Workshop Facilitation
Recreate customers service vision
Role: Service designer (project lead) | Date: Oct - Nov 2025
Brief
In 2025, we migrated our customer service to a new platform. Before development began, we took a step back to ask: what should good customer service look like with AI embedded in this new platform? As teams from different areas came together, it was important to ensure we were aligned in the same direction. This workshop was designed to give stakeholders the space to reflect, share perspectives, and shape a unified vision that resonates across service, customer experience, and technology.
Outcome
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A collective vision statement to guide decision-making and ensure alignment moving forward
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A set of prioritised values that reflect and represent our business
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Guiding principles aligned with the vision to support consistent direction and choices
CX = Growth
Companies that lead in CX grow revenue 80% faster than their competitors.
We first presented the current (“as-is”) data to stakeholders. By comparing our current state with industry standards, we encouraged them to reflect on what good customer service should look like for SSE.
Telephony Service
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High call volume: Average wait time of 38 minutes, leading to a high abandonment rate.
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Unclear IVR experience: Overly verbose and complex messaging, making it difficult for customers to reach the right team.
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Limited visibility on case ownership and updates: Minimal progress updates result in repeat contact, with customers returning to chase outcomes.
Email Service
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Long SLA: Poor email structure and prioritisation result in an average resolution time of 34 days.
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Lack of ownership: Cases are passed across multiple teams, leading to loss of accountability and reduced visibility of progress.
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Unclear communication: Siloed ways of working limit collaboration, resulting in inefficient internal and external communication.
Why a good customers service is important?
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86% of buyers say they’ll pay more for a better experience - especially in high-consideration B2B categories
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Customers who rate their experience a 10/10 remain loyal up to 6x longer
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1 in 3 customers will leave after just one bad interaction
The evidence shows that customers are no longer focused solely on purchasing products—they increasingly expect high-quality service from businesses. Reflecting this shift, a Forrester report highlights that over 50% of organisations have increased their investment in building customer relationships.
What an overall good customers service looks like for SSE?
Looking ahead to the future of our customer service platform, each team member brings a unique perspective—whether it’s operational efficiency, product integration, or emotional experience. Through the following exercises, we invited them to come together to reimagine a shared vision for the future service.
Service
Tech
Customers
experience
Create Vision Statement
A clear vision statement helps guide the business in the right direction with shared goals. To achieve this, we invited stakeholders to collaboratively define our customer service vision.
Do what, For whom, To achieve
A vision statement for 2030
Through consistent, high-quality service and easy experiences, we keep our promises, rebuild trust, and strengthen lasting partnerships with every customer
Futuristic Thinking Activities
After the team developed the vision statement, I introduced a future-focused scenario. Stakeholders were then asked to explore what customers would see, feel, think, and do in that context. From these discussions, we prioritised key business values and translated them into guiding principles using the framework below.
“Our customers service will meet the core value of _______ when we __________”
Value=Quality
Deliver proactive, consistent, and customer-led service that empowers people and sets clear expectations every time.
Take accountability for delivering quality results and make things right when they go wrong.
Value=Transparency
Use the data we have to make the right choices for our customers and staff while giving tangible timescales that meet our customers needs.
Speak with clarity and honesty, ensuring our customers always understand what’s happening and what to expect.
Guiding Principles →Behaviours
Now, reflecting on our current customer service pain points, we explored how these guiding principles could be applied to shift behaviours. This step helped us understand what the principles look like in practice within our customer service platform.
COM-B Behavioural Change Model
I introduced a behaviour change framework that outlines three essential components for any behaviour to occur: capability, opportunity, and motivation. Stakeholders were then grouped to brainstorm what tools and support would be needed to enable these behaviours.
Prioritisation Road Map
The purpose of the workshop was to show the business how high-level workshops can help the team “see both the forest and the trees”—connecting the overarching vision to the supporting enablers. Stakeholders from service, customer experience, and technology teams now have clear guidance to follow and can prioritise requirements for development.
Additionally, by embedding business values into both technology and customer interactions, we have started to observe improvements in customer sentiment and a reduction in frustration rates.