Reduced reliance on call centers and improved retention by empowering customers with an enhanced self-service experience
Problem
Inefficient self-service options led 60% of customers to rely on costly call centers for issue resolution, causing operational inefficiencies, increased costs, and significant customer churn, ultimately impeding client retention and growth.
My Role
As a Design Researcher, I reviewed digital self-support trends and designs, recruited participants, conducted diary studies and interviews, and synthesized data to create design principles and recommendations for immediate fixes and long-term solutions.
Outcome
An improved customer self-support experience, empowering customers to easily find solutions through preferred self-service channels.
Overview
Client:
RingCentral
Duration:
July 2022 - September 2022
Methods:
Evaluative Research, Design for Happiness, Product Improvement
Team:
Project Lead, UI/UX Designer, Design Researcher (4)
Tools:
Research & Recruitment: Respondent.io, Google Meet
Data Collection & Analysis: Rev, Miro, Google Sheets, Google Slides
Design & Video: Figma, Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Media Encoder
Context
6 web properties
where users can access support content, which creates a fragmented experience
60% support cases
originated by phone
56% users
reported in an NPS survey that they didn’t search for any support content before calling
Research Question
How might we better understand the unarticulated needs and behavioral drivers of customers to envision the new self-service online experience?
Responsibilities
-
RESEARCH
-
Competitive benchmark and Trend Analysis
-
Participant recruitment
-
Diary study (Qualitative, unmoderated)
-
In-depth interviews (Qualitative, moderated)
-
-
SYNTHESIZE
-
Data analysis and Share-outs
-
Behavioral Insights and Tensions
-
Design principles and recommendations
-
-
INNOVATE
-
Facilitating co-creation sessions
-
Storytelling through videos
-
Experiential sessions with clients
-
Methodology
RESEARCH
-
Competitive Benchmark:
-
Compared self-support experiences by benchmarking the client's services against 9 reputable companies serving diverse customer bases.
-
Consulted expert articles, notably from Nielsen Norman Group, to gather best practices and inspire the interview and ideation phases.
-
-
Trend Analysis:
-
Identified trends in self-support at both the technological and strategic levels.
-
Highlighted the shift from reactive to predictive customer support enabled by advanced technology.
-
-
In-Depth Interviews:
-
Sent journals to 25 participants to elicit metaphorical pictures of motivations, triggers, and barriers to their learning mindset and journey.
-
Conducted 11 one-on-one empathy sessions and processed 25+ hours of video transcripts to deeply understand emotional drivers, goals, and dilemmas.
-
SYNTHESIZE
-
Behavioral Insights and Tensions:
-
Addressed behavioral tensions by examining why and how users seek support to create intuitive experiences that resolve these core tensions.
-
Insight 1: There is a strong shift in user mindsets towards using self-support channels, which the client can leverage.
-
Insight 2: Users seek focused care, meaning a support model that connects them to the right expert and prioritizes high-impact cases and accounts.
-
-
Journey Map:
-
Created a structured, visual story unraveling insights across the support journey.
-
Focused on the mindsets and experiences of SOHO, SMB, Mid-Market, and Enterprise customers.
-
Unpacked functional barriers and workarounds, illustrated with customer metaphors and quotes in their own words.
-
INNOVATE
-
Design principles and recommendations:
-
Framed comprehensive design principles and recommendations derived from both customer-oriented and functional levels.
-
Immediate fixes: Design recommendations for an enhanced self-service landing page.
-
Transformational solutions: Design recommendations for a reimagined self-service ecosystem.
-
-
Experiential Share-outs:
-
Finalized prototypes in collaboration with the C-suite and key stakeholders, based on collectively identified and prioritized design recommendations.
-
_page_1_PNG.png)
Outcome
Designed a unified self-service portal with:
01
Reduced the noise in finding relevant content by improving search options and curating content
03
Easy self-troubleshoot and communication of issues
02
Made content user-friendly and digestible by re-designing articles
04
Scalable platform to sustain continued customer growth
Impact
uplift in customers utilizing self-support resources, relieving the burden on call centers and reducing associated costs.
23%
Reflections
-
Working on this project was a significant learning experience as it was my first time implementing the Design for Happiness methodology for qualitative research.
-
The steep learning curve involved mastering the new methodology, adapting to a dynamic team environment, and presenting findings to clients effectively.
-
I identified key areas for improvement - better anticipating client questions, enhancing my time management, and fostering more proactive team engagement.
-
This experience has refined my approach to delivering impactful, user-centric solutions and increased my confidence in managing complex research projects.