Challenge

Small business owners managing retirement savings plans were struggling with complex administrative processes that required hour-long phone consultations with retirement specialists. Customer service calls averaged 60 minutes, overwhelming support staff with 500 full-time equivalent hours monthly and creating frustrating experiences for users who needed to complete routine administrative tasks, often during evening hours when support wasn't available.

What I did

  • Led comprehensive research, content strategy development, and implementation of self-service solutions to transform the customer support experience

  • Conducted extensive user research including stakeholder interviews with retirement specialists and analysis of 11 hours of recorded customer calls to understand pain points

  • Performed landscape audits of comparable complex financial transactions and online experiences to identify best practices

  • Researched user behavior patterns and attention spans, discovering that adults can focus for maximum 20 minutes and prefer "good enough" solutions over extensive reading

  • Mapped customer journey across multiple touchpoints (pre-call, onboarding call, post-call) to identify content intervention opportunities

  • Collaborated with cross-functional team including UX designers, visual designers, and product managers to develop comprehensive solution

  • Made storyboards of user flows to identify optimal tooltip placement, then wrote clear, actionable tooltips to guide users through each step

Solution

  • Created an intuitive online support hub featuring:

  • "Before you start" preparation lists to help users gather necessary documentation

  • Step-by-step instructions with contextual information and clear visual hierarchy

  • Comprehensive information architecture optimized for user mental models

  • Short-form instructional videos (under 3 minutes, no sound required, with helpful tooltips)

Impact

  • Reduced average customer call duration from 60 to 10 minutes (83% reduction)

  • Decreased monthly support ticket volume by 40%

  • Freed up 500+ staff hours monthly, allowing support team to focus on complex issues rather than routine administrative guidance

  • Achieved 70% self-service adoption rate for routine tasks

  • Validated user behavior insights with significant night-time usage, confirming users preferred completing administrative tasks outside business hours

  • Increased page engagement time by 50% through interactive content and improved user experience

  • Users arrived at calls better prepared, improving efficiency of remaining consultation time