Support Insights: Improving Employee & Agent Experiences

Support Insights was a multi-pronged initiative to uncover and address critical challenges faced by both employees seeking IT help and the call agents supporting them. Triggered by high support ticket volumes and low customer satisfaction scores, this effort informed the design and deployment of a new enterprise IT service management platform and employee support portal. I led the user experience research that directly influenced these solutions.

Overview

With a new IT service management platform on the horizon, we had an opportunity to innovate how support was delivered across the enterprise. I led user experience research across two separate cross-disciplinary teams: one focusing on support agents, the other on the employee experience. This involved partnering across the organization to ensure both support agents’ processes and capabilities, and employees ability to obtain high-quality support, were improved throughout the design process.

Agent Experience Process

Find Results from the Source
To understand the full agent experience, a colleague and I conducted ethnographic research onsite at a key call center hub in Costa Rica. Using a blend of observation and interviews, we captured the context and complexity of agents' daily workflows.

Test in Context
We also conducted guerilla usability testing with agents piloting a new service management tool. Observing real-time interaction allowed us to surface critical workflow issues and inefficiencies.

Deliver Actionable Insights
Post-research, we compiled formal findings including agent personas, scenarios, and detailed process maps. These deliverables served as central references for the cross-functional platform development team.

Employee Experience Process

Triangulate Employee Needs
Using a mixed-methods approach—usability testing, interviews, and surveys—I gathered insights from a diverse employee population across roles and geographies. This revealed distinct patterns and needs among user segments such as field employees, lab engineers, and general knowledge workers.

Translate Insights into Design
Findings were distilled into high-level experience scenarios and improvement recommendations. I also created conceptual mock-ups to visualize key pain point solutions and enable alignment across stakeholders.

Key Insights & Impact

Agent Insights:

• Agents were overwhelmed by disconnected tools and redundant data entry.

• Operational inconsistencies across geographies led to inefficiencies.

• Misaligned reward systems emphasized speed over documentation quality, limiting long-term problem resolution.

Employee Insights:

• Employees desired fast, seamless support experiences that didn’t interrupt their day.

• Many preferred self-service over contacting agents but found current portals hard to navigate.

• Support systems were structured from an IT viewpoint, not user-centric.

Results

Better Tools & Processes
The research outcomes helped secure funding for critical tool integrations and process standardizations. Findings also directly informed the redesigned support portal and service agent platform.

Agent Improvements:

• Reduced tool complexity and improved workflows

• Faster resolution times

• Higher agent job satisfaction

Employee Improvements:

• Redesigned portal led to a 67% increase in successful self-service

• 86% reduction in poor search results

• 58% improvement in employee satisfaction with support