Engagement & support
As we invited more and more users onto LUMA Workplace, our team was tasked with finding ways to keep people engaged and coming back.
When we looked into user activity, we found that many people would activate their account, check out the website once or twice, and then wouldn’t come back for a long time (or ever). Additionally, we needed to implement a system to provide customer support and answer their questions.
As the site’s features and functionality grew, we received messages from customers about technical issues signing up or accessing their accounts, as well as inquiries about how to use human-centered design in their work.
How might we make a site people want to visit every day?
In a time where lots of things compete for people’s time and attention, we wanted to look for ways to provide helpful, relevant information—not spam that would feel like an ad or slimy up-sell. Our solution was to create and send occasional emails sharing information about content that was already on the site. We also occasionally sent messages to highlight new features and content that had just been launched.
highlighting existing content
For one campaign, we created and sent a message to share a few recipes that we thought might help our users with common workplace problems.
Addressing needs
In another message, we responded to customer concerns about remote and distributed collaboration by announcing a new integration with MURAL.
Announcing new content
As we made updates and improvements to existing pages on the site, we also share updates on new content that could be accessed.
Recognizing effort & celebrating success
In addition to timely messages to all users, we also used this platform to engage with people who were taking self-paced classes. Based on someone’s activity or pace in a class, we sent messages to remind them of their place and encourage them to pick up where they left off. This also allowed us to send a note when someone completed a class, highlight their achievement and recommending good next steps.
“Thank you for this LUMA reminder! It is useful as always and makes me glad to be of this group. I am inspired by the simplicity.”
We received a lot of positive feedback about our messages and observed that more people were coming back to LUMA Workplace after opening them. We often saw an above average open and click-through rate and even had a few people ask us to send them more emails. Creating these messages was a great mechanism for creating and sharing new content, and provided our design team with a simple way to promote our team’s work without the need of a developer’s time.
How might we have customer support people tell their mothers about?
Without a customer service or support team, our design and development team stepped in to provide support and make sure our customer’s questions were answered. Leveraging Intercom, we did our best to respond to requests in a timely manner, using these insights to fuel bug fixes, fill our product backlog, and inform future product improvements. For about two years, I served as a leader and ‘air traffic controller’ for the team’s coaching and support operations, connecting customers to developers, instructors, or members of our sales team as needed.
helping the team save time & effort
As time went by and customer questions continued to come in, it was challenging to respond to reoccurring questions without reinventing the wheel. To address this problem, I created a catalog of ‘saved replies’, a team slack channel, and connected with the support team about how to respond to common questions.
Mapping stakeholders
To better understand the landscape of people who were reaching out for support, I helped guide a stakeholder mapping activity. The map we created was a bit complex, but it helped us visualize how members of our team interacted with customers, building empathy and identifying potential problem areas.
Tracking issues & requests
In addition to capturing helpful replies, I also created simple ways to keep track of and monitor reported issues as well as content or feature requests. I used a simple Trello board to manage these insights, adding detail over time and proposing items for the team to work on during bug grooming and sprint planning.
Analyzing patterns & themes
For an ‘inbound communication’ project, I was asked to lead a cross-functional analysis of LUMA’s customer service channels. By following a project brief and plan that I created, I helped our team go through 10 channels, catalog 515 inbounds, and identify areas for improvement that we could address right away.
Making sense of entry points
In addition to doing an audit of communication channels, our team also looked at the different places on our websites where people could connect with us. Partnering with a developer, I worked on a map of the potential entry points for someone who reached out to our team with questions or for support.
Understanding PAIN POINTS
For the same ‘inbounds’ project, I interviewed several customers who had contacted us about various issues. To build empathy and understanding on our team, I created storyboards to summarize the conversations and showcase pain points that the individuals experienced when they interacted with us.
“The website is super helpful and staff are always very responsive.”
With a small team, keeping up with these questions and requests was a challenge. After four years with this support system in place, we responded to hundreds of people who needed support. Because of this system, we were able to help people all around the world use human-centered design more effectively and confidently in their work. We received very positive feedback about our support and a few people even told us it was one of their favorite aspects of LUMA Workplace.