Sainsburys – At Your Service (2017)

Introduction

Martin White from the Sainsbury’s Digital Experience Team had seen some of our students’ work at D&AD New Blood the year before and asked if we could collaborate on a student project. The project would explore current challenges and technology advancements that the Digital Experience (DX) Team at Sainsbury’s was currently investigating. The two challenges our students took on were about using technology to enable staff to help shoppers and exploring how Voice User Interfaces could potentially improving the shopping experience for their customers. The design work featured in this case study showcases work from the first challenge called ‘At Your Service’.

Challenge

In a world where customers are demanding ever higher standards of service and convenience from retailers – and expect to have the same standards whenever and wherever they choose, how should we equip our colleagues to best respond ‘in the moment’ to answer queries from customers, wherever they are asked in store? Typical queries might be:

Product related:

• Shelf‐life

• Location

• Availability/Inventory

• Recommending products and those which complement each other, e.g which wine goes well with this dish?

• Ordering occasional food

• Ordering items which may not be stocked in this store

Service related:

• How to use something

  • Trolley

  • Self‐checkout

  • Mobility scooter

• Collecting an order– Argos, Tu Clothing, Ebay or DPD

• Requiring assistance – wheelchair, mobility scooter or assisted shop

• Feedback – complaints or compliments about:

  • The store

  • Our Colleagues

  • Other Customers

• Quality – return of faulty products

Selected pages from Visi Dikara’s and Sophie King’s research section of their Design Documentation.

The Ask

Identify the typical touchpoints customers have with colleagues in store and consider how we might empower our colleagues, with the right choice of digital experience, to provide exemplary service for our customers. How might we make this a delightful experience for customers, and one which is distinctly Sainsbury’s, reflective of the warmth of our brand?

Some considerations:

• Which service might best be assisted and which self-°©‐service?

• What is the right device for a colleague who is frequently multitasking, e.g. replenishing a shelf and is interrupted by a customer?

• How might we connect colleagues to share tasks or call for help?

• If a query is in progress, can the task be handed over to another colleague to lead to a seamless experience for the customer?

Storyboards and stills from Luke Blacklock & Emilia Gizewska for their ‘In-Queue’ concept that aimed to reduced queues by enabling staff to checkout customer’s single item purchases using handheld devices.

Process

• Students were briefed at Sainsbury’s Headquarters by Sainsbury’s Digital Experience (DX) Team, where they also took part in several workshops to understand the challenges much better.

• Students worked in pairs over an eight-week period on the project.

• Each pair was assigned a design coach or mentor from the Sainsbury’s DX Team, who they were in regular email contact with an online coaching session every couple of weeks.

• Students were also provided with contacts at Sainsbury’s stores in Newcastle where they could talk to staff and ask them to participate in workshops.

• The Sainsbury’s design team then came to Newcastle for the student’s final presentations to give them feedback.

Visualising ideas - Adele Brown and Fiona Jacques ‘Badger’ concept that turns a staff member’s name badge into communication device to help customers with their shopping queries.

Results

16 students working in 8 pairs produced 8 protoypes across both the ‘At Your Service’ brief and the ‘Voice for Customers’ brief.