Accenture Interactive followed on from last year’s gold at the Loeries awards ceremony, taking home another gold this year in the Service Design category for its Nedbank Smart Geyser solution.

“This gold now affirms the relevance and impact of digitisation as a means to engage and market to modern consumers,” comments Wayne Hull, Managing Director at Accenture Digital, Africa.

Hull explains that digitally-empowered consumers are constantly re-evaluating their brand loyalty and are switching to companies that are most relevant to them in the moment. “Brands and agencies that continue to apply outdated marketing methods and engage with consumers in traditional ways, will lose their relevance among today's discerning and demanding customers.”

To meet evolving consumer expectations, brands must move beyond traditional offerings and craft products and services that make it easier for consumers to do things that connect with their values and their everyday activities.

“This requires delivering personalised interactions across all brand touchpoints and experiences that are meaningful and impactful, as well as applying intelligence around customer data to contextualise and understand their needs more deeply,” continues Hull.

And that's exactly what Accenture Interactive did for Nedbank Insurance. Using a Fjord design methodology, Accenture Interactive designed an intelligent solution to solve a common and highly relevant problem that many home-owners experiences. 

Geysers account for a large portion of a household's monthly electricity costs, yet homeowners lack the ability to control this appliance. Geysers also burst or break, often while the homeowner is out or sleeping. This creates the inconvenience of dealing with no hot water or, worse, a flooded and damaged home. The resultant insurance claims are significant and cause considerable inconvenience.

To solve these challenges, Accenture Interactive designed the ‘Nedbank Smart Geyser’ solution, which consists of an automated telemetry device and sensors that is attached to a Nedbank Insurance Home Owner Policy customer's geyser and linked to an app on the customer’s mobile phone. The device and app are connected 24/7 to Nedbank.

In the event of a burst, the device senses moisture, immediately shuts off the water and electricity supply to stop the water flow and limit potential damage. A First Notification of Loss is also automatically logged on behalf of the customer, which initiates the repair and replacement process. A push notification is also sent to the app to alert the customer of the event, and the next steps to follow. This functionality helped to reduce turnaround time to five hours, compared to the 24 hours or more for non-Nedbank Smart Geyser assisted events.

A further benefit to customers is the ability to save electricity usage and therefore costs as customers can remotely switch geysers on and off and set schedules for optimum temperature and operating hours via the app. Homeowners were able to save an average of R600 per month in energy costs during the campaign in this way.

“By using the power of the Internet of Things and tapping into a homeowner's behavioural patterns, we reached into the heart of the home to both reduce everyday living costs, while also mitigating the risk of damage to property, household items and valuable personal possessions,” explains Hull.

“It's a powerful example of how the intelligent application of technology can change the way a brand like Nedbank engages with customers. By creating a hyper-relevant solution, the campaign built a powerful brand connection to entrench customer loyalty, while also disrupting the financial services industry,” he concludes.