Clevergy: conversation design review

Clevergy helps people understand and cut their electricity use at home. Its team already had a voice assistant that answered questions about electricity prices, gave saving tips and, with a linked account, told you how much you’d spent.

The assistant worked, but conversations fell short. They asked us for a review and a list of improvements their team could apply.

The challenge

We tested it the way anyone would. We found problems that are common in a first version: conversations that ended after every answer, features that were hard to discover without a menu in sight, and dates that had to be said in a very exact way.

What we did

We delivered a report with recommendations and ready-to-use sample dialogs. Among other things, we proposed keeping the conversation going by offering the most useful next step, understanding dates the way people actually say them, and letting people know when a figure isn’t available yet. We also suggested adapting the welcome to how familiar each person is with the assistant and improving the help when the assistant doesn’t understand. And we added guidelines so the screen supports the voice without depending on it.

Results

The Clevergy team got a diagnosis of its assistant and a practical guide to improve it.