Robin

Overview

Problem

Solution

Results

Robin

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Robin

01 THE PROBLEM

To downgrade, customers must submit a ticket resulting in churn and increased toil for support

02 THE RESULTS

65%

reduction in support tickets and hours

86%

of downgrades (200 out of 231) are now automated

<5

minutes to downgrade their plan versus 2 weeks

03 THE SOLUTION

We implemented an automated downgrade flow that process 86% of requests

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Overview

Problem

Solution

Results

Overview

Problem

Solution

Results

We saved the Support team 81 hours a month by automating the downgrade flow

We saved the Support team 81 hours a month by automating the downgrade flow

Overview

We simplified a painfully manual downgrade flow. Doing so had the following effects 1) Improved the user's self-serve experience and prevented "bad actors." 2) Reduced Customer Support tickets by 65%. 3) Adhered to FTC's "click-to-cancel" ruling.

Project details

Company

WP Engine

Leading WordPress hosting providing fast, secure, and scalable solutions.

Role

Design + Research

End-to-end design of a brand new feature. Conducted discovery and research.

Team and Stakeholders

10+ People

1 Product Manager, 8 Engineers, Business ops, Customer Experience and Customer Support.

Timeline

4 Months

November 2024 – February 2025

Tools

Various

Figma, Miro, Zoom, Dovetail and NotebookLM or data synthesis

Type

Desktop

Brand new feature, feature enhancement and flow redesign.

The problem

To downgrade, customers must submit a ticket resulting in churn and increased toil for support.

Current experience

The current downgrade flow created a massive bottleneck for users.

Customer pain points

Untimely plan changes

Some users treat downgrades as a seasonal adjustment. The unpredictable plan adjustment resulted in a lack of resources or unexpected charges.

Extensive back-and-forth

Lacking awareness of 2 week notice periods caused unnecessary back-and-forth. With many expecting a downgrade to be instantaneous.

Unnecessary friction

Our reliance on traditional ticketing systems forced users into a slow and opaque process. Damaging our brand’s credibility and customer-centric reputation.

Unnecessary friction

Our reliance on traditional ticketing systems forced users into a slow and opaque process. Damaging our brand’s credibility and customer-centric reputation.

Internal pain points

Meanwhile, Customer Support experienced technical and operational challenges

Ticket routing issues caused delays

Misrouted tickets were incorrectly sent to a general billing queue. This led to significant delays in ticket resolution.

All downgrades are a manual process, regardless of MRR

Some plans are so complex and there's no other way to verify a request other than through a manual review.

About ~80% of downgrade requests are low MRR

Interviews revealed that most requests were generated by the lowest recurring revenue plans that most often were ineligble.

Solution

We launched a self-serve flow that automated most downgrades (86% of all requests) while restricting ineligible requests to prevent revenue loss and bad actors.

Downgrading plans is now much simpler for customers when we introduced complex logic in the backend.

We launched a self-serve flow that automated most downgrades (86% of all requests) while restricting ineligible requests to prevent revenue loss and bad actors.

Downgrading plans is now much simpler for customers when we introduced complex logic in the backend.

This feature allowed customers to responsibly manage their accounts independently

It was a win-win for customers and freed up Customer Support to focus on higher-value tickets.

Smart checkout prevented ineligible downgrades

If the customer's usage exceeded the selected plan's limits, then the system automatically added the resources at checkout. Else, the downgrade would be blocked entirely.

Modernizing a core user flow to retain customer trust

We implemented a transparent self-service experience, giving customers real-time control over their plans during seasonal shifts.

Results

65%

reduction in support tickets and hours

A self-service flow, achieved a significant reduction in support tickets and hours.

86%

of downgrades are now automated

200 out of 231 downgrades were simple and straightforward changes making this an effective workflow automation.

<5

minutes is all it takes to downgrade a plan

The process saved customers a total of 115.5 hours, with the average plan change now in under 5 minutes.

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