Call Center Service Platform

The Squad was formed with the goal of improving the scheduling experience in the company's call center.

Call centers are always considered complicated places for various reasons, but we concluded that the best strategy would be to redesign the software used daily.

My role

I acted as a UX and UI designer, in addition to roles in all agile ceremonies.

My main challenge here was to guide the user through the desired workflow amidst a large amount of information and features.

Results

In nearly 6 months, we delivered a new way of working for the call center. Operator praise was constant and excitement about new features was visible. Additionally, we achieved a 50% reduction in average handling time, a 22% increase in the number of quotes generated, a volume of 15,000 appointments per month, and other intangible gains in the operation.

Metrics:

Quote handling; appointment scheduling; advance payment; no-show; average handling time.

History

Here I will detail the work in this squad...

To start the conversation, let's show the before:

As mentioned in the summary, the call center was always seen as a complicated place for various reasons. Some pain points are 'out of scope' for a squad, being more related to business, but our team focused on improving operator handling speed.

After all, someone who can provide satisfactory service quickly has less stress, generates more customer satisfaction, earns more commission, and feels happier at work. But these are intangible things.

We conducted an inception with daily meetings and data gathering, recorded on a Miro board, and user interviews to discover the main pain points.

Our backlog was planned simply: 31% of calls were about price research. It made total sense to attack this first. In less than 2 months, we built the login area, 'shopping cart', and quote PDF generation.

I needed to design the desired flow for quote generation, then validated it with our PO and then, screen on!

The shopping cart idea came to meet two usability heuristics: 'Match between system and real world' and 'Consistency and standards'. When someone wants a quote, they generally search item by item, gather them all in one place, and then a total sum is made, with the possibility of checking each item's value. We could also leverage familiarity with how other e-commerce sites work, specifically the shopping cart model.

The first 'practical' result was the quote PDF. I'll let the image speak for itself, but there were significant layout and information hierarchy changes:

Next came the scheduling demands, patient screen with full summary, advance payment link for no-show reduction, package scheduling, operator dashboard to check results, and even clinic locations to help with service.

The patient screen was one of the most important, as it brought all information about the person: appointments (blocked schedule emergencies, appointments and confirmations, payment link, and history), quotes made, packages purchased, and available follow-ups. All indicated through badges and on-screen indicators, highlighting the most important items.

Another highlight I bring is the operator dashboard screen, which came to replace spreadsheets and another discontinued system. Once again, the challenge was to show a large amount of numerical information in a visually pleasing way.

Another screen that cannot be left out is the appointment summary: it has all appointment information consolidated, ready to be sent to the patient.

And, nearly finishing, we also tackled the need to help operators who needed to provide clinic locations for people from other states, or who simply didn't know how to instruct them. The idea here was to provide information about the nearest clinic, distance, and landmarks.

There was also some UX Research work! In my last days at the company, the PO asked me to plan a satisfaction survey with our users. In this questionnaire, I applied knowledge from 'The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you' by Rob Fitzpatrick. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time to collect the responses :(

Not everything that was done is here in this text, there was much more involved. But here my participation in the squad ended. What I take most from this experience is how a well-aligned team that gets along is fundamental for high-quality, fast deliveries.

My acknowledgments:

To 'my PO' Pablo, who led the squad impeccably;

To our great SM Werbesson, who kept everything agile and organized;

To our analysts Vivi and Douglas, who never let information stay out of our hands;

To our front-end team with Rafa and Franklin, I've never seen front-end done so fast;

To our BI with Nilberto, full of metrics;

And lastly and least importantly (lol), the back-end monster Gabriel, famous Gabigod, YouTuber, gamer, speaker, present in the metaverse and all that.

God take care of our 'doras'.

Let it be recorded the love and companionship we had in such a short time!