Harry Perrin
Product / UX / Strategy Design Consultant
Portfolio
Portfolio
Dec 22 - Nov 23
Hybrid, Leicester UK
Client-side ContractIn my collaboration with British Gas, we enhanced the PAYG service by creating 14 artefacts based on contact drivers. These artefacts mapped customer journeys and identified over £11 million in potential cost savings by reducing customer contacts and complaints. The project involved a significant cross-departmental effort, improving operational efficiency and customer satisfaction through innovative design methodologies.
In my role at British Gas, the UK’s leading energy provider, the focus was on spearheading smart, eco-friendly energy solutions for homes and businesses. British Gas stands out not just for keeping the lights on but for enhancing lives through innovative and sustainable practices. The drive is to anticipate and meet the evolving demands of customers and the environment.
Right now, British Gas stands out among the UK’s “Big Six” energy firms, doing much more than just providing energy. This experience encompasses billing, support, and a commitment to smart technology and green solutions. Such a holistic approach underscores the critical role of strategic design in shaping the business landscape and impacting society at scale.
My engagement focused on transforming services to be more user-friendly, energy-efficient, and environmentally friendly. This shift from traditional energy supply towards empowering customers with innovative solutions was at the heart of the project.
The PAYG service is a contemporary version of the traditional prepayment system, designed to let customers buy energy credits ahead of time. Catering to 1.2 million customers, this service is a testament to innovation, offering a crucial solution for those who prefer to manage their finances more tightly or have difficulties with consistent billing. Transitioning from coin-operated meters to digital platforms showcases British Gas’s dedication to providing flexible and empowering options for its users.
PAYG stands as a clear example of how strategic design can effectively tackle social issues, such as energy poverty, by offering practical solutions that encourage more mindful energy consumption and support wider social, economic, and environmental objectives.
We aimed to boost operational efficiency within the PAYG service to lower British Gas’s support costs. Additionally, we migrated customers to the NEP platform to enhance their experience and minimise service interruptions.
We established KPIs to measure the design’s impact, focusing on reducing complaints, speeding up resolutions, and improving satisfaction (NPS). We also analysed potential cost savings and revenue from design enhancements for financial benefits.
Our focus was on improving the PAYG service for customers, agents, and engineers by addressing critical issues and streamlining processes. We adapted the service for a smooth transition between the Classic and NEP platforms to reduce customer disruption. Additionally, we preemptively tackled service issues to maintain quality during the migration.
Our strategy highlighted the necessity of understanding customer challenges and adopting an “outside-in” perspective. This approach significantly reduced customer contacts and complaints while increasing satisfaction ratings. These positive changes not only demonstrate the impact of our design work but also reflect substantial improvements in service efficiency and the overall customer experience.
This project involved a massive collaborative effort, bringing together 58 individuals from different departments across the organisation. Together, we championed customer-centricity and embraced User-Centred Design practices. At the heart of our approach was the Tri-Track Agile methodology, which guided us through a thorough design and discovery journey, significantly enhancing our design and agile capabilities at British Gas.
I played a crucial role in developing and implementing a framework aimed at enhancing strategic design. This formed the Track 1 Framework that fit with the wider part of the Tri-Track Agile methodology, which was essential in improving collaboration speed and quality, resulting in better customer experiences.
I joined a diverse team of seven strategic designers, each with unique backgrounds but a shared commitment to understanding customer needs. We embraced the five fundamental principles of strategic design thinking, creating interactive documentation throughout the track 1 process that linked back to original insights for easy traceability.
The Prelaunch Session set the vision, identified key participants, reviewed insights, planned research, defined roles, and assessed team capacity.
The Scope and Approach Playback ensured alignment on scope, approach, outcomes, and timelines. During the Research and Analysis phase, we utilised ethnographic studies and trend analyses to capture a holistic service view, followed by journey mapping and ideation workshops.
In the Validation Phase, we integrated business requirements, customer insights, and best practices to outline the desired future state. We worked with product management to break down the project scope into manageable features.
Finally, in the Final Phase, we turned the refined scope into actionable plans, incorporating feedback into product designs and project deliverables.
