Challenge

In-store services are increasingly significant to John Lewis’ business and a key point of differentiation with competitors. In 2018 it launched the Experience Desk to introduce customers to its range of in-store services and drive bookings. Despite the trust shoppers place in John Lewis overall, awareness of these services is still low and the desks had been brought to market without any customer research or service design input.

Approach

The task of my team was to enhance the experience desk concept, and away from the desk (across other channels) to identify the most effective means of engaging and connecting customers with in-store services. With a company wide re-branding project just months away our task was also to define and structure enhancements into a roadmap based on potential customer benefit and effort to implement.

Process

First we conducted discovery research with recent service users. Depth interviews with service users uncovered a set of customer jobs, pains and gains which were relevant to a range of customer service experiences. We then used the findings as an input to an intensive four day visioning workshop with a working group drawn from roles across John Lewis including experience design, branch management, operations and personnel.

Outcome

During the workshops we introduced the key jobs, pains and gains to the group then collaboratively ranked them according to their likely impact on customers. We generated service engagement concepts in response to key themes from the research then used the value proposition canvas to flesh out each concept. The concepts generated were then ranked on a customer benefit vs. feasibility matrix and organised into a roadmap which the business could use to develop the proposition over the coming months.