Verizon Smartcart

Omni-channel shopping experience

Verizon Smartcart

With over 100 million subscribers, the domestic reach stateside of Verizon Wireless and Verizon Fios is massive, so their capabilities cannot be understated.

Customers do not understand the legal division between Verizon Wireless and Verizon Fios. The project’s goal was not to change the business’ legal structure; instead, it was to create a unified online shopping experience.

The strategic goal of Smart Cart was to provide a recommendation to unify the two shopping experiences under one single user experience, to ease the purchase journey of the two services and ultimately make bundling easier. The outcome was a cross-platform engagement strategy and product service powered by a redesigned CRM platform.

Taxonomy of Verizons Fios + Wireless offering

The customer-facing interface was an intelligent basket that the user established using their postcode and full name, stored and matched with a browser cookie. If the user returned via any touchpoint to the Verizon/FiOS sites the cart was automatically retained (as standard) but could be retrieved if accessed via an unknown platform by inputting their postcode, allowing families to shop collectively.

This allowed Verizon to expand their brand further, working with social media to experience Verizon stories on Instagram, and drop directly into the eCommerce shopping experience.

The user would be sent a targeted offer when landing on verizon.com or FIOS from any search engine. When they engaged with this offer, they would loop qualify to set up the cart and trigger bundling opportunities.

These bundling opportunities appear as the user shops and a design cue produces benefits to upgrade and bundle items, as well as demonstrate potential discounts the user could receive. So, as the user shops, the cart’s contents and specific combinations are discounted.

The design treatment of the bundle options was styled so that they looked secondary to items added to the basket but were coloured to visually stand out. When engaged they animated and appeared to visually upgrade the main items.
This influenced the users’ shopping experience. Instead of seeing the running total of the cost of every item added to their basket, they saw an accumulation of bundling potentials which discounted the key items they were shopping for while increasing the value they received. This worked across FIOS and Wireless.

Redesigning Optix Platform

A client management platform was designed to help manage the background operations of Smart Cart. It also provided the cross-business Verizon offering and bundling opportunities for in-store and over-the-phone communication, while managing bundle configurations and account holdings.

The Optix platform was designed so that the operator had to use the customer’s postcode and full name to access the account – whether existing or not. It could be openly customised, based on the communication the operative had with the customer.

The interface of the Optix platform was designed as a twin view so that the operator had a dynamic script to help move the conversation forward and was given tips to help sell Verizon products.

With the entire interface based on conversational prompts, the platform could be used to complement the in-store experience or assist the operative over the phone.

The outcomes of customer communication were measured on the commission system, with the dynamic script content based on the service categorisation. This was drilled down further when the sales assistant identified customer interest and engagement with the item, which changed the content.

The ordering system was designed and structured by an audit of the Verizon offering and then a taxonomy diagram created to group and create a nested system with the information defined.
The design language was created to facilitate the taxonomy groupings and sub-groupings. Mobile, TV, Internet and Voice were the top-level options. This was drilled down to a secondary service type, a core product category, individual product customisation, and peripheral accessories.
The content changed, based on the hierarchy of service items: Mobile, TV, Internet and Voice. Drilling down into them caused the dialogue script to change. You could drill down further into bespoke customisation options.

Driving referrals through the Fios Content Calendar.

People have their favourite services, channels and series, but didn’t know when new content was released, even though it was consistently commissioned and released annually.
To address this problem, FIOS packages were structured around the upcoming season of the new series releases. This drove existing and future availability to ensure customers’ conversations would be around Verizon Fios’ upcoming content. This reinforces Verizon’s brand strategy that store operatives are brand ambassadors driving customer relationships for Fios.

Seperating out the Fios Packages by channel and showing the content appropriate to eachh package

The Verizon Smart Cart piece and its redesigned infrastructure successfully united the service offerings and reinforced its brand equity of being a classic customer-centric communication company, with the company maintaining the traditional values it was founded upon.

Generative Research to find and frame problems

Research

Using Systems thinking to make sense of any subject matter

Information Architecture

Thinking around defining unique aesthetics for brand strategy

Brand Design

Thoughts around the future of brand narrative

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