Simplifying License Purchases to Reduce Support Overload
A strategic CX approach to minimizing support tickets while maximizing customer satisfaction.
Project Overview
LightBurn Software, a market-leading laser cutting and engraving software company, partnered with our customer experience consulting firm to address challenges in its license management processes. These challenges, accounting for 80% of its monthly support tickets, included incorrect license purchases, duplicate orders, renewal confusion, and email delivery issues. We aimed to streamline the purchase experience, reduce support burdens, and improve customer satisfaction while enabling the client to focus on license upgrades and renewals as a key revenue stream.
Context
Previous project work, which included conducting user interviews with non-employee and employee users, provided the foundation for us to create customer journey maps and a roadmap for improvements. This also helped us identify that friction in the license key management system was a major contributor to the overarching problem.
Year
2024
Services
CX Consulting, UX Consulting, Improvement Discovery, Gap Analysis, Improvement Prioritization, & Roadmap Creation.
Challenge
The client’s customer support team was overwhelmed, handling over 2,000 monthly tickets related to license key issues. Common problems included customers buying incorrect licenses, managing duplicate purchases, and confusion around the renewal model. Additionally, market saturation caused new license purchases to plateau, requiring a shift in focus toward license upgrades and renewals. We needed to identify specific problems in the process and provide an actionable roadmap for improving the long-term customer experience.
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Solution
- Service Mapping and Gap Analysis: We conducted collaborative meetings with the client’s support lead, development lead, and company president to map the current state customer journeys for license purchases, upgrades, and management. Service maps and a gap analysis identified key pain points and opportunities for improvement.
- Prioritization Framework: We applied a “Now, Next, Later” prioritization framework to align solutions with business goals, customer priorities, and resource availability. This ensured short-term wins while establishing a strategic roadmap for long-term improvements.
- Redesigning the Purchase Experience: We optimized the client’s new customer purchase experience through UX evaluations, information modeling, and customer intention identification. We then developed solutions that addressed the full spectrum of customer needs while aligning with the client’s mission of maintaining trust through simplicity.
- Collaborative Design and Iteration: The team collaborated to create and refine low-fidelity wireframes for the revamped license upgrade and software update processes. Stakeholder feedback was incorporated at each iteration to ensure alignment with business goals and user needs.
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Impact
While the redesigned experience is still in development, the project has already delivered measurable and strategic benefits
- Reduced Support Ticket Volume: License purchase and management process simplifications are projected to reduce license-related support tickets significantly.
- Actionable Strategic Roadmap: The “Now, Next, Later” framework has equipped the client with a clear path for continuous improvement.
- Improved Customer Satisfaction: The new purchase experience aims for a more seamless customer journey by addressing common pain points and aligning with user needs.
- Improved Employee Onboarding: Service flows created during the project could serve as training blueprints, easing the onboarding process for new support and development staff.
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