Our task was to create an omni-channel communication platform for WorkWave’s clients in the home services industry.

Previously, WorkWave’s customer relations and communication were handled through an existing platform named Slingshot. Our goal was to leverage Slingshot’s overall functionality and improve/optimize its features to create a new platform—Communication Center.

Communication Center will ensure that our clients build and maintain strong customer relationships through prompt communication via multiple channels (email, web chat, text, etc) all in one place.

Workwave’s clients offer pest control services to their customers by deploying technicians to various locations. Communication between management, technicians, and customers is paramount at every stage of the process. Interactions are taking place continuously. As a team, we wanted to create a product that captures every conversation on one single platform. 

3. Market Research

2. Overview

We chose two softwares, Podium and Front, to study as platforms that manage and streamline customer communication and interactions.

To understand them better, we assessed their offerings and noted key differences and similarities to optimize a strategy for our own product.

How could we leverage the strengths of these platforms to improve engagement and service quality for our own customers?

Podium

Upon a thorough examination of Podium app's features and offerings, we identified several key elements that caught our attention. These key elements could provide us direction and be incorporated into our product. Overall, we realized that Podium is geared heavily towards messaging channels such as SMS text messaging, webchat, and Facebook Messenger. It also focuses heavily on reputation management.

Front

Front is primarily focused on email management and collaboration, but also carries similar key elements. Collaboration is also a large focus in Front. However, unlike Podium, there is no capability for feedback or customer reviews.

4. User Research

In order to understand our users’ needs in greater depth, we sat down with existing clients to understand what they liked and disliked about the current product. We wanted to understand what challenges they faced in their everyday use, and how those challenges impacted their long term business goals. We spoke with 8 individuals from three different companies. This included customer sales representatives as well as higher management. They relayed to us how they, as well as field technicians, used the product and the struggles they face in relation to the product. After our discussions, I was able to form two user personas that capture the greater picture of the users’ needs, motives, and frustrations.  It helped us identify usability issues and design flaws early in the process. Overall, the purpose of these personas was to ensure that our assumptions were validated, and that the re-designs were tailored to meet their requirements. 

Communication Center is an extensive ongoing project that spans over multiple phases. I was lucky enough to be a part of the founding stage, in which we discussed in length the possibilities of how to improve our product. Although I was not able to see Communication Center launch as a minimum viable product, I’m glad to have worked on pieces of it. In the future, I would have tested the navigation panel with users to see how efficiently they can select and navigate between teams and inboxes, record how fast they notice and respond to new messages, and collect their thoughts on sentiments on how the navigation panel functions and performs overall. In the end, our goal was to increase the usability of the platform, which I believe we achieved when comparing the new prototype to Slingshot’s old interface.

User Persona 1 - Michael (Customer Support Specialist)

Core Focus of Communication Center

By mapping out potential areas of improvement, we were able to narrow down to a list of core features that would be the backbone of our product.

Navigation Panel

Our first focus was to improve the navigation panel. Here, the user (agent or admin) is able to see messages  from customers. They are able to see messages that are assigned to them specifically, as well as messages in all of the teams and inboxes that they are a part of. As per our user research, the goal was to make ti more intuitive for the user to realize when new messages entered their inboxes and respond promptly to messages in other inboxes as well. 

Personal Space/Counter

7. Future Steps