Logistics Company: Enabling Customer Service Excellence
THE CLIENT'S INITIAL GOAL
Transform the client’s customer service practice based on opportunities identified in a service blueprint workshop. ​
WHAT MY RESEARCH REVEALED
Processes that the client thought were being widely used to handle customer requests did not reflect the routines of customer service representatives. Their tools also did not support efficient handling of customer requests.
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WHAT MY DESIGN ACCOMPLISHED
Customer Service Representatives had a clearer path to respond to more complex customer requests quicker. Leadership roles had more visibility over the performance of their representatives, allowing them to address opportunities sooner.
MY ROLE
Lead UX/UI Designer and Researcher
DURATION
Three months
DELIVERABLES
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Service blueprinting workshop (with artifacts)
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Low-mid level wireframes for design solutions in Salesforce
Disclaimer: Some artifacts, content, and wireframes have been modified or omitted to comply with client confidentiality agreements (NDAs). Further details can be shared in a confidential interview setting.
Trusting the Client but Verifying the Problem
The service blueprinting workshop with key stakeholders and several managers from their customer service practice was done in a single day. I had taken the initiative to review the client’s customer service training materials to ensure I was strategic about our itinerary.
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From the first two activities we paired down the project’s focus to:
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Standardizing customer data, best practices, training, and support materials.
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Simplifying how customer service requests of all complexities were handled.
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Empowering the customer service team to deliver quality support and embrace change.
In the first activity we defined what ‘success’ and ‘failure’ looked like to the client to ensure that there was a shared vision and method of measurement.
In the second activity we created an ‘as-is’ map to break down relevant workflows, scenarios, tasks, tools, outside processes and ‘players’.
The most impactful activity was when I observed Customer Service Managers and Representatives in their natural routines. This was done while the client was still in the workshop to ensure interviewees could speak and act freely. I affinity mapped notable quotes and insights for the client before we started solutioning.
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The client was most surprised to hear:
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Efficient and accurate handling of customer requests was dependent on the Representative’s tacit knowledge despite access to support tools.
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Representatives found it difficult to prioritize customer requests that were time sensitive, from larger customers, or required coordination between multiple teams.
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Excessive toggling and time-eaters put pressure on Representatives since their performance was judged on how fast they completed a customer request.
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Maintaining a consistent experience for the customer was difficult because Representatives addressed requests based on their interpretation of the need, historical knowledge of the customer, and internally created templates/standards.
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Image shows insights from the affinity map and the resulting Customer Service Manager profile.
Establishing a Strategic Approach
I partnered with our development team to turn the workshop synthesis into measurable outcomes. I developed a phased approach for the client since:
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They needed a stronger framework for more complex enhancements.
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Certain processes/systems needed to be more standardized.
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Their customer service team was resistant to new tools/procedures, which meant we needed to build trust, provide effective training, and start with smaller enhancements.
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Our solutions had to be sensitive to the client’s budget constraints for the end of the year.
In four phases, we would move from 'quick wins', low-risk solutions that had a positive impact, to ‘big bets’, high-risk solutions that were more transformative.
Phase 1 focused on creating an optimal path for Customer Service Representatives to handle customer requests. For our development team this involved automating their more tedious tasks, which I supported by building templates and writing content for newly automated customer service communications.
My design tasks were:
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Refined their customer service ‘Help Center’ in Salesforce to close knowledge gaps amongst Representatives and standardize key practices.
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Created a dashboard in Salesforce to track key customer service metrics.
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Restructured the customer request queue in Salesforce to make request handling more efficient and allow Representatives to prioritize requests easily.
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The way my design work aligned with and augmented development efforts helped:
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Double the return rate of customer service surveys.
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Average a 4.8 CSAT score.
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Maintain an initial response rate to customer requests to less than an hour.
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Increase Customer Service Representative productivity by almost 20%.
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Images show low-level wireframe of the Salesforce dashboard, example of an accessible line graph created for the dashboard, and final screen from the 'Help Center'.