INDUSTRY:
Telecom
CLIENT:
Verizon
YEAR:
2019
EXPERIENCE:
UX/Product Design & Strategy
Verizon: Managed Resolutions
Overview.
We led a design sprint with Verizon to redesign their customer service escalation process, focused on first-call resolution and reducing frustration when customers were transferred between retail and technical support. The project introduced a “Managed Resolutions” workflow, centered on transparency, proactive follow-up, and ownership of customer issues.
Challenge & context.
Customers experienced repeated calls, unclear handoffs, and lack of communication when moving between Verizon store reps and technical care agents. This created frustration, eroded trust, and increased operational costs. Verizon needed a process that simplified the journey, gave customers confidence, and reduced repeat contacts.
Discovery & research.
We ran a multi-week sprint with stakeholders across retail, technical support, and digital teams. Journey maps and sprint walls documented customer pain points, and “How Might We” exercises reframed them into design opportunities. User testing with both agents and customers provided direct feedback on prototypes.
Design philosophy & approach.
The design emphasized human confidence and trust as core goals. Instead of focusing solely on routing efficiency, we designed interactions that gave customers clear ownership, transparency in transitions, and proactive updates. This reframing shifted the focus from resolving a technical issue to ensuring customers felt their issue was resolved.
Solution & key deliverables.
We storyboarded a 15-step "Managed Resolution" that we built into a workflow/prototype to test on location. This prototype included:
Clear case ownership from the first point of contact
Proactive callbacks scheduled with customer consent
Full context transfer between agents and systems
Follow-up SMS recaps to confirm the resolution and build trust
Results & business outcomes.
We tested the proposed workflow in person at a Verizon store in Columbia, South Carolina, where real employees and customers interacted with the solution during a live session. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive. The staff found the flow intuitive, efficient, and directly aligned with the challenges they faced day to day. This validation not only reinforced our design direction but also helped build confidence in scaling the solution across additional pilot locations.
Business outcomes included stronger customer confidence, lower operational costs, and improved first-call resolution rates. ROI was tied to efficiency gains and increased customer loyalty.
Disclaimer.
All visuals shown are workshop outputs and preliminary mockups. No PII or customer-specific data is included. Prototypes and workflows were designed for implementation within the Pegasystems platform.
