B&Q
Reimagining the kitchen buying experience
The challange
Over the last 2 years, B&Q had seen its share of the kitchen buying market fall dramatically. We were tasked with the creation of a full CX audit and competitor analysis as well as validating improvements to the current customer experience and areas of innovation
My roles & tasks
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Define, create and validate innovation solutions for improved UX & CX
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Creation and completion of an exhaustive CX audit across 4 brands and multiple channels
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Work with and lead UX/UI freelance team
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Conduct key stakeholder interviews
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Define core CX and strategy principles with head strategist
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Creation of large 'as is' customer journey maps for various personas and missions
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Creating and facilitating client immersion, discovery, and innovation workshops
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Create a user testing strategy, complete testing and analyse findings
Project video overview
The below video gives a great overview of the project and is definitely worth a watch. It was created to show at board level to assist with project funding and also awareness.
A quick look at key project and areas I led.
As CX consultant on a large project, it was critical that I learnt quickly the existing business landscape and ecosystem. B&Q had a great deal of existing research which provided a starting point of our work, but we really needed to understand what the customer was seeing across various channels and competitors.
With 52% of 1.2million kitchen customers, every year considering B&Q, but only 81,00 of them purchasing, there was obviously something not aligning with customers expectations.
Through CX audits, mystery shopper, quant and qual research as well as out of category research I led the team on opportunity finding to create a more engaging and 'joined up' customer experience.
Co-Creation of core CX principles strategy & personas
Using key customer drivers and behavioural requirements we created our core principles which would not only steer the project, but it would also allow us to benchmark our opportunities later down the line
Creation and facilitation of stakeholder workshops on Mural
We had 3 workshops in total over the 3 month period. We incorporated tools and games to extract the information we needed as well as adopt methodologies from Google Sprints and Service Design
Out of category Safari for innovation stakeholder workshop
I created a deck consisting of our 50 innovation ideas currently being implemented globally. We thought about how these concepts could be applied to B&Q and also measured these against our CX principles
CX audit over 4 brands and multiple channels
This was by far the biggest audit me or my team had ever done.
I created a strategy for the areas that would need to be audited and also the playback format. Included in the audit were kitchen design appointments (both on and offline), store visits, mystery shopper, delivery and returns as well as CRM monitoring and 'after sales' service as well as a high-level heuristic review.
Below: Radar chart of the B&Q website measured across our CX principles
Below: Snap shot into the scoring across the CX principles
Below: Competitor analysis of web offerings
Creation of 3 Customer Journey 'mega' maps.
I had created personas and defined the key buying missions prior to the creation of these mega maps. They were big! I also created a deeper dive into more focussed areas of the journey where needed.
These were the bedrock of the opportunity generation and I also plotted the pain points and insights from research and testing in the bottom section of the map with a key to identify its source as so many maps are built on assumption, I wanted the team to be clear of the nature and source of the insight.
Below: One of my 'as is' journey maps capturing and logging pain point insights
CX recommendation deck
Through research and analysis of the customer journeys, I created opportunity cards that aligned to personas, CX principles and also our pain point matrix.
The below versions also show the survey results showing a propensity to move to the next stage and also roadmap timeframe based on team assumption and knowledge
Below: Page from the opportunity deck utilising insight from testing, research and CX audit
Rapid UX for creation of concepts for testing survey of 1,000+
I wanted to create a 'lite' version of the final UX screens and flows purely for perception and sentiment testing purposes.
The concepts were put together in Figma, screen recorded, then included in our survey as video with voice over & plain text to help easy understanding of the concept. The large survey also captured the sentiment and together helped inform our final research playback and added 'value' to our business case.
Below: Section from Service Blueprint workshop to visualise delivery flow & dependencies
Creation of interactive digital showroom using Matterport
One opportunity we prototyped was an interactive showroom showing real kitchens belonging to B&Q customers who had been through the kitchen buying and installing process.
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It allowed customers to see products in a more natural surrounding removing disconnect from 'staged' product photography
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Could hear first hand the story of the customer in relation to stages of the journey
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Had a quick link to speak to a B&Q assistant which is currently being tested in Beta in the North West of England
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Allowed favouriting of designs and promoted a sign up feature
Below: Some of my CX recommendations that we tested and have been included into the B&Q roadmap
Video led kitchen showroom visits in purpose built offsite locations
B&Q currently only ever show a small percentage of their kitchens in-store due to the demand of other retail areas on floor space. An alternative 'offsite' regional showroom using on-demand video calling is currently being trialled in the North West of England where all kitchen options, appliances and accessories are physically in place.
CSR scheme involving local housing charities and kitchen donations
We know customers are now seeking brands that are more ethical and mirror their own beliefs, and by speaking to Shelter, we knew Kitchens was one of the most expensive areas of the home to maintain. By allowing customers to donate (or accept a small amount of discount off a new kitchen) we created a pilot scheme model that will be trialled later next year.
Online sample ordering
B&Q currently don't offer any samples for customers to take away either online or in-store. Research showed that the demand for samples was high, and most competitors were offering this.
Online only competitors are prioritising the sample ordering process and the opportunity to utilise this channel is obvious to get from 'digital' to 'tangible'
Building in payment options to offer the customer more control
The online kitchen buying experience currently only offered Visa, Debit or Mastercard. The 0% finance offering was not present for online purchases. Looking at purchase amount patterns and competitors, I concluded that Klarna and Paypal would be great secure payment options to offer the increasingly popular 'spread payments' from current account rather than applying for credit or adding debt to credit cards
Signed in customer project area
The CX audit showed that the room for improvement in the CRM channels was huge. Also, visibility and processes around orders, delivery and returns were all very protracted and major customer, and staff, pain points.
A project area that had full visibility, control and assistance was seen as a way or creating a more harmonious and empowering customer experience.
Rapid product replacement
Research also showed that missing or damaged goods were a key element to delayed kitchen building projects. These delays were also the biggest customer complaint after project completion.
B&Q have just recently moved stock 'instore' rather than a centralised hub allowing shorter lead times on supply. Fast-tracking delivery of items needed on kitchen projects in progress using local courier partnerships was an area seen as 'game changing'.
Finance and cost calculators
I created a testing strategy that included 'perceived cost' testing. The results and patterns I observed were that people would UNDER estimate the total cost of a kitchen but OVER estimate the monthly payment breakdown as they often didn't include the 20% deposit effect the total price. It was clear that transparency and a little education was needed by the simple inclusion of easy to use calculators in-flow.
Social commerce and referral scheme
We all know word of mouth from a trusted friend or family member is the biggest factor in making decisions. I created a content strategy to work alongside the inclusion of real customer stories which monetised the sharing of social media posts through a unique URL booking form. By using happy customers as promoters we both created positive content, encouraged referrals and rewarded current customers.
Real customer stories, real customer kitchens
The biggest product disconnect research showed was that the 'Showroom kitchen' was too far removed from the 'real functional kitchen'.
By following B&Q customer journeys, warts and all, we could create rich content that would adhere to the new B&Q 'real life' advertising campaign as well as feed into the digital showroom tool.
Below: Section from future state experience map with embedded video
Summary
The project is into phase 2 now and I am currently using Service Blueprints and workshops to ensure the customer experience and technical delivery are all considered and aligning to the vision.
The trials are in place for the service innovations and a seperate workstream is also implementing UX amends to the existing online experience. It's a huge job, but the attitude and enthusiasm within the B&Q group is very inspiring to see and be part of. Long may it continue.
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