Internal Tool Designs using Salesforce CRM
Ethnography, Information Architecture
Overview
This ongoing project is an internal initiative to consolidate all the different tools that our internal users (Sales and Customer Service Teams within the Rocket Lawyer organization) have to juggle to do their jobs. The main goal is to increase efficiency and effectiveness in their internal workflows, so that Sales and Customer Service representatives can deliver a better and more delightful experience to our end customers.
Challenge
Since Rocket Lawyer has started, the sales operations and customer service workflow have not been streamlined internally. Our internal users, Sales and customer service representatives, are currently using 6+ different internal tools to sell, upsell, and assist customers. The pain and frustration of the internal users have not been seen as priority, but this inefficiency has recently surfaced since the incorporation business skyrocketed. The challenge of this project is to unify and consolidate all the internal tools, and streamline the internal workflow, so that our end customers can receive the best-in-class customer experience.
My Role
I’m the product designer for this project, working alongside product manager, backend developers, Saleforce Administrator, and operations lead to make this initiative happen.
Solution
We’ve identified all the inefficiencies and designed a tool with backend database integrations using Salesforce. This is estimated to help increase efficiency by 30% without having to juggle with different internal tools.
Background/Problem
The main struggle for the internal users is having to use too many different tools to accomplish one thing. There were previous attempts to create an all-in-one internal tool called “Caffeine” to replace all the different tools. Unfortunately, Caffeine was designed and built poorly without any research and usability testing involved. Instead of replacing all the different tools using Caffeine, Caffeine became another tool that the internal users have to learn and use. This was a failed project that added much inefficiency to the company internal operations.
Ethnography
I’ve visited the internal teams and observed/interviewed their day-to-day operations. Below are the current user journeys for both Sales team and Customer Service team to illustrate how inefficient their workflows are:
Each of the tools below achieve a certain function:
- User Admin Panel: When customers call in, internal users use this tool to log in as the customer and finish the incorporation interview on the customers’ behalf.
- Google Sheet: There are multiple spreadsheets created for pricing, lead times, coupon codes for incorporation details.
- Stripe: Internal users use Stripe Dashboard to make custom purchases which Caffeine does not have the capability to do. This can only be accessed by executives.
- Salesforce: Currently used to generate leads and document any sales/customer service requests in this platform.
- Caffeine: Internal users currently use this to charge customers based on the products available in Maestro.
- Maestro: This is a product catalog with all the different products available within Rocket Lawyer.
- 3rd Party Partner Dashboard: To fulfill an incorporation order, internal users have to login to a custom 3rd Party Partner Dashboard to make an order.
Internal UX Goals
We’ve set internal UX goals to hold ourselves accountable and to understand that our customers will also greatly benefit from this even though it is an internal initiative:
- Empower our customers with helpful and accurate account information through real-time data
- Introduce innovative solutions to our customers by leveraging meaningful insights obtained through quick and easy access to data
- Provide our customers an exceptional customer service experience through a single tool that shows our support reps a full, 360° picture of every account.
Potential Opportunities & Constraints
I’ve collaborated with our Salesforce Administrator and our eCommerce Team Lead to discuss all the potential opportunities and technical constraints of consolidating all the different tools using Salesforce CRM.
From a Salesforce Administrator perspective, there are endless possibilities of various configurations and integrations to keep all the data and necessary functionalities in place. However, there is a cost associated with using an external tool to house all our information.
From an eCommerce/internal tools Team Lead perspective, a system with multiple components have been built to visualize all the payment backend data. While we own all the data, it makes sense to build our own CRM system without having to pay an external costs. A big tradeoff to this solution is we would need a dedicated team to maintain this tool 24/7.
We made a cost and benefit analysis and pitched it to the executive team, and it has been decided that we should focus on our products with the resources we have, rather than trying to spend all the resources in something we’re not the expert in. Also, as the previous attempt for building an CRM system internally failed, this was clear that we should leverage a more robust system like Salesforce to consolidate our current internal tools.
Information Architecture
From Incorporation & Business Filings Designs, I have introduced this vision map mainly discussing the front-end customer experience of the Filings Interview and the Post-Interview. For this project, I’ve integrated the internal team’s vision to illustrate how improving the internal team workflows would also greatly enhance the customer experience in many ways.
Here’s a closer look to what the workflows of the Sales Team and CS Team should be like:
For Sales Team, their main job is to sell and upsell.
For CS Team, their main job is to assist customers and fulfill orders.
Both teams should have a sufficient tool for them to effectively do their jobs without having to open 6+ tools to find something related to a customer.
This is the blue portion of the entire Filings Vision Map which depicts how we would build this workflow and objects within the Salesforce CRM and how each of these objects are connected to the customer experience.
Key Takeaway
The main key takeaway since this project was initiated was that we need to be more open-minded and listen to not just our end customers, but our internal users as well. To be successful in every aspect of the business, our internal users are part of what makes our product great.
Next Steps
Continue iterating on this information architecture within the Filings Vision Map and closely work with Salesforce Administrator and eCommerce Team Lead to build and test this new internal tool using Salesforce CRM.
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