Writing the Words That Got Customers Off Hold
Conversation Design · Product Writing · Content Strategy
I led the call-flow design that guided callers to the right self-serve lead form or specialist, reducing hold time and increasing qualified leads with friendly, clear-language IVR prompts.
Role
Conversation designer, product writer, stakeholder alignment, rollout strategy
Partners
Installations business teams, product management, engineering, contact center ops, store ops
Focus
Conversation design, product writing, voice guidelines, intent detection, flow logic
The Challenge
Lowe's customers frequently call stores and the contact center about installation projects and often wait on hold to get their questions answered. With increased self-service options on Lowes.com, customers could get help faster than waiting for an associate, but they are often unaware of this option.
The Opportunity
If the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) phone system could understand where the customer is in the installation process, the IVR could either provide the appropriate self-service option or route the customer to the right location.
The Approach
I coordinated with our business partners to understand Lowe's installation processes. With this information, I updated our call flows to encourage self-service and ensure customers are routed to the correct associate group.
Understand & Educate
I brought our installation business partners together to collectively align on which group should get each call type.
Since many of them were unfamiliar with a natural language IVR experience, I demoed how the Lowe's IVR system works.
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Design
Using the knowledge I gathered from our business partners, I simplified and enhanced the Lowe's IVR installation pre-purchase experience. My goal was copy that asked one clear question at a time and never made the customer feel lost. I expanded our self-service options and added configurability to easily update the experience as business rules changed in the future.
In this design, I first understood where the customer was in the installation process and what type of installation project they had. If applicable, I offered them a text with a link to submit the appropriate lead form on lowes.com. Otherwise, I routed the call to the correct associate group.
Alignment & Rollout Plan
I engaged our developer, product, and business stakeholders to finalize the design and ensure we covered as many valid edge cases as possible. Our business stakeholders were wary of adding too much self-service too quickly, so we agreed on a slow rollout.
The Implementation
Working with the developer and product teams, we launched the feature in phased approaches. Each new rollout showed incremental improvement in call containment and the number of leads submitted, which increased the business stakeholders' confidence in my design. By the time our developer team was ready to launch the full design in production, we had full support from our business stakeholders.
Further Refinement & Improvements
After a successful rollout of this feature, we partnered with an additional team within Lowe's to collect and gather the appropriate info to submit certain lead forms in the IVR channel. I stepped into the lead designer role, overseeing the entire feature development and ensuring it matched the tone, persona, and logic of the entire experience.
We have been able to use our success with the lead form feature to show how we bring value to Lowe's and have the ability to understand and adapt to Lowe's business needs.