August, 2018 | Roger Swannell

Weeknotes 108

Roger on 31/08/2018

What happened this week…

Worked on outstanding fixes on the new Online Shop.
Wrote the requirements for listing on Ebay through Magento.
Reviewed and signed-off the Phase 1 Sales interface between Magento and AX.
Reviewed the specs for the Community Fundraiser site.
Met with the B&M Giftware team to discuss Wedding rebuys.
Added the Beating Heart Beats Ball tickets to the Online Shop.
Discussed aligning Selling Defibrillators and Health at Work.
Reviewed the Defibrillator Suppliers Agreement.

Read this week…

Doing next week…

Meeting with Directors of Commercial and Healthcare Innovation to discuss timing of launching selling defibrillators.
Working on the Defibrillators Range Plan.
Writing specs for order exports for fundraising teams and dropship suppliers.
Working on content for defibrillator webpages.
Discussing selling new goods on Ebay with the B&M Teams.
Discussing Phase 2 Sales and Returns interfacing.

Interesting stat of the week…

Since the new site has been live Goal Completion (the customer completing their order and getting to the confirmation page) has increased 61%

In the not too distant future….

Automating order exports to improve efficiency for Ecommerce and Fundraising teams.

UK Mountainboard Championships 2018

Roger on 26/08/2018

BoarderX

Downhill

Freestyle

UK Mountainboard Championships 2018 - Sunset

Weeknotes 107

Roger on 24/08/2018

What happened this week…

Wrote a scaling plan for selling defibrillators.
Revised the logistics processes for selling defibrillators.
Shifted operational tasks with the team.
Updated the Team Time Tracker to show where we spend our time.
Reviewed the Non-Disclosure Agreement for Freshdesk with Legal.
Discussed Finance Reporting with our new Finance Assistant.
Met with a Conversion Rate Optimisation Consultant.
Fixed issues in the sales export files.
Reviewed the Sales IDD for phase 1 & 2 of RMSP.

Read this week…

Doing next week…

Adding extra improvements to the Online Shop.
Working through interface timings between Magento and AX.
Meeting with the Giftware Team to discuss weddings rebuys.
Planning meetings for the Community Fundraiser site and Ebay Listings from the Online Shop.
Starting to write a marketing plan for 2019/20.
Preparing for a discussion about the timing of launching selling defibrillators.

Interesting stat of the week…

25% of the people that buy from the Online Shop are aged between 25 and 34, 22% are aged between 45 and 54, and the lowest age group is 18 to 24 which accounts for only 7.3% of our customers.

In the not too distant future….

More Magento sites

A chat with a Conversion Rate Optimisation Consultant

Roger on 23/08/2018

Roadmaps and strategy

Roadmapping your test strategy with twelve month long themes and three month long objectives. Having a roadmap helps with more strategic discussions about what to focus on and what not to focus on and helps to avoid working reactively. But you always have to allow time for firefighting.

Getting testing into the organisation

Test and learn shouldn’t just happen on the website, it should be part of how the organisation does things, but this is difficult in a risk averse culture that is protective of its reputation and hates the idea of making something public that appears unfinished.

Making testing achieve more for the organisation

Communication up front to the teams to let them know that they might benefit from the insights is important, and that communication should include letting them know that the results may have suggestions of things they can do in real life to improve their service.

Seeing a bigger picture of improvements

Customer service complaints are great feedback to inform testing and support conclusions. Complaints are what customers tell you they want you to improve, test results are what they don’t tell you they want you to improve.

Weeknotes 106

Roger on 17/08/2018

What happened this week…

Built a chatbot to user test getting location data from the user.
Wrote an IT service transition document for Freshdesk.
Worked with suppliers to quote for fundraising events clothing.
Discussed rebuys on CPR training products.
Launched the new online shop.
Started advertising Christmas cards.
Met with the Director of Services and Clinical Lead to update on selling defibrillators.
Drafted a supplier agreement for drop-ship suppliers.
Rewrote webpage content for defibrillators.

Read this week…

Doing next week…

Working through outstanding fixes on the new Online Shop.
Setting up defibrillators on the Online Shop.
Meeting with the Cards Buying & Merchandising Team.
Aligning defibrillator content with the National Defibrillator Network.
Discussing technical solutions for email sending from Freshdesk.

Interesting stat of the week…

Of our nineteen product groups, year to date sales for five of them are above average. Tickets is 939% above average sales, Weddings is 201% above average, Pin Badges 200%, Sports Clothing is 179% and Leisure Clothing is 122% above average sales.

In the not too distant future….

Selling Christmas cards on Ebay.

Distributing customer service tickets by variation of complexity of query and abilities of agents

Roger on 17/08/2018

Deciding on a method for distributing customer service queries depends on an analysis of the tickets to understand how much variation there is the complexity of the queries and analysis of the agents to understand the variation in their ability.

