Customer Profitability
OVERVIEW
The Customer Profitability Module is a tool used by salespersons and account managers to quickly access the potential profitability of a client when taking a call or making changes to their account, allocating resources, or offering discounts.
ROLE
Lead UX/UI Designer
CONTENT
Research, Prototyping & Testing
June 2015
BACKGROUND
While assessing the sales interface within our ERP system, the subject of customer profitability was brought forward. The Sales directors felt that in order to maximize profitability, sales and account staff needed to have a quick and efficient view of the customer's profitability potential. This would enable them to make more beneficial and informed decisions regarding changes to a customer's account, services, etc...
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I was given full control of this project and, alongside other ongoing projects, allocated two weeks to complete the design.
THE PROBLEM
In a competitive market, companies must prioritize the right clients to maximize profitability. However, the existing software lacked a quick way for sales and account managers to assess customer value, leading to potential resource misallocation and lost opportunities.
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To solve this, we decided to develop a customer profitability tool that provided real-time insights into each client's financial contribution. This would empower teams to make strategic decisions, focus on high-value customers, and thereby optimize overall company profitability.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
"Provide real-time, efficient, profitability insight into each client to enable strategic decision-making regarding resource allocation, service continuation, and customer prioritization, empowering teams to focus on high-value clients and ultimately enhancing overall company profitability."
THE RESEARCH
Having a limited timeline, I quickly familiarized myself with how companies calculated customer profitability. Once I had a general idea of how it all technically worked, I created a discussion guide and set up interviews with the Director of Sales and several account managers and sales associates, focusing directly on the user's needs. Through this process I was able to put together a list of module requirements (below).
REQUIREMENTS
​Through several interviews with management, sales, and customer service, I was able to put together a list of must-have requirements.
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Use data visualization to quickly communicate high-level profitability of a specific customer to salespersons and account managers. This should include:
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Total Cost (to serve customer)
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Total Revenue
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Gross Profit
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Profit Margin
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Change over time
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Drilldown/Filter:
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Profitability per customer -> location
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Profitability by year, month, or over custom dates. (Default: year going back from current date)
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Detail Data:
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Display graphs of gross profit by month, cost by event and by month and overall activity.
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MUST PROVIDE ACCURATE AND UP TO DATE DATA
With these requirements, I began to sketch out some concepts to incorporate the needed data into the existing customer interface.
THE CONCEPT
The main focal point of the project was to create a simple graphic that would quickly express the customer's overall profitability at a glance. I played with multiple data visualization methods and, in the end, created a chart with interrelated concentric circles that used color and weight to quickly and efficiently signify the customer's profitability status.
After getting feedback from the users on the graphic, I added a few more must haves for the module:
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Ability to filter by date
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A line graph to show change in gross profit by month
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A scatter graph to drill down to the profitability of specific events.
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Location Cost History line graph for companies with more than one location
THE SOLUTION
CUSTOMER PROFITABILITY MODULE - Primary feature
The final solution was to give the user complete control over the depth of information they received. To do this, we placed the profitability graphic prominently on the Customer Account Screen and the Location Screen, defaulted to showing 1 year (if available) of activity. This gave the user a quick and easy overview of the customer's status without overburdening them with unnecessary and unwanted information, which in turn allowed them to react quickly to customer's needs.
To get more detail, the user just has to click on the graphic, which opens the Customer Profitability Module, giving them even more detailed information and filtering options.
From the module, the user can drill down even farther and open the actual affected incidents. ​
SUMMARY
The design was well received by management and agents alike. The two weeks allotted to design complete was an extremely tight timeline, especially with other ongoing projects. I would've liked more time to finesse the design, but we were still able to provide a great and useful tool for the Sales and Customer Service teams within the time given.