In-store Repair Appointment

Enhancing the repair appointment process by offering real-time tracking and streamlined communication between agents and customers.

My Role

Experience Designer

Team

4 Product Managers, 4
Designers, 10 Engineers

Timeline

20 Weeks

Problem

Lack of Repair Tracking:

Customers cannot track the status of their repairs, leading to frustration and increased calls to customer care.

Communication Barriers:

Customers cannot contact agents directly; they must go through customer care, leading to inefficiencies and confusion.

Repair Estimates:

Users are unable to view or verify repair estimates in real-time, causing delays and uncertainty.

Increased Calls:

Customers call customer care for updates, which adds significant strain on the system.

Business Impact

Goal: Streamline the repair appointment process to improve customer satisfaction and reduce call volumes.
Outcome: The new tracker enables two-way communication between agents and customers, improving repair tracking and reducing calls to customer care by 23%.

Qualitative Research (Geek squad Interviews - Northgate and Bellevue stores)

Challenges for Agents:

Agents are frustrated with inaccurate customer care info and manual updates.

Agents need an automated repair tracker system to save time.

Older customers struggle with technical terms and repair tracker navigation.

Customer Communication Needs:

Customers want timely updates on their repair status and costs.

They expect to be contacted when their repair is completed, or when the cost/time of the repair changes.

Methodology

Field study with research team for an informal interviews with Geek Squad Agents.
Observations of Geek Squad Agent and Customer Interactions.

Customer Communication Notes

Employee Communication Notes

Repair Tracker Notes

Interview Summaries

Geek Squad agents experience in their own words.

"I usually come in early to make pre-calls, it usually takes 20-30 minutes"

"Be careful with 2 way chat, customers will ask tons of questions and I'll get stuck at the computer".

"I have everyone s number, I just text them if I don t understand their notes, which isn't ideal on their day off".

"I've noticed an improvement with prep lately. Not with Apple, though".

Key Takeaways

Direct Store Communication Barriers:

Customers can no longer contact stores directly to ask questions or book appointments, leading to frustration. As a result, agents often begin interactions with apologies and offer workaround solutions.

Repair Tracker Limitations:

The repair tracking system remains a pain point. Customers, especially older ones, struggle to understand the terminology, and agents lack the time to manually update statuses—highlighting the need for increased automation and simplification.

Breakdowns in Internal Communication:

Agents frequently encounter issues when Customer Care provides inaccurate information or schedules unnecessary appointments, impacting both efficiency and customer trust.

Inconsistent Internal Processes:

Communication practices vary widely between stores. Inaccurate or incomplete case notes—referred to as “bad notes”—are a recurring issue, often requiring additional clarification even when key personnel like ARAs or CAs are unavailable.

Validating with customers

The study focused on participants who had completed an in-store repair appointment within the past six months, ensuring insights were grounded in recent and relevant customer experiences.

Research Findings

What did you want to know about taking your broken laptop to store or retailer before you went in?

The increased prominent of word ‘fix’ could indicate a lack of sufficient repair information.

If you had to leave your broken laptop at store or retailer for repair, when would you expect to be contacted?

When your repair is done - 70%
When there was an update to estimated cost - cost increase - 58%

When there was an update to estimated cost - cost decrease - 44%
When there was an update to estimated to repair - time increase - 55%
When there was an update to estimated to repair - time decrease - 43%
When parts are ordered for your repair - 46%

If you had to leave your broken laptop at store or retailer for repair, when would you expect to be contacted?

30%

Yes. to get an estimated completion date

29%

Yes. to get an estimated
completion cost

39%

None of the above

36%

yes, to setup a pickup time

Please rate how confident you are in approving this repair.

Rank the following items in terms of how important they are in helping you to approve the repair estimate. ‘1’ is the most
important and ‘8’ is the least important.

Research Findings:

Information Gaps
Customers often lack clarity around what repairs are possible, how long they will take, and when to expect updates—leading to uncertainty and frustration during the repair process.
Preferred Communication Channels
Customers strongly prefer phone calls for high-impact updates, such as when a repair is completed or when the estimated repair time changes.
Service Volume vs. Completion
In FY21, 13.6 million Geek Squad appointments were scheduled, but only 7.5 million were completed—highlighting a significant drop-off that may reflect scheduling inefficiencies, customer confusion, or unmet expectations.

User Flow

Design

Impact

A/B test has been done with the latest designs and the test results showed significant wins across our major business metrics.

58%

Can see and track the status clearly and easily.

23%

Reduction in customer care call volumes

8.4%

Increase infaster estimate approval

12.1%

Increase in two communication between agent and customer.

Next Step

01.

Prototype Enhancements:

Based on feedback, refine communication features and tracker interface.

02.

User Testing:

Conduct further testing to ensure all pain points are addressed and the system is easy to use.

03.

Rollout:

Deploy the solution in stages, starting with high-volume repair locations, and monitor user feedback.

Hypothesis

By enhancing transparency and facilitating direct communication between customers and agents, we aim to improve the repair process—making it more efficient, user-friendly, and timely, ultimately increasing satisfaction and reducing the workload for customer care agents.

Objectives

Identify usability challenges users face when scheduling, managing, or tracking their repair appointments.
Evaluate whether users can successfully complete key tasks, including booking an appointment, accessing repair estimates, and monitoring repair status.