Customer Service Ecosystem Strategy & Design
Overview
At Varo Bank, I identified an opportunity to transformation how customers get help when things go wrong, leading design efforts on a two-phase approach to turn painful issues into simple resolutions that meet customers where they're at and significantly lower operational costs for the business.
Role
Product Strategy
UX
UI
UXR
Prototyping
Ramping up
When I joined Varo, they were experiencing a period of rapid expansion and leadership was eager to apply my extensive fintech experience to strategically guide and elevate Varo's emerging capabilities.
To familiarize myself with our services and digital experiences, and pinpoint strategic opportunities that could deliver significant value to both customers and the company's bottom line, I conducted a comprehensive audit.
Identifying the opportunity
I uncovered several critical service enhancement areas. Among the most prominent deficiencies were the general absence of self-service options and the frustrating experience of having to endure lengthy wait times when calling Varo support for even the most minor requests.
Because Varo is an online only bank, the opportunity value of building digital self-servicing capabilities is even higher than if Varo had physical locations to connect in-person.
Settings IA refresh
I prioritized providing a dedicated, personalized hub that gives customers the ability to customize their banking experience in a way that works for them. A space where they can make updates to their personal information, receive bespoke updates, and get assistance.
Prioritize quick wins
Working closely with the servicing product owner, we assessed the functionality gaps that significantly contributed to the high call volume. We then prioritized a series of rapid productization sprints to tackle the most impactful enhancements.
Extend table stake functionality
Expand customer capabilities to include updates for email, mailing address, password, and username.
Phase one – IA refresh & quick wins
Working closely with my product partner, we quickly prioritized, designed, developed and released a series of profile and settings capabilities, as well as renamed and refactored the settings IA to enable easy self-service and accommodate future scale.
Initial results
43% reduction in phone contact volume
These straightforward additions allowed us to redirect our efforts towards more substantial and innovative support solutions.
Business shift
The positive business impact stemming from these personalization enhancements prompted a shift in focus towards the operational team. This team would be dedicated to prioritizing and delivering customer self-servicing experiences, aiming to generate additional cost savings for the business while significantly enhancing the overall customer experience.
Phase two – virtual assistant
In order to foster a more profound discussion about the strategic trajectory of the servicing team, I crafted a proposal on the next major enhancements to customer service that addressed core business and customer needs.
Enhanced dispute experience
We set out to provide an unparalleled dispute resolution experience that sets crystal clear expectations and delivers confidence-boosting status updates, all conveniently accessible through a user-friendly searchable chat interface. This fosters lasting customer loyalty, as you can trust that Varo has got your back at all times.
Proactive insights
An intelligent Varo goes beyond the ordinary, proactively anticipating your needs through an in-depth analysis of your behaviors, account status, and the shared patterns of customers who align with your banking habits to provide you with tailored solutions even before you realize you need them.
Discovery
In close collaboration with our research team, we initiated a series of exercises within our immediate team. These activities aimed to swiftly pinpoint customer pain points and identify opportunities based on anecdotal information we had gathered and comments shared by customer service leads.
Tree mapping
We performed a tree mapping exercise with our small team to understand how we could intervene in our customer’s lives in a positive way that could impact product outcomes.
Customer journey map sketches
To identify our assumptions about the current help and support customer journey, and our own knowledge gaps, we sketched out customer journey maps.
Customer service representative interviews
Competitive analysis
To establish a foundational baseline for a familiar virtual assistant experience, we embarked on an in-depth exploration of visual solutions for the Varo chat interface and its associated components. I audited and leveraged common patterns found in similar virtual assistants in order to create an experience that have familiar operability and visuals.
Virtual assistant solution emerges
After multiple rounds of internal and external research sessions, we were confident we had a solid foundation for the ideation process, particularly in the development of an AI-driven virtual assistant solution.
A virtual assistant has the potential to offer answers to frequently asked questions, seamlessly direct users to in-app resources, display pertinent information without leaving the chat interface (such as dispute status), and facilitate connections with live customer service representatives.
Exploration
Initiating a chat session
During the ideation of initial entry point wireframes, I posed critical questions to guide the design process.
"What would be the simplest and most user-friendly method for customers to access the chat feature?"
"How could we make it effortless for them to return to an ongoing chat conversation?"
"What would be the most intuitive way for customers to revisit previous chat interactions?"
"What minimal viable product (MVP) features can we realistically introduce to bring us closer to our ultimate goal?"
Key solutions
Varo Chat entrypoint
For first release, Varo Chat is located within the 'Help and support' section of the 'My Varo' tab.
Intent routing
Varo chat provides users with a comprehensive range of options designed to facilitate efficient interactions with the virtual assistant. These options are pulled from frequently asked questions (FAQs) and relevant behavioral customer data, such as dispute status.
Insights
Varo chat provides users with a comprehensive range of options designed to facilitate efficient interactions with the virtual assistant. These options are pulled from frequently asked questions (FAQs) and relevant behavioral customer data, such as dispute status.
Live chat with a representative
For those who prefer a more personalized touch, our system allows users to initiate a live chat with one of our representatives at their convenience.