Customers are demanding a frictionless experience across the omnichannel shopping journey, just as retailers are struggling with rising fixed costs and the relentless rise of e-commerce.
These significant drivers encouraged Kingfisher plc to shift the focus from a traditional in-store model to a holistic blending of the physical and digital experience across the entire customer journey.
I worked with my CX team to design frictionless service experiences across all our major brands: B&Q, Screwfix, Castorama and Brico Depot. Our ambition? Remove barriers to make home improvement accessible to everyone.
What problems are we trying to solve?
A variety of DIY customers were interviewed – the amateurs, the confident and the traders. Insights were collected from our store managers and shop floor staff. We conducted store field trips and spoke to shoppers. These were a crucial part of the design process to discover and understand the challenges of businesses and customers.
Exploring the ‘right’ solutions
We involved multidisciplinary stakeholders across the group in co-creation workshops to help understand our DIY customers. We validated vital insights on how customers typically approach home improvement – what are their needs, their pain points, and feelings towards their home improvement tasks?
To make these insights easier to scan and digest, we visualised them on posters.
We explored ways on ‘how might we?’ solve our customers and colleagues’ problems.
We tested our hypotheses through lean prototyping with real customers.
We used a rigorous cycle of feedback and iterations to come up with tangible service value propositions.
Designing a connected Home Improvement service experience
A value map helped us to define a range of connected services, resonating with two key CX pillars:
Quick and easy experiences
Designed for the customer who knows what they want.A guided experience
Designed for customers who need help in finding what they need.
Out of this came our three-year roadmap. It helped us to prioritise services that will create greater value for the customer and generate improved commercial returns for Kingfisher in years to come – however tough the retail environment.
