Showcase : Service Design
The True Cost of $205
Problem Statement
A global beverage corporation was losing millions annually due to inefficient B2B service operations, resulting in poor customer satisfaction and employee frustration. Their complex network of disconnected legacy systems and fragmented processes led to simple customer issues spiraling into months-long disputes, damaging relationships and draining resources.
I led the customer experience workstream within my firm's larger finance transformation engagement. Our challenge was to rapidly assess and redesign critical B2B service journeys across North America while working under aggressive timelines with limited resources. The stakes were high—our findings and recommendations would directly impact thousands of customers and employees, requiring solutions that could be implemented within the constraints of a larger global transformation already underway.
Key Activities
Developed and executed comprehensive experience strategy for complex B2B service operations, spanning multiple customer personas and business units
Led extensive domain research into commercial invoicing and dispute resolution processes, uncovering critical pain points and improvement opportunities
Created detailed persona frameworks capturing diverse B2B customer needs, behaviors, and pain points across different market segments
Conducted and synthesized findings from executive stakeholder interviews, cross-functional workshops, and contextual inquiries to build holistic understanding
Analyzed complex workflows to identify redundancies and friction points, developing streamlined processes to reduce operational costs
Designed detailed service blueprints mapping current pain points and future-state solutions for customer dispute management, revealing systemic inefficiencies
Produced compelling concept videos to visualize proposed solutions and build stakeholder alignment
Presented strategic recommendations to C-suite executives, driving organizational buy-in and implementation support
Outcomes
Key Discovery: A single $310 service dispute revealed systemic inefficiencies:
14 people involved across customer and company teams
7 different systems utilized
6 hours of collective work time
9 months to resolution
Final settlement: $205
Cost of resolution significantly exceeded the disputed amount
Strategic Impact:
First-ever end-to-end service blueprint revealed hidden complexity
Unified siloed executive perspectives into comprehensive understanding
Demonstrated immediate opportunity for process improvement
Led to increased minimum threshold for disputes
Immediate Results:
Significant cost savings from reduced low-value dispute processing
Improved customer experience through faster resolution
Enhanced employee satisfaction by eliminating frustrating processes
Implementation of changes began before full transformation initiative
SAMPLES
Service Blueprint
The blueprint’s dimensions when printed was 9’ x 4’ - maximal height output at a FedEx Office.
Service Blueprint Detail