Reducing contact rates by 90% for CX agents
In Q4 2024, I designed an in-app dispute flow that lets Tamara users raise and track disputes without calling customer support, saving significant CX agent time and frustrating users on both sides.
Three issues were driving unnecessary contact to CX agents: users were reaching Tamara before the merchant (where Tamara had no visibility), users had no way to track their dispute so they called repeatedly for updates, and agents were losing time on incomplete submissions missing required documents.
I designed a structured in-app dispute flow with merchant-first routing, real-time status tracking, and upfront document guidance. The result: a 90% reduction in CX contact rates for disputes. Almost all disputes are now raised in-app with no agent involvement.
The Core Issue
Three recurring problems were driving up contact rates and frustrating both users and agents.
1. Contacting Tamara before the merchant
After a purchase, Tamara has limited visibility into order delivery or condition. If a user is dissatisfied, CX agents escalate the issue to the merchant and await their response. To streamline this process, users should be directed to contact the merchant for order-related issues.
2. No visibility into dispute status
After raising a dispute, users frequently contact CX agents for status updates due to limited app visibility, increasing contact rates and user frustration.
3. Insufficient documents to support users' claims
Users often contact Tamara support without sufficient documents, delaying CX agents' ability to assist efficiently.
"Why can't we allow users to manually do this? They usually call us and it takes a lot of time."Customer agent
What does success look like
Reduced contact rates
Improved user experience
Solutions
Direct users to the merchant first
When users raise a dispute and select order-related issues, they are given the option to contact the merchant directly. This highlights to users that reaching out to the merchant may lead to a faster resolution.
Full visibility of dispute status
Users can view and track the status of their dispute at every step of the process, ensuring full visibility of the system.
Raise a dispute directly in the app
Users can easily raise a dispute directly within the app, eliminating the need to contact support through multiple channels for assistance.
Clear document guidance upfront
Clearly informing customers about the required documents for their dispute helps them identify what is needed and upload the files accurately without errors.
After launching the in app dispute we reduced user contact rates regarding disputes by 90%. Almost all disputes are raised through the app.
Learnings
Designing this feature was a new challenge for me. In product development, success metrics usually, and rightly, center on the customer experience. However, in this case, taking an introspective look at the experience of our CX agents allowed us to identify process inefficiencies and develop solutions that delivered significant value to both employees and users and reduced business expenses.