At the start of the project, I focused on fostering teamwork from the off by gathering key stakeholders to define the project’s scope, identify key customer groups, whilst reviewing existing research to find gaps. The session also identified the necessary subject matter experts, clarified roles, assessed realistic timelines, and set up preliminary invites for key dates and milestones within the initiative.
The main goal was to reduce contact rates from Pay As You Go (PAYG) customers to British Gas by addressing the root cause of the customers issues, all whilst lowering operational costs. The vision was to achieve this by exploring both the rewarding and challenging experiences of our PAYG customers, by mapping journeys, blueprints, identifying gaps, and reducing service risks.
In this session with key stakeholders, we outlined the project’s scope: reducing customer contact by resolving underlying issues. By integrating the Tri-Track Framework and taking into account discovery debt, we highlighted the need to identify the core reasons for incoming contact. I presented our approach and potential deliverables such as journey maps and service blueprints for customers and service agents, to manage their expectations. We also used a gantt chart detailing activities and milestones to refine PAYG service paths and improve efficiency which was key for visibility for stakeholders to allow planning ahead, and being involved in key sessions.
For the first time in our organisation, we’ve successfully brought together five distinct streams of research. These include root cause analysis, user experience (UX) research, data analytics and insights, trend analysis, and financial studies, covering a broad spectrum of fields. This effort has brought key stakeholders from each domain together to pool their insights, resulting in a rich collection of resources. These range from Miro boards provided by external agencies and detailed user journey maps on the SAP platform, to Figma designs and business intelligence reports, particularly focusing on metering, which is vital for our program.
An ‘Epic Statement’ was created to streamline our strategy, outlining business drivers, project scope, methodologies, and approach. Analysing contact reasons revealed the need for a larger sample size beyond the initial 150 surveyed to gain a fuller understanding of the customer base. The research objectives included cost implications, customer wait times, call handling durations, repeat contacts, customer pain points and internal systems.
In the session, we discussed what methods of research we would use to be able to meet the research objectives. We started by identifying the need to conduct at least 10 interviews with British Gas customers and expanding as needed. This qualitative approach was complemented with surveys, ethnographic research, co-design workshops, and stakeholder interviews. Research also focused on key metrics such as Net Promoter Score (NPS) despite its known limitations, with further analysis using Adobe Analytics for online experiences.
The purpose of this session was to coordinate with the research teams to confirm their ability to carry out the planned studies. This proved to be a very successful session that aligned the wider team, creating a clear strategy in putting the studies into motion and enhancing our capability to generate actionable insights.
Working with the data and insights team, we managed to identify the 14 top reasons for PAYG customers contacting customer service. These would be the focus moving forward.
I crafted a discussion guide to explore roles, responsibilities, and stakeholder dynamics, aiming to anticipate and prevent issues seen in past initiatives. I conducted 11 interviews with key stakeholders, including product owners from various business areas such as support, service management, and app development. We delved into customer experiences, especially service failures, examining their emotional impact, resolution tactics, and lessons learned. This was crucial for refining our service design and delivery strategy.
We also investigated challenges faced by agents and field engineers, along with the systems, processes, and infrastructure supporting service delivery. This alignment of stakeholder needs with business goals focused on improving internal operations. Lastly, we discussed using data and metrics for ongoing improvement. By integrating stakeholder feedback and maintaining a customer-focused outlook, we aim to enhance service offerings and boost operational efficiency for a smoother service delivery framework.
Alongside another designer, I visited the customer service support team in Edinburgh, identified as subject matter experts in PAYG services. We conducted in-depth discussions covering all 14 contact drivers and drafted preliminary journey maps for agents, customers, and engineers.
Our journey mapping was comprehensive, starting with the customer’s experience. We examined their challenges, tasks, and goals, as well as the roles and obstacles faced by support agents and engineers. This broad approach helped identify connections with other projects and offered a detailed view of our service ecosystem.
We also explored ‘backstage’ aspects of service delivery, including internal processes, technologies, and teams that support customer interactions. Understanding these elements is crucial for service efficiency and effectiveness. We reviewed British Gas’s governance and regulatory requirements to ensure compliance in our strategic design.
The information collected from these interviews was processed to inform our final strategic design outputs. By thoroughly examining the journeys of customers, agents, and engineers, we identified areas for service enhancement. This comprehensive strategy ensures our solutions meet business goals and address the real needs and challenges of those we serve.
