Peer-Graded Assignment: Reflection

Challenge & Selection:

The challenge that I used was to solve the issue of subscribers being double billed on a monthly basis by  their Car Satellite Radio Company. Data shows that 30% of member complaints were centered around  double billing issues. Furthermore, member satisfaction has been trending down year over year at a rate  of 5% for the past 3 years. This is due to unresolved billing issues stemming from insufficient technology  and billing systems.

The tool that I selected to use is Storytelling. I have used this tool in the past to represent the experience  to bring an effected population’s experience to life and make it realistic to key stakeholders in order to  generate strong member-centered empathy.

Application & Insights

The application of Storytelling starts with the development of personas all personas involved. Each

persona has unique experiences and specific needs that must be brought to light. In this instance, 3 key

personas were developed: 1. Satellite Radio member 2. Members Service Agents 3. Issues Resolution

Team Members.

One key to effective Storytelling is to become a Subject Matter Expert about the issue. This can be

accomplished by leveraging existing data, report outs from previous work that has been done on this

issue and other methods such listening to live or recorded member service calls. Taking the time to

review all inputs and listen for key themes was critical to identifying the unarticulated needs that speak

to the heart of issues for the personas being developed for the story.  The Storytelling tool video in

Week 2 stated “It has emotional connection, and it also has larger purpose. Storytelling is the difference

between solving a problem and creating a cause.”

Key insights that I gathered really pointed to how the Satellite Radio members were affected. Some

were on fixed incomes and must account for every penny spent. Others had called the company up to

20 times with no resolution. Member Service Agents experience frustration with having inaccurate tools

which created a tremendous amount of anxiety when servicing this type of member call. The reps knew

that all they could do is apologize and forward the issues to an escalation queue. The Issue Resolution

Reps were overwhelmed with the amount repeat double billing issues received as well as the number of

manual steps taken to validate the issue. They also had to take an excessive number of manual steps to

issue member refunds. These insights caused me to adjust how I thought about the member experience

as well as how designing a solution would have to be specific not only to the members but to all

individuals involved in this experience.

When sharing this story, stakeholders were motivated to take actions and quickly aligned with the need

to move towards resolving this issue.

Approach

What I learned from this approach is that effective storytelling really helps to keep those that we are

designing for at the center of the solutions versus trying to solve the client issue by only focusing on our

internal experiences. One thing that I would like to do differently would be to conduct empathy

interviews with actual Car Satellite Radio members instead of learning about the member experience by

listening to calls and interviewing the member service agents.

