Background
Expedia Group branded customer care support agents (located throughout Philippines, San Salvador, Egypt, North America) face the challenge of having to use different tools and applications (GDS, Classic Voyager, Voyager Flights, Eureka, Brand Site for Agents, etc.) to exchange customer flight bookings. On the Voyager Flights tool, agents have to manually determine penalty, change fee policy, and booking class rules which if done inaccurately lead to airline debit memos that adversely impact the business.
Incomprehensible system errors due to issues in downstream services and the inability to display information due to out of sync booking information when backend systems pull from different data stores also add to the pain points agents experience. When the agents don't know what their next step should be to resolve their customer's problems it leads to dissatisfaction. Tier 2 and Tier 3 agents have to memorize 15+ key commands for the different GDS systems they use to service flight bookings. There existed an opportunity to make a more user friendly interface that could quickly give the agents the information they need and reduce their average handling time.
Design Process
My Role
As the main designer on the project, I worked with the business owner, creative director, product managers, program managers, content strategist, testers, developers, service & delivery, and learning development teams to alleviate the customer pain points and improve the experience faced by the phone agents on complex flight exchange cases. I was a mentor to the designer working on customer self-service flight change. I drafted a design schedule for both our areas and reviewed the other designer's work. I designed around the constraints of an existing visual and interaction style guide and took into consideration the agent's current work flow for how they exchange flights in their current tool. I looked at their mental model for how other products were exchanged in the tool that I'd be building upon. I made design prioritization tradeoffs due to technical and resource limitations and followed design principles around simplicity, focus, clarity and efficiency in the user experience.
Customer Needs
• Improve user experience and increase user confidence. Make it easy and efficient for call center agents to service US and Canadian point of sale flight booking exchanges.
• Improve CSAT (customer satisfaction) for high volume and high effort calls.
• Reduce the customer effort required for 31% of flight exchanges
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Business Goals
• Reduce operating costs and optimize the business by increasing the customer's ability to self-service.
• Reduce AHT (average handling time) and agent error costs.
• Reduce call propensity by at least 1% (target: 20%).
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Understanding the user: Call Center Agents
When I interviewed and observed call agents at the different customer care centers, I saw they were on the phone with the customer an average of 5 to 15 minutes for simple cases and 30 minutes for complex ones. And, in extreme cases, like those due to weather related schedule changes, an agent could spend 1.5 hours on the phone with the customer and airlines. Customer call time increases for cases that need higher tier level agents/supervisors access and approval.
Call center agents are able to exchange flights for customers.
Call center agents are able to exchange flights for customers.
Design Planning
• Participated in Project Inceptions to gain a shared vision of business priorities, strategy and project scope from Product Management, Line of Business, Development, and additional cross-functional teams. Met with Learning & Development to understand agent workflows and flight exchange and cancel policies and Content Strategists on the Eureka Knowledge Base Tool that agents depend on.
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• Drafted and presented design schedule to product management and development/test teams based on dev milestones and the scope of the project.
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• Participated in working sessions with PM/DEV/TEST to discuss project scope and technical constraints. Group white boarding sessions to agree on user experience and user flow with shared understanding of data model, and business requirements.
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• Created an html design index and Confluence page for the project that displayed the task flow diagrams and links to prototype, mockups deliverables, and redlines/annotations.
Understanding the problem space
Met with my PM/Business owner to gain more background on the flight business and strategy on why the project was important. I learned about the tools the agents use and training they go through.
Research
• Observed and interviewed call center agents to understand their workflow and escalation process for the different agent types: Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 (Complex Air Agents).
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• Consulted with subject matter expert from the service delivery team and the line of business product managers on knowledge collected from past survey results and call center agent visits. The goal was to understand the issues that had the biggest impact on the business and the user experience pain points.
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• Competitive analysis and heuristic evaluation of airline websites (United, Alaska, etc.).
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• Task analysis and evaluation of the current user experience (Voyager Flights tool) that was being used to exchange, cancel, and void flights by Tier 1 agents in US/CANADA.
• Researched how the GDS is being used by Tier 2 agents and Complex Air agents.
User Scenarios
Identified key scenarios and use cases. Created wireframe screens in Sketch. Built out multiple prototypes in Axure for usability testing.
User Task Flow Diagram
I delivered scenario flows for the different use cases and handed off design for the following screen deliverables: Select Flights/Travelers, Search, Search Results, Review, Confirmation, and confirmation email template. I contributed to the style guide by introducing a new layout pattern on the Review screen for displaying the amount due for a flight exchange.
For the customer self-service portion, I delivered on the review, checkout, and confirmation user experience and ensured the end to end self-service flow worked for responsive web.
Design Deliverables
Created an html index page for the designs. Planned for a design schedule that took into consideration the multiple design iterations with usability testing as well as feedback from reviews with business owners.
Drafted a schedule and worked with dev team on alignment of the design deliverable dates would work with the dev milestones.
