Rhythm Energy harmonizes customer experience with Amazon Connect

Rhythm Energy is a retail electricity provider based in Houston, Texas. Founded in 2020 with a mission to provide transparent and competitive renewable energy plans, Rhythm Energy values a cultural mindset that centers the customer experience in every facet of its operations. By creating a true partnership with end customers through engagement and education, Rhythm aims to build a lower carbon future that is affordable and accessible to everyone.

In its early days, Rhythm Energy relied on a combination of multiple solutions to manage end customer interactions. However, as the company underwent rapid expansion in 2022, including adding thousands of new customers through an acquisition, its existing tools struggled to scale effectively to accommodate the increased workload and demands. Rhythm Energy recognized the need to modernize its technology to align with its customer-centric business.

Striking a chord with a new experience

Rhythm Energy values the ability to communicate effectively with end customers. Telephony limitations, high costs, and a lack of seamless integration between the various platforms hindered Rhythm in their previous solution. Additionally, because various channels like voice and chat weren’t connected previously, the company faced challenges in encouraging customers to adopt self-service options. Customers would often call in over voice for routine tasks like bill payments and account management.

In September 2022, Rhythm Energy made the strategic decision to migrate to Amazon Connect, recognizing its potential to streamline operations, reduce costs, and enhance the overall customer experience. By December, the company had ported over all its workflows, and in January 2023, it went into full production with Amazon Connect.

What separates Rhythm in the energy market is their drive to make renewable energy affordable through innovative technology. Rhythm Energy leveraged Amazon Connect capabilities to drive significant improvements in its customer support operations.

Optimizing outcomes

By optimizing the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system for natural language and making it easier for customers to connect via chat, the company saw a remarkable shift – chat volume increased 600%. And since chat is available 7 days a week, Rhythm is available on their customers’ schedules.

“By engaging via chat, we can send links to our self-service solutions, so that next time, customers have the link readily available,” said Jennifer Schmitt, Senior Director of Operations and Customer Care at Rhythm Energy. “This allows us to teach them how easy it is to accomplish tasks with us, which was challenging when we were simply handling requests on their behalf over the phone.”

Rhythm Energy’s migration to Amazon Connect has yielded significant benefits, both in terms of financial savings and improved customer experiences. The company expects to realize a 40% cost savings compared to its previous solution suite, thanks to the Amazon Connect pay-as-you-go pricing model and consolidation of capabilities into a single customer experience application. Rhythm can also launch new channels and innovate customer experience quickly with the self-serve IVR and agent queueing.

Flywheel of the future

At the core of Rhythm Energy’s approach is fostering a “virtuous cycle” of customer interactions that creates value for both the company and its end customers. This virtuous cycle begins by engaging customers through personalized communications about their energy usage patterns and educating them on how to reduce consumption during peak demand periods.

As customers participate in these demand response programs and behavioral change initiatives, Rhythm can leverage grid flexibility to optimize delivery of renewable energy sources. The tangible customer value comes through incentives and cost savings from conscientious energy practices.

Looking ahead, Rhythm is doubling down on using technology like AI/ML and generative AI in Amazon Connect to make their customer interactions and demand responses even smarter and more effective. Rhythm Energy is excited about the potential of AI-powered agent assist capabilities. Those innovations are expected to further reduce handle times.

Simultaneously, this higher engagement and grid optimization made possible by customer partnerships allows Rhythm to lower carbon emissions. “If we have old technology that can’t communicate, you can’t do the virtuous cycle because you can’t have the conversation – conversation is fundamental for engagement,” said Schmitt.

By continuously investing in cutting-edge technology that facilitates rich customer conversations, Rhythm powers benefits while delivering tangible value to customers through education, incentives, and sustainable energy management.

“We aim to consolidate our solutions within Amazon Connect,” said Matt Camilli, Head of Engineering at Rhythm Energy. “The vision is to have a fully integrated system where our customer segmentation, campaign design, and profile data all speak the same language, enabling us to deliver a seamless and personalized experience across all touchpoints.”

As Rhythm Energy continues to embrace digital transformation and leverage the power of Amazon Connect, the company remains committed to its core mission of driving a more sustainable future for energy consumption on a foundation of great customer service.

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