DRIVER SUPPORT CHAT OPTIMIZATION

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Amazon Flex is a flexible delivery program that allows independent drivers/contractors (also known as “Delivery Partners” or “DP”) to deliver various Amazon orders using their own vehicles and earn extra money. Amazon also partners with small delivery businesses as part of their Delivery Service Partner (DSP) program, where small business owners lead/operate their team of Delivery Associates (DA) to deliver packages.

For this project, the design team was looking to optimize the chat feature for DA’s and DP’s when contacting Driver Support for package related issues.

PROBLEM/ASK

Drivers or DSP owners were not currently receiving chat transcripts upon completion of support requests 

• Drivers were currently having to open multiple chats for different package related issues

• Drivers were currently not receiving any notifications or reminders to join back their chats if they were caught up in another task

• Optimize driver support chat to best fit in with how drivers operate

• Understand how drivers are using our current features to contact support and their satisfaction levels

GOALS

• Obtain generative feedback and current driver satisfaction levels to inform future design decisions

USERS

Amazon Flex Drivers (DPs) or Delivery Associates (DAs) who have recently contacted driver support using the chat feature. It is difficult to query who had specifically used the chat feature but since all drivers had generally used driver support in their day to day, we would be able to broadly launch out and recruit drivers. 

• This will give us a set of users who were familiar with contacting driver support via chat or phone. As this was a generative/exploratory project, either of these user groups would be okay since it would give us further insights of current experiences with chat (why it may not be being used, if phone calls are better, etc.)

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Critical research questions our UX research team was looking to address:

• How do we optimize support chat in Message Center to best fit in with how drivers operate?

  • Helps us understand what types of changes in a chat experience would improve efficiency among drivers. Do drivers prefer any additional features within chat? (transcripts, notifications, multiple chats, etc.)

RESEARCH METHODS

User Interviews

• Generates valuable qualitative insights that will inform us what our drivers would feel about changes and if it would make their workflows more efficient

• Ask if drivers would like to receive notifications/reminders to rejoin a chat that is pending (attitudinal data)

Survey

• Generates quick valuable quantitative insights that will inform us how satisfied drivers are with the current chat experience

• Run a survey with rating scale questions to measure their current satisfaction with driver support chat

MY ROLE

• Recruit & schedule qualified drivers

• Conduct individual interviews with qualified drivers

• Perform data analysis to develop customer satisfaction scores

• Synthesize key data points and make strategic recommendations to design team

FINDINGS/RECOMMENDATIONS

A total of 11 DPs, DAs, and DSP owners participated in user interviews where they were asked about their feedback on potential change areas from the design team such as:

• Chat transcripts

• Multiple chats for issues

• Notification/reminders to rejoin chat

• Providing feedback at the end of a chat

Due to time constraints from the design team, we had to skip doing the survey portion of this project and instead incorporated it as part of the User Interviews. I asked drivers directly their rating on a scale of 1-5, where 1 = “strongly disagree” and 5=”strongly agree” for a series of questions.

Driver support chat transcripts

Drivers reported regularly contacting support for package related issues such as being outside the delivery area and not being able to access a building/complex. In many of the interviews, they mentioned that chat was often times a quicker process to solve their issues than calling. When asked if they were ever taking notes on their issues with support, a majority of the drivers said that they did not but there were a couple who would take/save screenshots to reference later. Out of all that were interviewed, only one driver reported receiving chat transcripts currently and when following up with them, they mentioned that they were receiving word for word chat receipts to their email and would like it to be optional in the future. Overall drivers fundamentally liked the idea of receiving chat transcripts but the main instance they would need to reference a past issue is when it had not been resolved. DSP owners also liked the idea of transcripts being made available to them as it gave them insights on reoccurring driver issues and how they could assist on their end.

Some insights from drivers:

• “I wouldn't mind. Yeah, sometimes I would be able to look back on it. In case that happens again. But usually, I'll able I'll be able to remember the situation.”

• “I don't think so. unless for some reason, there was an issue that couldn't be resolved, but I haven't run into anything more complicated than just being outside your delivery area.”

• “what I have tried to do, like the last few times is try to take screenshots. So that way I can go back. But then again, it's hard when you have, you know, 45 deliveries, and I was like, Oh, my God, what call was this? What package was this? You know, it just makes it a little difficult that we don't have access to that afterwards.”

• “it should be something every week, like at the end of the week, it shows for you issues resolved and what the problem was.”

Additional insights from DSP Owners:

• “yes, that would definitely be helpful only because, specifically for my team, I require that the drivers at the end of the day verify that all of the packages are marked correctly. So if I can see that they actually called in or, you know, attempted to contact driver support for assistance, then that would definitely be helpful. Because of course, they say, oh, yeah, I contacted driver support, and they said it was marked. But then when I looked at the packages and marked or it's outstanding, so being able to see whether or not they called or how often they're utilizing driver support, I think that's all data that will be helpful.”

• “Yeah, it would also give us a better look on an issue that a driver had to maybe get in touch with you guys but didn't tell us about and maybe something we can help with in the future”

More than one chat for multiple issues

There was a mixture of preferences but a majority of drivers would prefer bringing up any new issues in their existing chats with support. They felt that it would be easier than starting a new request and having to re-verify information such as address, package number, etc. On the other hand, some drivers felt keeping the issues separate allowed that one issue to be prioritized and resolve that one stop before continuing on in their routes.

Insights from drivers that preferred one chat:

• “it's easier than having to exit the chat. Go back in and click you know, your reason for going back into support and all that it's, it's definitely easier to just stay in the same chat. If something else were to come up.”