At the start of my engagement with British Gas, my goal was to help develop the strategy design team. I created and conducted a session focused on a skills matrix, where team members rated their confidence in various areas of the discipline on a scale from 1 to 4. By averaging these ratings, we identified areas needing up-skilling. Customer interviews emerged as a particular area of low confidence. To address this, I co-designed a two-week training program to enhance the team’s interviewing skills. This initiative resulted in a 270% increase in direct customer engagement across the business.
We aimed to gather diverse customer insights across different meter types – both smart and conventional meters. Our interviews focused on understanding customers’ challenges, preferences, and opportunities for self-service improvements. We discussed energy usage, reasons for choosing our services, interactions with meter types, and top-up habits. We explored how customers manage their energy needs, the challenges they face, their help-seeking experiences, and resolution outcomes. We also examined instances of customers resolving issues on their own, their self-service processes, information sought, emotions involved and potential service improvements.
After the interviews, we compiled data into themes reflecting customer thoughts, emotions, needs, and pain points, integrating these into our customer journey maps. This initiative deepened our understanding of customer experiences and promoted a culture of direct engagement, underscoring our commitment to service quality.
I conducted ethnographic studies with five experts to examine field engineers’ operations, focusing on solutions to common customer problems. We discovered key improvement areas in planning and dispatch, such as jobs being booked without ensuring engineers could complete them due to problems with internal systems or due to incorrect equipment. This resulted in engineers having to inform waiting customers in person that their job couldn’t be done, causing delays and increased van usage, which negatively impacted the environment. Addressing these issues would significantly enhance service efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Alongside the ethnographic study, we interviewed five more engineers to gain additional insights into the challenges faced by engineers, customers, and agents, as well as the systems they use in their routines. These interviews covered engineers from various UK regions, each handling a variety of job types, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of the diverse roles of British Gas engineers.
We conducted over fourteen in-depth validation sessions with subject matter experts, product owners, engineers, and customers to review and improve our service interactions. These sessions delved into the less satisfactory aspects of our service, benefiting greatly from diverse contributions.
Each session was carefully orchestrated to be informative, engaging, and collaborative. We initiated a move to standardise our internal language, ensuring that complex terms were clear and consistent across the organisation. This made complex information more accessible and understandable to all. Recognising the importance of visual aids, we committed to making our data presentations uniform and straightforward, enhancing understanding through coherent visuals.
We mapped stakeholder experiences using storytelling, which proved effective in gathering feedback and pinpointing areas needing attention. The use of black post-it notes provided immediate, visual responses. To capture valuable feedback, all sessions were recorded and transcribed, allowing us to quickly identify and act on crucial insights, transforming them into tangible actions.
By including a diverse range of participants beyond the initial group, we introduced fresh perspectives that enriched our design process. This diversity led to a more rounded and thorough collection of insights. Our validation efforts aimed not only to refine services but also to foster ongoing improvement and teamwork. By embracing the knowledge and viewpoints of a wide array of stakeholders, we established a robust foundation for developing innovative solutions that resonate deeply with the needs and experiences of those we serve.
After extensive research, we’ve created comprehensive artefacts to drive innovation for the new Energy platform’s Pay As You Go service. These artefacts provide executive summaries of each journey impacting contact drivers, highlighting crucial data like annual demand and channel-specific contacts. Notably, we identified a potential for over £11 million in cost savings by reducing customer contacts by 70%.
Each artefact contains rich insights, including meeting recordings, notes, and detailed analyses, with clickable Miro links to trace the origin of each insight. Our narrative approach, supported by internal brand photography, vividly depicts the customer journey, capturing significant touchpoints, emotions, and decisions. We also detailed the experiences and challenges of agents and field engineers and their impact on the service.
We outlined key performance indicators and metrics essential for tracking continuous improvements within British Gas. This includes vital processes, supporting technologies, systems, and governance structures. Our green post-it notes highlight opportunities for addressing root causes and improving service based on cost-mapping benefits. Despite challenges, such as adapting to changes in British Gas’s internal contact reporting, we produced 14 unique artefacts, each with its own story. I then worked with the track 2 team to be able to pick these artefacts up and design solutions that meet the needs of our agents, engineers and customers.