Call Center System
PROJECT BRIEF
Role
Product designer - Lead project designer
Platform
Desktop application
Team Size
2 scrum teams - each team: 1 SM, 1 PO, 1 BA, 5-6 engineers
Project Duration
Tool Stack
4+ years
Sketch, Figma, Whimsical, Invisionapp, Notion
The call center system functions as the central hub, serving as the linchpin for seamless connections with multiple CRMs. This fundamental infrastructure ensures efficient case management and streamlined customer support operations.
Central Hub: The call center system serves as the heart of the operation, functioning as the primary hub connecting to various CRMs.
Interaction Center: A comprehensive interaction center is integrated into the system, providing a unified platform for handling customer communication through phone calls, chats, and emails.
IVR System: The system incorporates an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system, enhancing customer identification by utilizing phone numbers, emails, or chat identities. This feature contributes to a personalized and efficient customer engagement process.
RESPONSIBILITIES
Process Optimization:
Enhanced internal workflows, fostering significant improvements in team efficiency and collaboration.
Implemented strategic initiatives to elevate the overall user experience through meticulous design solutions.
Strategic Coordination and Oversign
Executed on-site visits to the US, establishing direct communication channels with clients to gain an in-depth understanding of project requirements.
Crucial link between designers and stakeholders, navigating system intricacies, particularly during project initiation.
Design Conceptualization and Stakeholder Engagement
Collectively created low and high-fidelity design concepts.
Presented designs to stakeholders, including clients, for consultation and approval, ensuring alignment with project objectives and client expectations.
Quality Assurance and Innovation
Supervised the review process of mockups from team members, ensuring designs adhered to established standards and aligned with project objectives.
Led UI testing in every sprint and before release, identifying and addressing bugs to maintain design standards and ensuring a consistently high-quality end product.
THE PROBLEM
The existing system and technology were outdated, hindering the overall efficiency and adaptability to modern standards.
Reduce call time of agents for a more efficiency workflow and overall customers' happiness.
Reliance on standalone software products posed scalability issues, lacked integratability, and incurred high operational costs.
Business Problem and Initial Ask
But here's what we really found out, after observing call center agents and interviews:
Abundance amount of data presented to agents and they have to take more time to scan through.
Users had to navigate multiple standalone software products, resulting in limited collaboration opportunities and inefficiencies in task management.
EXPLORATION
User Experience Challenges Uncovered through Research
With limited direct contact with end-users, we conducted extensive UX research by consulting existing UXR or, if available, with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), including stakeholder interviews, journey mapping, reviews of existing documentation, surveys and questionnaires.
Learning curve:
Outdated technology resulted in a steeper learning curve for new users, wasted resources in training.
Users struggle with outdated interfaces, impacting efficiency.
Navigating through multiple standalone products:
Challenging in navigating between different tools, impacting users' workflow.
Limited collaboration opportunities lead to communication gaps among team members.
Unified user experience, creating inconsistencies in workflows and hindering overall usability.
Users experience inconsistencies in how tasks are performed across different tools.
User segmentation
Approximately, 90% of the users and their usage time align with the 'call center agent' category, indicating a significant need to focus on this user segment.
IDEATION
After gathering requirements and identifying pain points through research, we conceptualized several solutions. Sketching proved helpful as we followed an agile method to swiftly visualize the product's potential shape and get a rough idea of the concepts.
An example of a user flow created to brainstorm and validate our ideas with the client.
Brainstorming sessions with internal stakeholders and clients
By leveraging diverse perspectives internally and engaging clients for validation, we ensure our designs effectively meet project objectives and user needs while fostering collaboration and alignment throughout the process.
REVIEW AND REFINE
We conducted multiple critique sessions with leadership, designers, and cross-functional partners and made iterations based on the valuable input.
Brainstorm session to present options and gather feedbacks.
Concept testing: We conducted multiple concept testing sessions. Here's an example where it was conducted to gather feedback (n=6) on proposed email template and workbin features.
Insights from these sessions helped refine designs, ensuring the final product aligns with user needs and preferences.
Findings from this session:
We should put higher priority on Email workbin, compared to Email template.
4 out of 6 participants rank Email workbin as a more important feature that has a greater impact on team's workflow and increases efficiency overall.
Following concept testing, the findings indicated areas for improvement in both the current application and the new concept, while also highlighting the good points of both applications. Examples:
Call centres do not need certain features, they just create distractions.
Assign, auto routing and transferring emails is needed to improve efficiency and balance work load between agents.
Would like to preview templates before selecting one to prevent selecting wrong template.
Facilitate internal review sessions: when limited access to end users occurs, these sessions serve as opportunities to brainstorm, discuss, and evaluate designs internally.
OUTCOME AND LEARNING
We've successfully delivered the entire call center system with all of the interactions needed for an agent to serve their customers.
Enhanced operational efficiency: Overcame the client's hurdle of managing multiple applications, simplifying workflows, and delivering a substantial 30% time-saving for the call center team.
Reduced learning curve: Our solution leveraged common design patterns standardized across multiple systems. With a focus on consistency and an enhanced user experience, we successfully minimized the end-users' learning curve, ensuring seamless adoption.
Though the concept of a call center system isn't novel, our project faced unique challenges posed by the client's specific business requirements. Our research methods were constrained by limited access to end-users. However, we adapted by exploring alternative approaches, particularly engaging with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). Their invaluable insights became instrumental in pinpointing pain points and refining designs tailored to meet the specific needs of end-users.
Hopefully, this project sparked some ideas and questions. Feel free to connect through email whenever you'd like to discuss further :). Thank you for investing your time in reading through this case study.
Call center main portal - with connected CRMs
Call center interaction - with connected CRM being open with interaction