Mapping the real-life experiences of mobile phone users

In a commoditised and saturated UK mobile phone market, where there is over 110% market penetration*, brand loyalty is lost and won through the customers experience of services provided. Vodafone came to Engine looking for new ways to sharpen their understanding of the customers experience and so differentiate themselves from their competitors, reducing churn through service innovation.

Vodafone asked Engine to investigate a typical customers experiences around specific multiple-channel services. We employed a broad range of research tools and techniques including keeping a journal, a blog, video diaries and discreet audio recording, in addition to traditional techniques, to help us understand users drivers and hurdles to engagement. Engine then visualised the journey, building up a rich and emotionally charged map, layer by layer, of what it was like to experience the market, decide on a handset and service provider and finally, get to know the phone.

In workshops, we led key stakeholders from across the business through a re-enactment of our visualisation process; revisiting and reviewing research materials, building the journey map together and bringing the tacit insights to life. This provided invaluable functional and emotional inputs to the collaborative design and innovation of future services.

By pinpointing where and how Vodafone influence the customers journey, we were able to evaluate the customers experience against the Customer Promise; highlighting the gap between desired and actual outcomes that represented the rich opportunity spaces for innovation - and so market differentiation.

*Informa Telecom and Media World Cellular Information Service research