shared in confidence · independent concept · simulated data · not affiliated with contact energy
assembl concept contact energy
Independent concept prepared for Contact Energy
Rewarded wait states powered by assembling

Turn every bill shock into a trusted moment.

Contact Energy, reimagined

Your app makes households wait while bills are assembled. Assembling turns that wait into a reward they keep — power bill credit at launch, with more rewards rolling out. One line of code. You keep 55%.

1 line to install 55% you keep NZ only opt-in
9:41
optional · rewarded · +$1.14
Your bill, explained before it arrives.
30 seconds. One Good Nights adjustment staged. Nothing switched without your say-so.
18% rise explained1 adjustment stagedno surprises
show me my bill →
mana receipt · simulated
Approved by you.
moment completed
reward minted+$1.14
record kept byContact Energy
assembl seesnothing personal
whatever you call it stays on the mana receipt forever.
❚❚
my account
Kia ora, Hannah
Your bill — July 2026
$247.83
▲ 18% vs June · colder weather
Daily usage28.4kWh
7.2kWh above seasonal average
change one thing — watch the journey recompute
Wait time
52s
avg per session
Reward value
+$1.14
per wait state
Monthly revenue
$38K
55% to Contact
the pilot ask

the smallest credible next step.

01 · the scope
One billing cycle · 500–1,000 opted-in Good Nights customers in Auckland · a 4-week sandbox.
02 · the access
Read-only meter, weather and tariff data. Draft-write only for the bill-explanation card. No writes to the billing ledger in phase 1 — staged credit for phase-2 review.
03 · the scorecard
≥15pt uplift in bill understanding · ≥40% call deflection for "why is my bill this?" · ≥30% opt-in rate · 0 unapproved actions.

fail any line of the scorecard and we change the design or stop.

the boundary

No production access is requested by this concept. No live customer, price, reward or purchase is involved. Scope, privacy, security and commercial terms require joint approval before any pilot begins.

unfinished · awaiting the contact energy constraint

"the concept looks right except for one thing — [your constraint here]."

tikanga governance panel · signed off 21 jul 2026 · ref TIK-2026-07-21-C001
Every waiting moment

Every wait in a power account

Six moments between choosing a plan and opening a winter bill — the whole relationship happens in the gap between using power and finding out what it cost.

01
Before you switchComparing, none of it comparable
9:41
Your house, on each plan
Same twelve months of use, four different answers.
The one that suits you may not be the cheapest headline.
your usage
the wait feels like four plans that cannot be laid side by side

The comparison gets made against this household’s actual use rather than an average nobody lives in.

who funds itContact. A switch that happens for the wrong reason churns back out within a year.
02
The switch waitSigned up, nothing visible
9:41
Nothing needs you this week
Meter read booked. First bill lands after that.
You do not have to ring anyone.
on track
the wait feels like a fortnight where nothing appears to happen

The silence gets named, so it stops reading as something gone wrong.

who funds itContact. Every one of these silences currently produces a “has it gone through?” contact.
03
The first billOpened, and it is higher
9:41
Why this one is higher
Part billing period, part the cold week in June.
Here is what next month looks like.
explained
the wait feels like the moment the plan stops being theoretical

The bill explains itself in the order a person actually asks — what changed, why, and what happens next.

who funds itContact. A bill that explains itself is a bill that does not need explaining on the phone.
04
The hold queueOn hold, position eleven
9:41
While you wait, this is your account
Your balance, your last read, your plan.
If this answers it, hang up and nothing is lost.
answered
the wait feels like eleven minutes of a recorded voice

Most hold calls are one fact. Putting the fact in the wait ends the call before it starts.

who funds itContact. This is a contact-centre cost line before it is anything else.
05
The dark hourPower out, no information
9:41
It is the street, not you
Crew assigned. Estimate updates here, not on a phone tree.
Nothing you can do at the switchboard.
street-wide
the wait feels like not knowing whether it is your house or the street

The first question in an outage is whether it is only you. Answering that stops a call and stops a worry.

who funds itContact, and honestly nobody should sponsor an outage. Nothing is sold in this moment.
06
The winter billJuly, and it doubled
9:41
This was coming. Here are the options
Smoothed payments, or a plan that fits winter use.
No credit check to look at either.
options first
the wait feels like the bill you were dreading arriving anyway

The hard bill arrives with the options already worked out, before anyone has to ask for help.

who funds itContact. A household that arranges something is a household that stays; the alternative is arrears.
How the moment works

Four steps, every time.

  1. The signalSomething you already record says a person is now waiting, and roughly how long for.
  2. The predictionHow long this one will really take — not the average, this one.
  3. The valueSomething worth their attention goes into that window: an answer, a credit, a thing prepared while they wait.
  4. The exchangeThey get value. You get someone who stayed, and one optional answer you have always wanted.
the value exchange, playable
you earned
for four plans that cannot be laid side by side, which you were going to lose anyway

This is the reward layer, running for real on this page. Drag to scratch it. Nothing is collected and nothing is sent — it is here so the idea is something you do, not something you read.

This is not a new idea — it is an unbuilt one.

US retailers lose an estimated $37.7 billion a year to customers who abandon because of long queues, split roughly $15.8b to competitors and $21.9b abandoned outright (Adyen with 451 Research). The New York State Department of Labor reported a 48% reduction in hang-ups after introducing virtual queuing. Theme parks moving to virtual queues reported a 36% lift in per-capita spending, because guests spent the wait somewhere that sold something. A Seattle-Tacoma Airport study found 63% of passengers said they shopped or ate more because they saved time in the security queue.

Every figure here carries its source, and overseas figures are shown as overseas figures. We have not found a published New Zealand equivalent and we will not invent one.

Before you decide

What a pilot actually asks of you.

Written out in full, because the honest version is short and most of it is your time, not your money.

01

One named person

The approver. Every draft stops with them and nothing reaches a customer until they say so. About two hours a week, reading drafts rather than managing a project.

02

One situation, not the business

One wait on one customer segment, for six weeks — the first bill after a switch. Not the whole book, and nothing that changes a tariff.

03

Read-only access, nothing that writes

Read-only access to billing and meter-read events already emitted, and your published plan terms. No customer data leaves your environment and nothing writes to an account or a rate.

04

Your actual rules

The policies, limits and words the drafts are held against. Every rule shown on this page is a placeholder standing in for yours. An afternoon with whoever owns them is usually enough.

05

Six weeks, then a real decision

Scored on: Drafts a billing lead sends without rewriting. Contacts about a first bill against a control. Whether the bill needed explaining twice. And: would that lead be annoyed if you switched it off? Fail any line of that and we change the design or stop. You keep everything drafted either way.

06

A fixed fee, agreed in writing first

No number is published on this page, because it depends on which situation you pick. Whatever it is, it is agreed before any work starts and it does not move.

The straight yes

Run the pilot.

Say yes to the six weeks above, and add anything you would change first. Nothing here is fixed — most pilots move a line or two before they start, and the notes below are how that happens.

Opens your mail app to assembl@assembl.co.nz with your notes in it. Nothing is collected by this page.

You would be accepting
  • Six weeks, one situation, scored against a written line
  • Read-only access, nothing production
  • A named approver — nothing sends without them
  • A fixed fee, agreed in writing before anything starts
  • Stop any time. You keep what was drafted
This is a concept page. Accepting it starts a conversation and a written scope — not a charge, and not an obligation.