This analysis isn’t to understand how complex the queries are, but to understand how different the queries are. If some of the queries are simple and some very complex, this is a high variation in complexity, and if all the queries are simple or all complex then this is low variation in the complexity. If the analysis of the difference in agents ability shows that some agents have lots of knowledge and ability whilst others have very low level of knowledge and ability then that is a high variation, but if all the agents are equally knowledgeable then the variation is low.

High variation in the complexity of queries and high variation in the abilities of agents

If there is a high degree of variation in the complexity of the queries, meaning some can be resolved easily in a few seconds whilst others take days or even weeks to reach resolution, and if the variation in the ability of the agents is high, due to some agents having lots of experience and others having a lower level of knowledge, then distributing tickets across the team using a load balancing method is best. This means that agents with more ability can be assigned and resolve more tickets than agents with lower ability who will be slower.

High variation in the complexity of queries and low with variation in the abilities of agents

If the queries the team receive have a high variation of complexity but there is a low variation in the abilities of the agents as they all have similar levels of knowledge and experience, then manually triaging tickets can often be the most efficient method of assignment. The second most efficient method would be load balancing as complex tickets will take longer to be resolved by a one low ability agent as much as any other low ability agent.

Low variation in the complexity of queries and high variation in the abilities of agents

If the majority of the queries are of a similar complexity (high complexity or low complexity) and there is a high variation in the abilities of the agents, because some are new to the role whilst others have more experience for example, then using a Skills based approach to assign tickets is an effective option. Agents with particular knowledge will be assigned tickets that require their expertise whilst agents with less experience will be assigned the tickets that only require more general skills.

Low variation in the complexity of queries and low variation in the abilities of agents

If the type of queries the team receive are mostly of a similar complexity, e.g. all about similar topics and the abilities of the agents are all approximately the same, which means they all resolve tickets at a similar rate, then using round robin to distribute tickets equally across the team is the most efficient method.

Inspecting and adapting my work schedule

Roger on 12/08/2018

I have a dashboard that tracks my time spent on the various pieces of work.

It allows me to ‘inspect and adapt’, to question whether I’m spending my time on the things that return the most value, to think about how to fit future work in, and look for areas of work to not do.

I’d really like to find a way to pull the data from my Outlook calendar rather than having to manually enter it into a spreadsheet every week, but for the time being the dashboard is useful enough to commit the time to updating it.

Using location in chatbots

Roger on 11/08/2018

Using location in a chatbot can be really useful in providing information and services, but getting the coordinates into the chatbot isn’t as smooth and easy as perhaps we’d like.

Getting the user’s location starts with gaining permission for the device to send its longitude and latitude coordinates to the chatbot.

But if location is switched off, Messenger needs to ask for location to be switched on.

Clicking the button in Messenger triggers the device to seek permission to allow Messenger to access location.

But that doesn’t always work.

Once location is switched on Messenger can get the long/lat coordinates.

And then Messenger can pass the coordinates to the chatbot.

Once all those steps have been taken the chatbot can finally use the precise location to provide whatever information or services to the user.

Given how complicated getting that location is for the user we should question whether getting the precise longitude and latitude coordinates is the best option for obtaining the user’s location. If the chatbot only needs to know the region the user is in then simply asking the user could be a better option.

Weeknotes 105

Roger on 10/08/2018

What happened this week…

Lots of front end testing and UX improvements on the new Online Shop.
Produced a time tracker to provide data to inspect and adapt priorities.
Discussed supporting Events Teams clothing sourcing.
Tested file imports and exports.
Reviewed Ecommerce Team permissions in AX.
Attended the Social Teams ‘Events Chatbot’ washup.
Built new email templates in Magento2.
Discussed launching a new range of Celia Birtwell products.
Built a ‘Rule Builder’ spreadsheet for Freshdesk to establish a coordinated approach to automation of tickets.

Read this week…

Doing next week…

Finalising transactional email templates.
Rewriting website content for defibrillators.
Introducing Legacy Marketing to Freshdesk.
Starting to advert Christmas cards.
Updating the Ecommerce monthly cost tracker.
Sending out the next iteration of defibrillator onboarding emails.
Checking finance processes for defibrillators.

Interesting stat of the week..

The average Rate of Sale across all products is 4.17 a week, but the best performing product has a RoS of 193.67.

In the not too distant future….

Spec-ing API’s.

Different teams move at different paces

Roger on 09/08/2018

I drive a sports car. You drive a bus. I can get myself there quickly. You can get lots of people there slowly. You can’t make a bus handle like a sports car but you can tell people to get off the bus and find other means of transportation.