Example Support Launch Plan
Selected Product: Google Search
New Feature: Google Product Listing Ads (PLA) - Product Research Module
Core Use Case: Product research and purchase.
Selected category: 55” Smart LED TVs
Overview: The product team has created a new module to help consumers make more informed purchase decisions at the Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT). The module appears as part of Google search for select product-related keywords and matches user reviews, trusted editorial sources (like http://thewirecutter.com/) along with Google Product Listings Ads (PLA) placements. For this use case, the user (gender: female, age: 28, location: Seattle) is researching 55” Smart LED TVs with an initial intent to purchase before the soccer World Cup.
My role in this exercise, is to advocate for the consumer throughout the development process, develop a support launch plan, measure and track consumer success, along with testing and optimizing new support features. The goal: to ensure that Google search consumers are getting the most out of the new Product Research Module, when they need it the most
Support Implementation Plan
Consumer Touch Points - Low Touch(scalable, self-serve)
FAQs (accessible knowledge base)
Consumer support forums
Product support videos
Service status dashboards
Blog posts
Social media
Self-serve admin / user preferences
Google PLA Merchant Touch Points- High Touch (1:1 support)
Delayed Support: Email, contact forms
Real-time Support: Chat, phone, video
Support Staffing: Tiered escalations vs. Universal agent
Consumer Touch Points to Test- Experimental, scalable solutions to test. Focused on scalable, self-serve solutions.
- AI chat support – Chatbot agent leveraging machine learning to access knowledge base
- Hybrid support offering – similar to Project Fi hybrid support – offering multiple choices with estimated queue wait times.
- User education – Support Academy (Similar to the optimizing AdSense online course).
- Awards – Learning theory and gamification techniques: badges for successful usage, etc.
Stakeholders
Google Search Team
Search Product Team
Search Engineering Team
Search User Experience Design Team
Search Business Development Team
Google Product Listing Ads (PLA) Team
PLA Product Team
PLA Engineering Team
Google PLA Merchant Support Team
PLA Account Management Team
PLA Sales Team
Google Consumer Support Team
Product Support Managers
Consumer Experience Specialists
Product Support Agents
External Support Vendors and Partners
Agent Support teams
3rd Party product teams (for build, buy or partner decisions)
Consumer Support Considerations
1. Focus on core value proposition
- What are the core goals for consumers? - Identify high value use cases.
- How do they differ based on user demographics?
- How does the product offering vary based on device? - Mobile, multi-screen vs. desktop
2. Establish consumer success dashboard
- Identify consumer goals and success funnels.
- Prioritize quantitative data.
- Provide qualitative insights to frame the conversation.
- Select core success metrics.
3. Review all existing customer touch points – understanding the basics
- User on-boarding and education
- Low-touch (self-serve support) vs. high touch (1:1 support)
- Issue escalation, prioritization
- Localization
- Style Guides
4. Cross-Company Best Practices
- How do we consistently deliver high quality service across all Google products?
- What are the company-wide considerations for managing expectations for paying customers and consumers using free versions of a product?
5. Competitive landscape review
- What level of support are consumers expecting when they compare alternative or complimentary product offerings?
- Do any support features in the marketplace solve existing pain-points for our consumers?
6. Implement innovations iteratively, test and optimize
- Great ideas can come from anywhere – all new features must be evaluated, prioritized and ranked with the same set of metrics.
- New support features should be launched to a limited-set of users, tested, evaluated and optimized.
Selected Success Metrics
Support Costs
- Cost per contact
- Closed issue resolution cost
- Staffing team costs
- Self-Service product development costs
Customer Satisfaction / Customer Success
- CSat – Customer Satisfaction (7 tier surveys)
- FCR – First contact resolution rates
- Queue wait times
- SLAs – Service level agreements
- Customer loyalty, evangelism rates
- Bad customer identification (repeated false issues)
External Sources of Customer Satisfaction
- Net Promoter Score
- Forrester Reports
- Research surveys (such as North American Technographics)
Staffing (operational metrics)
- % of call by agent
- # of calls / agent / team
- Average talk time
- Closed vs. Escalated issue counts
Product Feedback loop
- # of common, repeat issues
- # of new issues highlighted
- Identifying edge cases/ long-tail issues
- Clarifying data with qualitative insights
Hybrid / Aggregated Metrics
- Goal-based funnel metrics – multiple data points (similar to click-path)
- Aggregated reports highlighting prioritized insights