Westpac’s Customer Experience (CX) team uses visual communication as a key research tool, driver of idea generation and strategic change agent. 

I was embedded within the CX team in Sydney for 3 months as part of my yearlong University Honours project. The assignment focused on discovering effective means to express CX research insights to business stakeholders, how visual deliverables can improve communication in the specific context of a pilot project in the Online & Mobile team, and the value the CX team can provide to the wider Westpac business. 

I interviewed SMEs and stakeholders to uncover pain points in the online Live Chat agent experience and explored how visual design can help make complex information more intuitive and understandable.

The key artefacts that were delivered to a small group of Live Chat agents in the pilot project included an Agent Information Kit consisting of:

+ A handy live chat information flipbook that visualised the 3 key stages of the live chat process, customer decision making model, troubleshooting tips and handover process

+ ‘How to handle a hot lead’ card that provided tips on how to convert a lead based on 2 pre-defined chat outcomes

+ Lifecycle one-pager that outlined the 3 key phases of a live chat experience (ie. researching > refining > ready to buy) and recommendations on how to handle conversations with customers based on their needs during the different stages of interaction (invitation, conversation and post-conversation)

Since introducing the Agent Information Kit to the agents, the lead time conversion rate increased by 7% within the 2 weeks of the pilot project as agents were able to use the visual deliverables to successfully convert online leads for opening a bank account to successful applications.

This project addressed a real opportunity within the CX team to better identify appropriate visual communication strategies to use with their business stakeholders and customers.