Reimagining self-service for 15.3K weekly active customers

A deep dive into improving how customers find and access key tools, bringing value, personalisation and transparency to their online shop.

Overview

Self-service means customers shouldn't need to call customer support

Yet Woolworths received over 345,000 calls in 2024 regarding account and self-service-related problems. While some of these problems can only be solved by human intervention, there is still a massive opportunity make it easier for customers to self-serve. An opportunity in the millions.

Despite having a large suite of self-service tools and information, Woolworths makes it hard for customers to find and use them, especially in moments of frustration.

How might we make it easier for customers to find and use key tools so that they do not have to rely on customer support?

Creating a native hub for all things related to account

A foundational account hub that provides a seamless, secure, and intuitive experience for management of personal details, preferences, order history, payment and app security, all in one place.

One-month pilot impacts

Discovery

Stakeholder mapping

I identified 16 teams that would be impacted by changes to this experience, and mapped them against a matrix to determine how to involve them in future feedback and roadshow sessions.

Understanding why engagement is low and calls are high

I spoke to customers, analysed verbatim and support call logs, and conducted a heuristics analysis.

Key problems

1. Lack of personalisation
   Customers spend additional time trying to find information or features that are relevant for their needs. Stakeholders view this screen as a way to bring more visibility to their features, but has an opposite effect as more links are added.

2. Poor hierarchy and findability
   Customers feel overwhelmed and lost scrolling through all the links. The current hierarchy does not reflect how customers use the menu, or the natural groupings of tasks and information.

3. Disjointed omni-channel experience
   To access account information, customers are pushed into a different, WebView experience. Customers end up continuining their shopping experience in a buggy web view.

"I'm struggling to find it. I know it should be in here somewhere but I can't see it. I must be scrolling past it?"

Looking at global adjacents, the account lagged behind in key areas and features

• Personalisation: HMW tailor the experience based on past usage and suggest the next best action so that customers face less friction?
• Categorisation: HMW group similar information so that we reflect key jobs to be done?
• Surfacing value: HMW make value known to customers so that they get the best out of their shop?
• Native account management: HMW make it easier to manage account information for customers who prefer to use the app?
• Surfacing help and support: HMW make it easier for customers to access support as a last resort?

Define

As Woolworths continues to adopt an app-first strategy, there was an opportunity to...

• Increase More Account menu interactions
  By strengthening the brand of More -> Account, creating a place for all things personal and account-related.

• Increase engagement of self-service features
  By improving findability through increasing visibility and bringing meaningful structure to all self-service features.

• Reduce overall Customer Hub costs
  By making features and information more readily available, and bringing prominence to asynchronous support channels.

• Improve app adoption, VOC and NPS
  By making it easier to access information and manage personal details and security natively.

Develop

Understanding top tasks & establishing a hierarchy

I used two primary methods to determine what customers used the account for, which would later be validated as part of testing.

1. Analysing Adobe Analytics & FullStory
   To understand current customer behaviour, I leaned on existing data we had in Adobe Analytics for web and app, and FullStory for web.

2. Card sorting
   As I also looked to introduce new entry points within the account section, card sorting was performed in moderated sessions to better understand how customers grouped features and information.

Evaluating usability

After ideating and a round of feedback with stakeholders, I facilitated customer sessions to validate the information architecture, usability and comprehension of the Account tab.

Key insights

• Introducing sections to the Account tab improves findability of pages however, further exploration is required to ensure both business and customer needs are balanced.
• Customers expect all their personal information to be found and editable in Account Details.
• While not expected, customers found it valuable to have their store credits and promo codes accessible in one spot within the Account.

"Simple, straightforward, was where you would think it would be so it's nice and easy."

Deliver

Roadshow and handover

I presented back the overall My Account strategy to senior stakeholders, showing how the new experience would bring value to the business and customers.

One thing I reinforced with stakeholders was that while this work directly addressed the problems identified, it was also foundational in enabling the future goals of Woolworths around personalisation, bringing more value to customers, and becoming best-in-class.

Key features

Wrap up

Reflections

I appreciated that this initiative had reliable, existing data to work with and help inform design decisions. I had also previously worked in the authetication space within Woolworths so much of the log in and security work was familiar and I could lean on my technical understanding to make decisions.

A challenge I had encountered, which is not as common in other spaces in Woolworths, was trying to quantify the value to senior leadership. As a section in the app that does not directly generate revenue or impact sales, it was hard to attach a dollar value and demonstrate that this initiative should be prioritised. I managed to work with Customer Hub and Finance to understand the financial impacts of certain features, which helped with my financial analysis and pitch to stakeholders.

Ultimately, this initiative was a good opportunity to work more closely with the business, pitch a strategy deck, and get buy in to proceed with building out this experience.