A global product safety firm asked us:
How do we improve our customer online portal to create a more efficient service?
We answered:
The portal was a non-customized implementation of third-party software, and there were concerns about its impact on customers, the brand, and the company’s reputation, in addition to basic concerns about usability.
AnswerLab needed to determine customer pain points on this portal and provide data-driven recommendations to improve the online customer experience.
To gather qualitative insights from a customer base that was scattered across the nation, AnswerLab moved beyond traditional usability moderation to conduct in-depth, remote, one-on-one guided interviews.
Remote usability technology allowed our researchers to watch remotely as customers across the nation were guided through several key tasks that we developed to uncover specific usability challenges. Users simultaneously talked about their experience in real time with our researchers on the telephone.
Outcome:
We helped our client see how improved usability could reduce customer support costs. We compiled the results of the remote usability sessions and identified the challenges that users faced when exploring the customer portal, providing detailed documentation and recommendations.
For example, users were forced to download a report’s text content separately from its accompanying figures and diagrams. Reducing the number of steps required to download a full project report would greatly improve overall site experience.
Using this information and our additional recommendations, our client was able to implement changes that:
- increased the portal usage by 45%
- reduced the number of phone calls to their customer service department by 90%
As a result, our client was able to maintain their excellent customer service at an overall lower cost.
