Citi
THE SITUATION
Like many organizations, Citi’s customer service channels had grown organically and still ran in siloes. Move from chat to phone and the thread was lost - customers explained themselves all over again, costing everyone time and effort. That held back automated channels like chatbots, voicebots, and IVR, and made it impossible to suggest a channel switch even when it would help the customer or the company.
OUR CONTRIBUTION
We talked with stakeholders across the siloes to inventory every customer service channel and its performance and cost. Then we surveyed customers about their behavior and preferences. Combining the inside-looking-out and outside-looking-in perspectives, we designed an ecosystem where each channel plays the role that best fits customer goals. We mapped intake, escalation and de-escalation paths, and the emotional moments worth extra time.
THE BENEFITS
Joining the siloed channels into one service ecosystem let Citi improve experiences while controlling costs. Automated channels handle intake, so simple tasks go fast, and customers can escalate to detailed or human help without repeating themselves. The system is flexible, and customers choose the channels that suit them best.
Wells Fargo
THE SITUATION
Wells Fargo’s mortgage business had spent about 12 years planning an upgrade to its lending policy reference materials. The content had fragmented so badly that nobody could tell which conflicting answer was correct. The tech platform was chosen, but the team disagreed on what form the app should take and which features it needed.
OUR CONTRIBUTION
With the project threatening to stall, the tech vendor (SDL) brought us in to break the stalemate. We insisted on watching the mortgage origination teams work, promising not to slow them down. Our ethnographic research surfaced things no one had put in the spotlight before. First, everyone had at least two monitors, sometimes three - so the app could own a full screen instead of a sidebar. Second, the teams worked closely together but held very different roles and experience levels. Some needed an answer fast, mid-phone call; others needed to weigh underwriting criteria carefully. Veterans knew how to get things done; new team members didn’t know where the best practices lived. Borrowing design principles from everyday consumer services like Amazon and Spotify, we helped design an app that felt less like an encyclopedia and more like a team coordination platform, where novices could learn from expert coworkers.
The BENEFITS
New insight and inspiration got the project moving again. A shared understanding of how the teams worked - and how their needs shifted by role and by situation - shaped a flexible, team-oriented platform. Wells Fargo still uses the Tridion platform today, even after RWS acquired SDL.
TIAA
THE SITUATION
TIAA had a serious customer and asset retention problem. Three life events pushed customers to close their accounts, take their money, and leave: job changes, retirement, and the death of an account holder. A 1% improvement in retention was worth more than $300 million in assets under management (AUM) every year.
OUR CONTRIBUTION
TIAA had already invested in a smooth retirement experience, and retirement was what the money was for. So we focused on job changes and death events. We learned how differently people feel about finding a better job (voluntary) and losing one (involuntary). We heard about the emotional rollercoaster of losing a loved one, and how differently each family recovers. From those findings we built customer journey maps, experience design principles, and service innovation concepts that aligned teams across TIAA around these life event experiences.
THE BENEFITS
TIAA beat the +1% retention goal and cleared an obstacle to growth. Since our project ended, AUM has grown 1.6x, from about $930 billion in 2018 to $1.5 trillion in 2026.
Fidelity
THE SITUATION
An intrapreneur at Fidelity saw that the company’s digital security and server capacity could support a secure online storage service.
OUR CONTRIBUTION
We helped position the offering and bring it to market. Customer research and market analysis showed that secure online storage wasn’t enough, because anyone could copy it. Fidelity’s longevity outlasts any cloud company, so the service could be positioned as part of a complete family transition plan - one built to outlast generations. FidSafe was born. It has beneficiary settings like a financial services account, and it guides customers on the documents their successors will need. The website, app, and promotions across other Fidelity properties all reinforce that value proposition.
THE BENEFITS
FidSafe is a valuable adjacent service to Fidelity’s core business, and it starts conversations between Fidelity account holders and their adult children. Those conversations lead to better preparedness and a smoother handoff of the relationship to the next generation. The result: intergenerational customer and asset retention.