Orbit Contact Centre is a SaaS product developed in-house at THG, and is used by customer service agents to communicate with customers via their online account.
My role: Senior designer, working with a junior designer, project manager and engineering squad.
UX optimisation of THG’s Customer Service product saves £572K per year
Every second saved for customer service agents when responding to queries equates to £19K in annual savings.
Our design improvements projected time savings of 30 seconds, meaning the total operational efficiency saving potential was £572,500 per annum.
Calculations based on 7M customer contacts (2021 data) with an average agent salary of £9.65 per hour.
The Challenge
Agents were not using the message templates to respond to customers as intended. Our initial discovery identified inefficient processes and duplication leading to 30,000 templates being saved in the system. Many were outdated, causing agents to lose trust and therefore opting to manually write individual messages to customers to resolve their queries.
Actions
1. Observational studies
2. User interviews
3. Journey mapping & analysis
4. Wireframing & prototyping
5. Usability testing
6. Collaboration with engineering
7. E-learning hub for staff training
2. User interviews
3. Journey mapping & analysis
4. Wireframing & prototyping
5. Usability testing
6. Collaboration with engineering
7. E-learning hub for staff training
Customer Service Agent using Contact Centre, @2x speed
Observational studies allowed us to establish context, build empathy & understanding
This research technique allowed us to observe the natural behaviours of customer service agents to see how they respond to queries. Some were done remotely, but we also did an on-site visit to the call centre in Northwich to sit amongst the agents; seeing how they work together as a team to solve customer issues.
We spotted inefficiencies in opening and closing multiple modals in the UI, switching to their email notes to copy response templates and using the blank template to individually write responses.
We spotted inefficiencies in opening and closing multiple modals in the UI, switching to their email notes to copy response templates and using the blank template to individually write responses.
User interviews allowed us to gain insights, pain points and opportunities for innovation
We conducted moderated usability sessions with 5 participants and captured their insights & behaviour when using Contact Centre’s Smart Templates to respond to various queries.
The outcome of the research analysis highlighted 6 key themes:
1. Users felt that template content was inaccurate
2. Poor relevancy of template suggestions
3. Checking customer details was difficult
4. Error messaging could be more prominent
5. A business need to reply to queries faster
6. Issues understanding the interface
1. Users felt that template content was inaccurate
2. Poor relevancy of template suggestions
3. Checking customer details was difficult
4. Error messaging could be more prominent
5. A business need to reply to queries faster
6. Issues understanding the interface
Summary of customer agents' research insights
Mapping the as-is process into a task flow
Observing user behaviour allowed us to map what was currently happening, to identify inefficiencies in the process.
Agents were switching to their emails to find pre-saved templates and navigating around the UI to open and close modals. Once they found the customer or order details, they then had to copy/paste it back into the message area.
All of this was taking up to 5 minutes per query; we knew we could reduce it down to 30 seconds with a better experience, leveraging template recommendations via machine learning.
Existing user journey highlight inefficiencies in agent workflow
A more optimised task flow reduces inefficient actions
We realised we could cut out these unnecessary actions by populating as much information as possible using templates, placeholders or surfacing it on the same screen. This would streamline the workflow for agents and reduce query response time.
Proposed user journey, minimising user action
Low-fidelity prototype video for the first design iteration
We conducted a moderated usability study to gauge user understanding of the proposed new interface design
Overall the feedback was extremely positive, with 83% of agents rating their overall experience of the new interface 9 out of 10, with the other 17% rating it 8 out of 10.
Smart Templates dropdown - user feedback
Details summary - user feedback
Key insights
Agents understood the template suggestions, but wanted them to be more integrated into the message threads to increase visibility and reduce friction.
Agents understood the template suggestions, but wanted them to be more integrated into the message threads to increase visibility and reduce friction.
They expected the system to find relevant templates to solve customer issues within 3 recommendations, and that surfacing 5+ was overkill. If the confidence score was flagged as medium/low, they wouldn't trust the template and wouldn't select it.
They loved having customer and order details on the same screen and provided many more ideas of high-priority information that we should surface in the new side-panels area on the right-hand side of the screen.
Final customer query interface - with Smart Template recommendations for quick responses
Customer details page
Order details page
Customer refund requests
Customer notes
"Ash and Josh presented some excellent prototype work and are now leading on the next steps for our contact centre system development. I got a really beneficial and comprehensive update from them, I'm delighted with how much effort and clear passion they've put into the review and UX process."
"Wanted to go out of my way to let you know how much they impressed me and what a credit to the UX team they are."
Danny Berry, Chief Experience Officer – THG