The ask
Redesign Verizon’s Phone-In-Box (PIB) activation experience.
Background
PIBs are phones prepaid customers typically buy off-the-shelf from third party retailers instead of through Verizon stores.
PIB customers are taken through a digital activation path upon powering on their new phone, where they register as Verizon customers, choose their plan, and pay for their plan before they can access Verizon’s network.
Key Problem
1 in 4 PIBs are returned or disconnected before completing activation to Verizon’s service.
Discovery Research
What does the current experience look like for a PIB customer — where are the key moments in their journey, what are their pain points?
How do we turn those pain points into opportunities, empowering a positive experience that eliminates drop-off and fosters longterm retention?
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Investigated the prepaid customer mindset & drivers through questions that gave insight into customer needs, expectations, behaviors and ideal-state wants around obtaining and setting up a prepaid device.
50 participants
Conducted via SurveyMonkey
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Extracted critical insights & learnings as to how the prepaid customer perceives the current experience through prompting users to interact with a prototype simulating the existing activation flow.
Questions probed user’s understanding throughout each step of the activation process, and asked them to evaluate overall ease/difficulty of the experience to provide a benchmark for future improvements.
15 participants
Conducted via UserTesting.com (remote, un-moderated)
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Conducted an in-depth analysis of the customer experience through defining & documenting each stage of their journey - from consideration, to purchase, to service activation, to engagement (i.e. ongoing activities like tracking data usage, paying monthly bill, etc) - and identifying pain points & opportunities throughout.
Team exercise — Included in-store shopping, purchasing different types of PIBs, and activating them ourselves to develop empathy & understanding.
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Reviewed the positioning, offerings, and activation experience of relevant competitors to identify strengths, opportunities, weaknesses, and threats for Verizon.
Analysis included — AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint.
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Evaluated activation experiences outside the prepaid/PIB world to identify meaningful takeaways for Verizon, including insights into successful methods and inspiration for ways to think outside the box.
Analysis included — Google Home, Dropbox, Paypal, and Care/of.
Key Insight
The PIB customer is on the ultimate self-service journey.
With 95% purchasing their phone from a 3rd party retailer, and 72% activating their phone on their own at home, most PIB customers will never interact with a Verizon representative.
Our Challenge
How do we offer a “white glove” Verizon-quality experience to a self-service customer we never meet?
Our Vision
Introducing Prepaid Concierge:
A suite of self-service solutions that provide intuitive assistance at each step of the PIB customer journey. These solutions utilize creative UX to deliver on Verizon’s commitment to elevated customer service— even in the absence of a Verizon representative.
Creative Concepts
Summary of creative ideas for how to provide elevated self-service to PIB customers throughout their user journey, developed based on user research.
Explore the concepts & the research that inspired them further in the presentation excerpt below.
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With just a few simple inputs — your interests, your budget — the Prepaid recommender matches you with phones that suit your needs. Users would find this tool in a variety of digital settings: on the website, embedded in social media, in banner ads, and on iPads in stores.
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Packaging is redesigned to highlight price and features. Box colors correlate with price tiers, while bold icons show each phone’s benefits.
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We start the activation flow by gathering some basic information and assuring customers that we’ll give them a personalized, guided setup.
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Throughout the activation flow, we’ll anticipate users’ questions with useful tips and links, or invite them to chat if we detect they need help.
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The steps of the activation flow will increase or decrease depending on each user’s needs, allowing them to speed through easy sections and slow down to learn more.
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We can create a rewards program specifically for Prepaid customers to incentivize them to complete their activation, renew each month, and refer friends.
The introduction of rewards could be a powerful antidote to Prepaid’s 5.95% monthly churn rate, boosting retention and satisfaction by delivering moments of premium value— starting from their first interaction with Verizon.
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We’ll proactively engage customers who open MVA by surfacing dynamic feed cards that ask for feedback or offer helpful tips.
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Once a Prepaid customer is active, we’ll use MVA to provide status reports about their account. We’ll even let them know if we see opportunities for them to save money.
