Discovering opportunities in errors
Transforming user behavior through effective issue resolution

Akshay: “Hello, my registered mobile number is xxxxxxx and I have recently placed an order for a….”
Customer Care Exec.: “Yes, I can see that you placed this order on Monday, October 7. Tell me how can I help you?”
Akshay: “Well, I just got a message saying this item has been delivered! But I haven’t received it”
Customer Care: “So sorry for the inconvenience caused, Sir, may I put you on hold for a….”
After a few minutes of anxious, seemingly endless waiting…
Customer Care: “Thank you for your patience. I see that you have most probably received this message by mistake. I would request you to wait till the end of the day today by which time you should receive this order…”
Response Received: Standard
Measurable cost of conversation: 18 minutes of Akshay’s time, 7.5 minutes of customer exec’s time
Immeasurable cost of conversation: Anxiety, stress, fear of loss, irritation.
Is there a way to save this cost? Or at least reduce it to an extent?
To answer that question we may first have to dig deeper in to what exactly triggered that call.
35 minutes back:
As usual Akshay woke up early and reached out to his mobile to check for notifications. Only to be surprised, shocked actually, to see a message that said the iphone charger he ordered was delivered to him successfully!
The morning wasn’t usual anymore. Instead of snuggling back into his bed for a little more time, Akshay was now frantically tapping on his phone to find the customer care number. After a lot of difficulty he was able to find a number that he could call on to report the matter.
There are a couple points to consider as we diagnose the problem:
1. Akshay received a wrong message. Can this be fixed?
2. Akshay came to the app with the intent to find a customer care number. Can you influence a change in his natural behavior and make him resolve the issue on the app itself?
Well, fixing the problem at the root, in this case plugging the leakage of incorrect messaging, would seem like the ideal thing to do. However, ideal is often impractical and more often the enemy of good. Fixing a logistical error that could be a result of a combination of a faulty system and the human abuse of it, requires a herculean task of realigning processes and putting together robust checks & balances at every step. This may be costlier and more time consuming than that phone call that we are trying to save.
As I write this article, one of the leading ecommerce players is currently trying the OTP method to address this problem and to be honest it does seem to be a decent solution. But then there would be a significant number of alternate scenarios. The recipient may have not received the OTP in time, or may not have the network at the time of delivery, or may be unavailable to receive the delivery and would want someone else to pick it up instead. In such instances the additional layer of security can be annoying.
This brings us to the second point which, in certain cases, might be a more feasible problem to address. And interestingly can also be an opportunity to transform future user behavior. That of making Akshay get his issue resolved without a phone call.
When Akshay opened the app, all he had on his mind was a phone number where he could call. In such a situation, users tend to go blind to anything other than what they are looking for. Unless, a sound user centered approach with careful attention to users’ need is employed to compel the users to do what you want them to do.
Imagine that morning when Akshay opened the app, what if his actions were anticipated with a pre-empted solution based on the possible user scenario - an upfront message that said “Hey, your order no. xxxx with XYZ has been successfully delivered to you” with 2 subsequent and upfront actions viz., “Got it, thank you!” and “I didn’t receive my order”
On tapping “I didn’t receive my order”, a simple follow up message that reads “You seem to have received this message by mistake. You are requested to wait till the end of the day today by which time you should receive this order” could have done the job the phone call did without any wait time, anxiety and the cost of 71/2 minutes of a call centre executive.
But, how would the app know that Akshay has had a problem with the delivery and he is not here to do something else?
It doesn’t have to, does it? All the app must do is time Akshay’s visit to the app. If he has opened the app within a few minutes / hours of receiving the delivery confirmation, the system must identify and show up a modal screen with relevant information and actions. If all was hunky-dory, Akshay would ignore everything else and simply tap on “Got it, thank you!” and proceed to access the regular features of the app. But in the given situation, Akshay will be able to spot “I didn’t receive my order” easily and would be relieved to have this option upfront.
Interestingly such an instance of a user needing help is an opportunity to transform user behavior. Every time a system solves a problem to the user’s satisfaction, it persuades the user to use the method again thus leading to a behavior shift from looking for a phone number to trying to see if there is anyway the issue can be resolved online. One of the many tried and tested tools in HFI’s persuasion design (PET) toolkit, Habit Strategy resonates with this idea of transforming user behavior through developing habit.
So the next time when Akshay wakes up to an erroneous message, he may just go back to sleep for a few more minutes, as he always does, knowing he will most likely be able to get this resolved!
