A telecom company asked us:
How can we improve our customer experience and reduce support costs?
After previously receiving low usability scores on their site, our client wanted to evaluate other high-performing company websites to prepare for a major redesign project.
User experience research showed that their current site didn’t focus on the user, ultimately creating a negative user experience and reduced customer satisfaction. This resulted in increased support costs, particularly a growing demand for additional call center resources to assist users with web and account issues.
Additionally, this company served a large number of Spanish-speaking customers and they wanted to conduct research with Spanish speakers to best understand how to create positive user experiences for this segment of their customer base.
We Answered:
AnswerLab set out to learn what makes an effective digital experience for telecom customers. We focused on elements, features, and information architecture to inform our client’s new website strategy, which was based on a competitive analysis of industry leaders.
Through comprehensive customer research and prototype testing, the client would gain data-driven insights to improve their website before launch.
Based on our recommendations, we set out to conduct a multi-phase mixed methods research project. The first half of the research aimed to learn what to incorporate into the website redesign by looking at comparable industry websites.
The second half of the program focused on the usability of a prototype website, diving into the following questions:
- Does the new information architecture make sense to our users?
- Does the new website meet users’ expectations and feel intuitive to them?
- Do we answer all the questions on the website in order to alleviate the need for customers to call the support center?
With the prototype, our goals were to ultimately learn what users wanted and expected to see on their provider's website (including shortcuts, features, and navigation) and validate that the new design would actually lower the impact and burden on the call center support.
To support the client’s web and design team with insights throughout the development process and keep stakeholders aligned, we conducted a research program consisting of both qualitative and quantitative projects conducted at a staggered but often overlapping cadence to efficiently process findings for the time-sensitive project. Our team of researchers utilized various research methods including IDIs, Open Card Sorts, Tree Tests, Click Tests, and more.
Additionally, throughout the research program, we spoke with 1,000+ Spanish-speaking customers within a specific region who were recruited over the course of 5 months–a tricky recruiting challenge but a vital piece of the puzzle for this project.
>> Learn more about how quantitative UX research can get your data-driven insights to fuel product decisions.
Outcome:
Through the early competitive analysis and subsequent customer research, we helped our client create successful prototypes based on other top-rated industry websites and inform the development of their new website. They were able to iterate on the prototype, leading to a better customer experience, and ultimately solving their primary goal of reducing the reliance on customer support channels.
We delivered insights on the types of features users loved and hated, as well as areas where customers needed more assistance in order to improve self-service options and reduce support calls.
Continuing to monitor post-launch is a critical part of any redesign process. We will continue to support our client with post-launch testing and ongoing measurement to iterate on improvements and ensure it's meeting shifting user needs over time.
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Looking for an additional case study? Learn more about how to optimize Information Architecture for improved user retention.
