In 2019, we discovered a dead end in the live chat flow on the AIR MILES website. It unintentionally locked users out of their accounts and offered no way for them to receive online support. This discovery prompted a redesign of the entire experience that I had the pleasure to lead as the team's UX Designer.

I began by researching UX best practices and reviewing the live chat strategies used by our direct competitors (as well as sites with particularly strong live chat experiences). I spoke with our live chat care agents to understand their experience with the flow, but also the experience of the users that they spoke to day-to-day. I used this information to inform my design decisions.

Based on my research, I understood that most users prefer to use live chat over phoning our customer service representatives. However, I knew that in certain user scenarios, the live chat agent would not be able to assist them. To avoid causing additional frustration, I visualized a flow that showed how a user would recover their pin or collector number. This led to the idea of triaging users before sending them to their destination.

As we approached AODA deadlines, I worked with both the care team and assigned developers to audit and solution ways to make the chat bot and live chat experiences accessible for all users. As it stood, the live chat landing page was outdated and non compliant with WCAG 2.0 guidelines at all.

After my discussion with our live chat care agents, I determined that the best solution would not be a redesign of the landing page in its current state, but instead the removal of the live chat landing page, which created an unnecessary step for users. I worked with our development teams to create the functionality to open the live chat dialogue box directly on the help page to reduce friction.

I have continued to own the live chat portfolio as a designer, working on exciting ways to enhance the experience for our collectors. I am currently putting together a business case for stakeholder buy-in on a more triaged experience that would guide collectors to use online self-service tools when available, and direct collectors to the appropriate care division when encountering complicated issues.