Drafted a schedule and worked with dev team on alignment of the design deliverable dates would work with the dev milestones.
Focus Group Session
Agents prioritized most common used tasks they use in Voyager Flights.
Background
Expedia Group branded customer care support agents (located throughout Philippines, San Salvador, Egypt, North America) face the challenge of having to use different tools and applications (GDS, Classic Voyager, Voyager Flights, Eureka, Brand Site for Agents, etc.) to exchange customer flight bookings. On the Voyager Flights tool, agents have to manually determine penalty, change fee policy, and booking class rules which if done inaccurately lead to airline debit memos that adversely impact the business.
Incomprehensible system errors due to issues in downstream services and the inability to display information due to out of sync booking information when backend systems pull from different data stores also add to the pain points agents experience. When the agents don't know what their next step should be to resolve their customer's problems it leads to dissatisfaction. Tier 2 and Tier 3 agents have to memorize 15+ key commands for the different GDS systems they use to service flight bookings. There existed an opportunity to make a more user friendly interface that could quickly give the agents the information they need and reduce their average handling time.
Design Process
Hello
As a leader, I want to inspire and influence. I want to lead a team that will love doing what they do and create better than just what one individual person could. I want to impact, create, and grow the careers of those that I lead and empower them on their journey. I want to make a difference in their lives. I want to create shared vision, awesome designs, and experiences that improve the lives of our customers.
Leadership Letter - Wilo
What you can expect from me...
Someone who will meet you where you are at
I provide guidance, direction, clarity, and encouragement at the level you work best.
Support and encouragement
I want to ensure you have the opportunities to grow your career and explore your areas of interest. Share with me your dreams and passions and let’s work out a plan to get there.
Directional guidance
I don’t want to be a bottleneck but I do want to ensure that you have what you need to move your project forward. I love brainstorming ideas and suggestions. I care about design quality. I will speak up if I have a strong recommendation or guidance to help inspire ideas to get clarity and move project forward. I will connect you with others and you will run with it. In the end you and your working team will make the design decisions that will make your customer’s live easier.
Protector of your time and your design
I want to enable you to do your best work with the resources, tools, and within the environment that you need. I want to help you. You bring value and your time is valuable. I want to help you to prioritize, schedule, and advocate but don’t want to take over. I want to empower you to be successful. Be your voice and advocate when needed.
Someone to talk to
We’ll have 1:1’s where we can connect. I also love catching up when you need me. Keep me in the loop. If there’s a question you have, need a sounding board, or are wanting to talk things out. I’m here for you.
You do great work
And others should know about your superpowers. I want to celebrate your wins through recognition and visibility. You matter.
What I expect from my team...
Collaboration over Competition
Helping each other is important to me. Oversharing is better than undersharing. Review your work and get feedback and inspire your teammates. Identify overlaps and engage in opportunities to build things together.
Knowledge sharing and learning from each other
I believe in leveraging each other’s strengths. If you have something to say, say it, Think aloud. Together making something better than it was before through our different perspectives. Evangelize ux best practices and principles to our cross-discipline partners that we collaborate with and listen to our customers. We design for our customers and not ourselves.
Inspiration to do great design
Curiosity. Challenge and question the status quo for continuous improvement. There may be more effective ways of doing something. Understand what problem we are solving for... Is there a different problem that we should be solving for instead that will have more impact? Is there an even better solution? Help each other determine how, when, and what, once we understand why.
Brainstorm and Iterate.
No idea is a bad idea. The more ideas and different perspectives we share, the more we learn. Go broad then focus. Determine what matters and will have the biggest impact. It’s more important to find the right answer to the right question than to be right.
Open communications
If you need more or less of me doing something let me know. Let’s build the relationship and work it out directly. Keep me in the loop and pull me in on your reviews.
Check the ego at the door
Assume positive intent. Be nice. People will always remember how you made them feel more than what you said. Growth mindset and flexibility on how we can improve. Let’s build the community together.
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What I value...
Family first
We take care of ourselves, each other, and those around us. The work will always be there. It’s not as important as your mental health. Take time out to refresh, rejuvenate, and get in the right mindset.
Respect and Trust
It’s okay to make mistakes. We learn from them. Establishing a safe environment where we can be open yet secure with each other is important to me.
Shared Wins
We have different approaches. I think that is great for us to understand all points of view. Weigh out the pros and cons. Make a decision and move on. And move in a way where there isn’t a winner and a loser. Make it an outcome where we enjoy working with each other because we feel heard and listened to. Team first.
Inclusivity & Diversity & Fairness
It’s important to me that no one feels left out. Everyone has different communication styles and ways they process information. Create environments that foster engagement that allows for everyone to participate.
Thoughtfulness
I don’t measure quality by quantity or speed. Take time to understand purpose and strategy. Understand the bigger picture to develop holistic solutions.
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Albert Einstein said: “If I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.”
Who I am... Myers-Briggs Results
Contact
I'm always looking to help and build community.
Let's connect and inspire each other.
206.290.5446