Comparing Prices and Enrolling Over the Web

An energy customer with service provided by a competing firm goes to a Web site to follow up on a price comparison ad he saw.

He is prompted to answer a series of questions. For the first question, he indicates that he wants to receive both gas and electricity service from this company. For his electricity service provider, he selects from a drop-down list that is specific to his region. That action triggers another drop-down list to appear from which he specifies his current service tariff or rate.

Looking at his most recent bill, he enters his quarterly costs. Since he has chosen gas and electric, he then answers similar questions concerning his gas service, and then clicks Finish.

Using the gathered information, the Price Comparison calculator generates his projected annual bill. For each of the company’s rate plans, he also sees the savings by switching to the company.

He selects the rate plan that saves him the most money and then clicks the Enroll button. He is then brought to a view that has the proper orderable service entered as a line item. Because he is not an existing customer, he is required to go through new user registration before he can complete the transaction online.