ENERGY · TARIFF SWITCHING
Reduce tariff comparison abandonment.
Energy switching is a considered purchase disguised as a commodity. The product is identical whoever supplies it, so the entire decision rests on price shape, contract length and whether the buyer believes the estimate.
Comparison site → tariff table → usage estimate → contract term → application. Loss concentrates at the usage estimate, where the buyer discovers the headline price depends on a number they do not know, and at the term selection, where a fixed deal asks for two years of commitment against an uncertain market.
THE FRICTION MIX
Commitment and price, in that order.
The instinct is to read every energy hesitation as price sensitivity. Most of it is not: the buyer has already accepted the price band, and is stuck on what happens if they are wrong about the term or the usage.
Commitment friction
Fixed versus variable, exit fees, and what happens if the market moves. The dominant friction, and the one a discount cannot answer.
Price friction
Standing charge versus unit rate, estimated annual cost, and whether the quoted figure survives a real winter.
Coverage friction
Meter type, smart meter compatibility, property status. A hard constraint — and if the answer is no, say so before the application.
SIGNALS THIS SECTOR PRODUCES
Comparison-site referrers arrive pre-primed on price and under-informed on terms. That referrer alone shifts the prior towards commitment friction.
The friction vocabulary →A WORKED DECISION
One session, on the tariff table.
01 · WHAT THE SESSION DID
Arrives from a comparison site, toggles 12-month and 24-month fixed four times, opens the exit-fee FAQ, returns to the table, then stalls for 40 seconds without starting the application.
02 · THE HYPOTHESIS
Commitment friction, confidence 78%. Not price: the buyer never re-ran the usage estimator and never looked at a cheaper tariff. They are trying to price the risk of being locked in.
03 · THE RESPONSE
Level 3 — one question. “How long do you expect to stay at this address?” Two answers, each mapped to the matching term with its exit terms stated. Answering it visibly changes the table.
WHAT THIS SECTOR USUALLY DOES INSTEAD
“Prices rising soon — lock in today”
Exit-intent overlay with £30 credit
Chat bubble: “Need help choosing?”
The first is manufactured urgency on a regulated product and is forbidden at render time. The second pays margin to a buyer who was choosing a term, not a price. The third asks the buyer to do the diagnosis.
AND WHERE WE STAY SILENT
A buyer moving steadily down the table towards the application gets nothing. So does one who has already dismissed a surface, and one whose meter type rules them out — that last case gets an honest early no, not a captured lead.
L0 IS STILL THE MOST COMMON DECISION IN THIS SECTOR
THE ECONOMICS HERE
One recovered contract is worth two years of margin.
Energy has thin per-unit margin and long contract life, which makes contribution margin per acquired customer the only sensible unit. A conversion-rate lift that steers people onto a variable tariff they leave in four months is a loss reported as a win.
It also makes restraint affordable. When one recovered two-year fix pays for months of platform, you can be silent on nine sessions in ten and still be ahead.
WHAT A PILOT SCOPES TO
Two weeks in shadow mode first: every decision recorded, nothing rendered to a single visitor.
How a founding pilot works →THE CASE STUDY WE WANT FROM THIS SECTOR
Reduce tariff comparison abandonment — with the discount switched off.
FOUNDING PILOT SLOT
OPEN · BEACHHEAD SECTOR
The demo account is modelled on this journey, so the fastest pilot to stand up is an energy one. What we want to publish is narrow and checkable: friction distribution across the switching funnel, incremental margin per completed switch against a permanent holdout, and the share of sessions we deliberately left alone.
Bring us your switching journey.
Two weeks in shadow mode, one journey, one outcome. You see the friction distribution for your own traffic before anything renders.