SERVICE DESIGN
01/
SUMMARY
CLIENT
Major UK retailer
MY ROLE
Lead researcher
OBJECTIVE
Evaluate the experience of self-service checkouts for customers and staff
APPROACH
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Contextual observations, interviews and surveys
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Usability testing
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Project manage research team and logistics
OUTCOMES
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Experience maps for customers and staff
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Risk analysis of customer and staff pain points
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Pain points linked to client's Objectives and Key Results
02/
OBJECTIVE
My client, a major UK retailer, wanted to evaluate the current customer and staff experiences of using/working with their self-service checkouts.
The client was aware that the experience needed improving for customers and staff and wanted to gain a deeper understanding of:
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The pain points experienced by both user groups
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Which issues should be addressed as a priority to improve the user experience
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Which high-priority issues also affected the business's customer satisfaction and operational efficiency Objectives and Key Results
As the lead researcher, I was responsible for planning and conducting the research activities, delivering the required insights and managing the project team.
03/
APPROACH
Contextual research was considered the most suitable approach, given the dynamic front-of-house service environment that self-service checkouts are part of. The research consisted of:
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8 days of checkout area observation in four stores
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56 customer experience evaluations (observation of the checkout process, pre- and post-checkout interviews and surveys)
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10 checkout staff experience evaluations (observation of the working practices, interviews and surveys)
Following the data collection phase, I collaborated with my junior colleague and the other Senior UX Consultant on the data analysis and report writing.
04/
CHALLENGES
As the lead researcher, I was faced with a number of challenges:
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The logistical complexity of conducting contextual research in four different locations, e.g. scouting out the stores ahead of the research and making sure all of the team and research kit were in the right places at the right time
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Liaising with a large team of client stakeholders (15 people) and making sure they all felt included and could contribute to collecting data (the project was high profile and a lot of stakeholders wanted to be involved in the research)
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Creating all of the data collection documentation and briefing the other team members on how to use it
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Handling the recruitment of customers in-store and via a recruitment agency (including 12 participants with accessibility needs)
05/
OUTCOMES
To help tell the story of the customer and staff experience, I helped create experience maps for both user groups. This enabled us to show the strong interconnectedness of the customers, staff, checkout equipment and space and how this impacted on the user experiences.
Due to the number of pain points we identified (35 in total) we performed a risk analysis to prioritise the issues and linked them to the relevant Objectives and Key Results. This gave the client an insight into which pain points had the highest impact on the customer and staff experiences and operational efficiency.
We reported the findings to the client stakeholder team (over 30 people including the UK Director of UX) and recommended next steps, i.e. size the opportunity for improvement for the issues we found, assign problem owners and place solutions on the service roadmap. The Director of UX assigned problem owners during the debrief to maintain the project momentum.
