Customer Service Consulting
Problem: “We’re redesigning the Customer Service site and we’d like you to help us identify areas in our new design that could be better.”
- Manager, Member Service Center, Costco Wholesale
UX Assessment
My first engagement with this Customer Service Site Refresh effort was to review the solution that the Member Service Center Team had already put together, and then come back with some recommendation on next steps.
I composed a UX Assessment that gives an overview of the method, explains the areas covered, and then presents findings along with severity indicators that are based on my concern for usability. Along with the call-outs, I made either recommended adjustments, or asked questions.
Finally, I met with the project team to review my deliverable. They agreed with most of my callouts and decided to take further actions on their design. They let me know that they’d take it from there and that they’d reach out again if needed.
Usability Study
The developer though that the design was ready to go live. Someone from the team remembered that I had mentioned that it might be a good idea to have some users test the site before releasing the new design to the general public.
Using UserTesting.com, I put together a test plan having 5 key tasks that they wanted to ensure the new site would enable users to do easily. The study would have 10 users test the mobile version of the site and 10 users test the desktop version of the site. Mixed in, we also asked various perception questions. From the study we were able to capture both qualitative and quantitative data.
After the study was over, I compressed and coalesced the data into some working next step improvements. The project team was very pleased, said they appreciated all the hard work, and then committed to making several of the recommendations from the Usability Study Findings presentation.
Relationship with…
Call Center Staff Manager
The Call Center Staff Manager described their plans to redesign the Customer Service Site that people get to on Costco.com. After reviewing what they were needing for their design effort, I gave the manager and the rest of the project team UX strategy and time estimates.
Call Center Content Designer
The Designer explained their visual and experiential goals for the design. They also explained constraints that they had to work within while designing for the platform they were working within. Using mockups and scholarly sources, I helped the designer find some see different parts of the design from different angles.
Call Center Supervisor
The Call Center Supervisor pointed out the high priority content—FAQs and articles that would be the most common content users would be looking for. Using a UX Assessment and Usability Study Findings, I helped the supervisor and team understand if their content was visible or usable enough.
Contract Developer
The Dev gave me a test environment that I could use for capturing screenshots for the UX Assessment and for conducting a usability study. They also helped me understand any constraints or areas that were still under development. Between the UX Assessment and the Usability Study, I gave the Dev and team design recommendations that might help solve some of the usability hot-spots uncovered from the UX Assessment. Following the Usability Study, I gave the Dev and team further design recommendations.