• “I would say the same one, just because at the beginning of each chat, they do Verify like, okay, just confirming this is the address and you know, the TBA number that you're in reference to? And I'll respond, Yes, it is. And so that'll mark like the new conversation. So in one chat would be sufficient.”

• “I say one agent to handle both issues, like I said, is very helpful. And it's 100% guarantee your issue is going to be resolved if you just communicated said what was going on”

• “ideally, I'd want to continue in the same one. If you know, I'm already speaking to someone, because it's almost like when you contact customer service, and they're like, oh, sorry, you have to call back, I can only address one of your issues, you have to open another ticket kind of thing, which is pretty frustrating. So if I'm already in contact with someone and something else comes up that they can possibly assist with in real time, then I think it would be beneficial to continue the Convo versus having to call back or you know, starting the chat”

Insights from drivers that preferred separate chats:

• “Preferably with a different person. I've had multiple situations before, and I've had one person trying to help me. But usually, they'll try to focus their main focus on just that one problem I first mentioned, and then they completely ignore the second problem and try to like, cut the chat short.”

• “I think keeping the conversation separate, would be my preference, since I've never experienced that. But I think it'd be preferred. You know, again, we try to multitask as drivers, but we're so focused on that one stop, that it should be closed out, or at least be separated. So you're not, you know, adding additional complexity”

Notifications/Reminders to rejoin chat

Drivers fundamentally liked the idea of a notification/reminder to rejoin the chat when associate is waiting on a response but stressed the importance of the timing. Many drivers preferred receiving a reminder within around 10 minutes as this is the average time per delivery. Reminders outside of this range would not be as helpful since they would already be working on the next stop or delivery and going back to address a previous issue would interrupt their workflow.

Some insights from drivers:

• “I tend to be able to say like about 10 minutes, because it doesn't take longer than 10 minutes for delivery. Usually with that, when talking to the support, it's just like I needed them just for that one delivery.”

• “I guess it depends on the issue. But I would say I mean, because most things should get resolved quickly, I would say, at least, I don't know, five minutes or so it shouldn't need to be opened much longer than that.”

• “Yeah, I mean, at least a minute or two. Because, I mean, we could be in a point where you know, we are busy or doing something or trying to pull over and, you know, whatever that may be, and that 30 seconds goes quick.”

• “So if I'm let's say I get a reminder, maybe three stops later, hey, can you follow up with this? I'm going to be like, I'm done. I don't want to go back to that or, you know, I've already moved on past that stop. So I don't know if I would necessarily feel I mean, reminders would be okay, but I'm already moved on. So either I decided to market it missing, you know, I can't deliver this package or Yeah, and I don't want to go on and go back and refer to that three or four stops later.”

• “be awesome, because I know, that has happened in the past, where they're like, Hey, I started talking to driver support. But then, you know, I got caught up in the package. And now I have to call back again. So I think if there is a way to alert them, like, hey, like, you know, did you need that you still need assistance? So are you still there? You know, if they haven't responded in five or 10 minutes, etc. So that way, they'll feel alert to know, hey, okay, I was in the middle of this chat before, you know, a customer spoke to me or I had to stop to do XY and Z. So yeah, I think that would be helpful.”

• “It's tough because the drivers can't touch the phones while they're driving. It would probably be helpful, it would be more helpful than not notifying them at all. Because maybe they're driving further away from the problem like they're getting solved. So notification would be helpful. But the driver may not be able to respond right away.”

Providing feedback on chat experience

There were mixed responses from drivers on when they would like to complete feedback on their driver support chat conversations. The main factors that affected their decisions to complete the survey were how busy they were throughout the route or how many times they contacted driver support within a day.

Some insights from drivers:

• “if I get the chance, if if it wasn't like, too busy of a block, I'll stop and give them a rating”

• “I do right after but I would prefer to do it later”

• “later on, just because, you know, during any sort of route, no one really wants to take any extra time doing anything other than getting the, the deliveries done”

• “Oh, yes, they do send me emails some time. Or some times at the end of the route - How was your response? Or how was your interaction with them? But yes, I do send that feedback back.”

• “I noticed every time I get done talking to the agent, it always asked for a survey. And how did the agent do solving my problem. Um, I can say that we that is I love to give feedback on anything, you know, try to help out and actually improve anything or give my idea on something, you know, something that you can add here and there. But um, I really don't give out negative feedback. I'm always either in the middle or positive feedback on surveys.”

• “it'd be a later time because you want to move on to the next stop. So you want to put that particular stop aside and move on to the next one. So you don't want to provide feedback later. I mean, at that moment, I'd want to provide it later. So I don't want to be presented with a survey, after I get off a driver experience or after I get off a call with someone because I could be on the phone for six minutes, and I'm losing time.”

• “I would say probably immediately, because in the span of a day, they could have reached out to driver support in like, you know, four to six times in a day. So I think in real time, as soon as the Convo is over, they have the ability to provide feedback instantly, I think that would be helpful. Because if I spoke to five different people, I may not necessarily remember which associate, you know, wasn't helpful wasn't helpful, or which one was really great.”

SURVEY RESULTS

On a scale of 1-5, where 1 = “strongly disagree” and 5=”strongly agree” and 10 drivers interviewed.

Question: “I prefer to multi-task while on a delivery route, for best use of my time”

Question: “I want a chat experience that makes it easy to work on other things while getting help from Support”

Question: “If I get caught up in another task for five minutes before resuming a chat with Support, I'd be frustrated that the associate closed my chat while waiting and that I need to start over with my request”