A kinder way to tell your energy supplier someone has died
I led the research, design, and launch of a new bereavements notification journey.
The problem
When someone dies, someone close to them must notify their companies: their bank, phone and internet providers, energy supplier, etc. In other words, they must carry out tedious, complicated admin, all while grieving.
There are three ways to notify E.ON Next of a bereavement: phone, email and online. The online route was via NotifyNow, a third-party portal. It was text-heavy with bereavement jargon, impersonal, and had many mandatory questions that were often unknown to the notifier e.g. account type and number. It asked for documents without explaining why, and failed to manage expectations, leading to follow-up emails from notifiers asking about the process.
Above all, it lacked the empathy, guidance and support people need at one of the hardest moments of their lives.
How might we make telling us someone has died online simple, clear and kind?
Before and after
Drag the handle to compare the top of the old and new pages.
BeforeAfter
Before: a cheerful cartoon, dense text, and a third-party portal as the only online route.
After: a gentler welcome, what you'll need up front, and three equal ways to get in touch.
Key quotes
“It's streets ahead of what I experienced… very, very good journey.”
“It's positivity in its simplicity, because when I felt like that, I couldn't process a lot of information.”
“Nothing that was unclear. Anything that had the potential to be unclear had an explanation.”
“It's what people need at a time like this. You don't want to have to think too much. You literally don't have the energy.”
“I like the fact that you've given all the information up front.”
The impact
Measured in October 2026, nine months after launch.