%.
“We wanted onboarding to feel like guidance, not just communication,” says Klop. “Adobe helps us respond to what customers actually need from the very beginning.”
“Adobe gives us a new way of working, where teams collaborate around one customer view.”
Florine Klop
Program Manager Digital Innovation, Vattenfall
Evolving from mass campaigns to lifecycle journeys.
As these journeys evolved, so did the way marketing, IT, analytics, and customer experience teams worked together.
Launching a campaign once required days of coordination across multiple systems and teams. Teams now design and activate journeys directly with Journey Optimizer, using real-time triggers and reusable templates to move faster with greater consistency. Marketers, analysts, and CX specialists collaborate more closely, building and refining journeys in a shared environment. What previously took seven days can now be completed within 24 hours, making it easier to test, learn, and improve continuously.
Teams can also tailor communications to individual motivations instead of sending the same message to broad segments. Some customers are focused on reducing costs, others on gaining control over their energy usage, and others on sustainability. These journeys help Vattenfall build loyalty through a deeper understanding of customer needs and guide customers through the energy transition in ways that feel meaningful to them.
“Customers expect communications that fit their situation, not generic messaging,” says Bootsma. “Adobe allows us to create journeys that make us relevant at every moment that matters.”
For instance, rather than waiting until a contract is up for renewal, customers begin receiving messages that highlight relevant benefits, from customized insights to rewards and services aligned with their needs, in the weeks leading up to a decision. These interactions are timed to match behavior and context, reinforcing the value of staying with Vattenfall. This approach reduced customer churn among certain target groups, helping retain valuable customers against lower costs. “Connecting data and journeys with Adobe allows us to engage customers earlier and more meaningfully,” says Bootsma. “That makes a real difference at the moment they decide whether to renew.”
By establishing a common foundation across marketing, IT, analytics, and customer experience, campaigns no longer move through disconnected systems or delayed workflows. Teams can design, launch, and refine journeys directly, supported by real-time insights.
“Adobe gives us a new way of working, where teams collaborate around one customer view,” says Klop. It also enables Vattenfall to scale customized experiences without losing consistency. Whether reaching one customer or millions, each interaction remains relevant and aligned with the brand.
“With Adobe, we have the foundation to keep improving. We can test, learn, and adapt continuously to deliver experiences that truly resonate.”
Marijke Bootsma
Sr CX Marketing Manager, Vattenfall
Reducing service pressure while increasing customer value.
As journeys become more relevant, customers are better equipped to manage their energy usage and make informed decisions.
Clearer onboarding and more tailored communication during the first three months of the customer relationship contributed to a 5% reduction in outreach to customer service, easing pressure on support teams while improving the new customer experience. Customers who engage with personalized journeys report higher satisfaction and demonstrate stronger loyalty, reflected in a 16-point boost in Net Promoter Score for the welcome journey and increased participation in loyalty programs.
At the same time, internal teams operate with greater speed and focus. Faster workflows and continuous experimentation allow them to concentrate on delivering meaningful experiences rather than managing complexity. For each customer journey built in Adobe, Vattenfall established shared KPIs across teams, helping align marketing, IT, analytics, and CX around common outcomes rather than departmental goals.
AI is extending these capabilities further. Within Journey Optimizer, offer decisioning helps teams refine offer relevance and better prioritize the next best action for each customer.
“With Adobe, we have the foundation to keep improving,” says Bootsma. “We can test, learn, and adapt continuously to deliver experiences that truly resonate.”
Vattenfall is now focused on expanding into new channels, advancing its decisioning capabilities, and deepening its use of AI to tailor experiences further.
Advancing towards a more personalized energy future.
In an industry defined by infrastructure and scale, Vattenfall is reshaping how energy providers connect with customers. By combining unified data, intelligent orchestration, and a collaborative culture, it’s creating experiences that feel both personal and dependable.
The result is not only stronger engagement, but a more meaningful relationship between people and the energy they use every day.
“Adobe gives us the ability to truly understand our customers and act on that insight at scale,” says Klop. “We’re creating experiences that are not only more efficient, but genuinely valuable for the people we serve.”
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