This is a lesson is in incorporating customer feedback the right way. Of course, it’s only a lesson because we, like any other company who value customer feedback, had to look at the whole situation retrospectively in order to see where things could have been different.
In designing products and features for the masses the constant is knowing that not every customer is going to like a particular change. All you can do is evaluate your options, build based on customer usage/feedback, and plan to have each feature shipped advance the overall product and user experience forward.
Response templates have always been built into Reamaze (ever since beta). Their use cases vary wildly from partner to partner but this feature is a mainstay in any customer support platform. We designed the first iteration of response template so agents can “point and shoot”. All they need to do is hit the dropdown menu, pick a template at-a-glance and insert it. While this UI was fast, it neglected the fact that not every support team takes the time to name each template properly nor do they have proper training on something as simple as response templates (even though they should).
As a remedy, the product team at Reamaze put together a second iteration of response templates to be much robust. It included multi-line preview, search, and an entirely new modal to support the experience.
Within hours of the change, our support team started receiving hints of a potential problem. Within a few days we had collected over 10 customer feedback emails asking for the old interface back. Some said the new UI made their workflow much slower. Others complained about the experience being more confusing than it needed to be. Some also claimed that the new response templates UI made them click around too much. We did receive praise from a few customers but the negative feedback was simply too much to ignore.
Arguments ensued. Battles were fought. Pictures were drawn.
As a team, we needed to answer a few questions before more changes were made. Mainly:
- Why did we change things?
- What are the basic (and crucial) ingredients of response templates?
- What did customers like and not-like about the old experience?
- What did customers like and not-like about the new experience?
- What are the core concerns?
- What can we fix to a) improve user experience by addressing just the core concerns and b) change as little as possible.
We came to one simple conclusion. Customers needed to maintain easy clickability. Searching, previewing, and browsing are second tier and nice-to-have features. We had 3 options:
- Keep the new UI and ignore customer feedback.
- Revert back to the old UI and pretend like nothing happened.
- Which we’ll talk about right now.
As a team, we universally agreed that both UIs had advantages. However, we needed to break apart essentials from nice-to-haves. Customers needed to have quick access as well expanded access to response templates.
The old UI simply needed an extra button. For agents already familiar with each template, a simply drop-down menu gave them quick access to each article. With one click, they’ll be able to hit insert and be on their way. For agents who need to preview, search, and browse, the new “Search/Filter” button opens the new modal for expanded access.
The revision was an instant success. Customers who complained were thrilled to see the old UI back in play. Customers who loved the expanded UI simply needed to click “Search/Filter” in order to view all templates. Eventually, we expect to see everyone graduate to seasoned pros and use the faster UI. The expanded modal will always be there if you need it!
Incorporating customer feedback every step of the way is no walk in the park. That’s not expected with every feature we build and ship. However, it is important to always listen for feedback because there’s always someone out their with a better idea.
If you have a good idea, send it our way. We welcome good ideas, bad ideas, funny ideas, and everything in between.