5. Redefining the customer experience at Premium Service Centers

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Nov 23

How might we improve customer satisfaction and better explore sales opportunities, increasing customer loyalty at a typically stressful moment?

Client: Samsung - Brazil - 2018
Role: Lead Design Consultant (service provider)

CONTEXT

Samsung is the largest electronics company in Brazil, with 42% of the smartphone market share in 2018. In addition to mobile devices, Samsung leads the TV market and offers computer and home electronics products. Samsung has established Service Centers (SC) worldwide. In Brazil. Premium SCs are present in all capitals, offering technical assistance, product testing, selling accessories, and classes.

CHALLENGE

Given the extensive product offering and size of the market, Samsung had the challenge of reducing user dissatisfaction when they needed support. Compared to competitors Motorola and Apple, the company lagged in overall customer satisfaction at service centers. It wanted to transform this scenario by optimizing stores’ processes and redesigning the service experience.

KEY QUESTIONS

What are the main drivers of satisfaction and frustration, and when do they occur in the journey?
What are the different profiles of customers, their specific needs, and behavioral models?
When can new business opportunities be explored?
How can we improve customer satisfaction?
What procedural changes can reduce bottlenecks and optimize resource consumption?
How can we streamline the process to become more agile, with fewer errors, and encourage customers to return?

Samsung's Newsroom, showing the new premium service centers concept. The news can be accessed here

GOALS

As the Design Lead, my main goal was to improve the user experience at Samsung's Service Centers by leveraging touch-points, optimizing processes, and better-exploring business opportunities. Three aspects were considered:

1. Reduce time spent in-store
Optimize operations by mapping internal activities and simulating customer demand and resource consumption.

2. Increase satisfaction
Design a more humanized and empathic service blueprint for customer demands by understanding user journeys and different personas.

3. Expand business offerings
Recognize new commercial opportunities within service centers without negatively impacting the customer experience.

★ MY ROLE
Design and Engineering Leader

As a process engineer and designer, I:

Led one process engineer and one ethnographic researcher.
Defined project scope and methodology.
Interviewed clients, led workshops, validated Business Process Map, and aligned results with client leadership.
Led in-store tests to validate results, coordinating with Samsung’s team.

Design Process Diagram

I led workshops with Samsung's leadership to educate them about service design and align expectations by collaborating on the customer experience definition.

I defined the key attributes to examine at the stores while shadowing customers and attendants and interviewing them. (Customers pictures weren't allowed)

I led a workshop with the top performer's attendants to collaborate for creating solutions to improve the Service Centers' process.

With the research, I was able to define four service centers' personas.

DELIVERABLES

We discovered three main drivers for poor service experience: repair costs, time spent waiting, and the high rate of return for new repairs on the same device. Therefore, it was essential for Samsung to realize that quality control must follow two perspectives: 1. Prioritizing customer satisfaction, making human-centricity and empathy the core values, and 2. Defining the process to audit the operational performance of the service, optimize resources, and map service errors. The goal was to ensure that the proper process is applied consistently and use data to communicate the effect of not performing it correctly.

Insights discovered on the Business Process Map

Map the current processes for in- and out-of-warranty and with or without premium customers program for all products
Simulate and propose process improvements.
Assess and optimize resource consumption and operational bottlenecks.
Identify tasks where the standard procedure wasn't followed and suggest changes of methods, employee rotation, and checklists.
Validate employees' suggestions to discover if they are best practices.
Identify critical moments of error or rework to mitigate them.
Conduct risk analysis of critical activities and define Standard Operating Procedures for them.

Part of one of the business process maps used to simulate and optimize the operation and use of resources. Due to my engineering background, I was able to hire a freelance process engineer and guide him on this delivery.

★ I defined the methodology and validated his results, presenting it to Samsung's engineers.

Insights discovered on the user journeys

Identification of five personas, their behavioral models, and individual metrics for a successful experience.
Design journeys for TV, smartphone, and notebook in or out of warranty and with or without Concierge (premium customers' program).
Discovery of drivers for frustration and satisfaction at each stage of the journey and their relevance.
Indication of opportunities for improvement at each step of the journey.
Recognition of service inconsistencies that impact the customer experience negatively.

Part of the User Journey, highlighting all the critical factors for customers' satisfaction and frustration, plus improvement opportunities.

★ I did all the content after the user research. In addition, while initially Samsung believed that a Business Process Map was enough to improve customer experience, I educated them about Service Design. I convinced them to expand the project scope to include Service Design.

Insights discovered on the blueprint

Analysis of customers' emotions at each stage and the place when it occurs.
The flow of activities performed by customers and attendants in touch-point moments.
The activities flow at the back-office, performed by employees without any touch-point, impacting the customer's ultimate experience. For instance, deleting a phone's hard drive without consulting the customers.
Highlights of moments with the highest chance of customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction.
Highlights of the most appropriate opportunities to measure the quality of service and KPIs.
Highlights of the moments that most appeal to customers for exploring commercial opportunities.

Part of the service blueprint, highlighting 1. customer satisfaction; 2. customer frustration; 3. moments for measuring quality; and 4. moments to explore commercial opportunities.

★ I did the blueprint map after the user research. Additionally, the client was so happy with the result, they invited me to present the whole project for the leaders in South Korea.

Commercial Impact

Samsung discovered new commercial opportunities in their services while delivering a positive experience to their customers. The good results pushed the company to spread the recommendation to more SCs in Latin America.

Innovation Relevance

Combining tools such as business process management, blueprint maps, and user journey maps helped Samsung optimize its operations and empathize with customers, improving the overall service experience.

Impact on Myself

This was my first project as a freelancer. I learned to prospect a new client, manage the relationship, and hire other freelancers. I connected my process engineering and design skills to help the client rethink its initial scope. It was transformative for them and massive for me as I saw myself as a successful entrepreneur.

#Service Design#Process Engineering@Electronics

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