Field research, journey-mapping, & opportunity prioritization
Improving the lotto “Winning Experience” at BCLC.
The challenge
BCLC is a government agency that manages legal gambling in British Columbia, Canada, earning nearly $3 billion each year for the province. It’s prize-claim process however, called the Winning Experience, suffered from disjointed services, frustrating winners and raising costs for the business. Some examples:
Small retailers were reluctant to honour prizes, inconveniencing winners.
The online prize-claim process wasn’t well-known which was frustrating for people who travelled a long way to pickup their prize.
Front-line staff expressed frustration with opaque or duplicate policies.
My role
I worked within a 5-person Customer Experience team (CX). Our mandate was to find ways to reduce overhead and streamline service delivery for the prize-claim process.
The CX team included one CX Manager, a Business Analyst, and two Market Researchers. We also worked cross-functionally with business partners to develop our approach.
I led and coached the CX team through field research, journey-mapping, and opportunity prioritization to understand the current prize-claim process end-to-end and identify areas for improvement.
Approach
We focused first on the prize-claim process for lotto winners because it affected the most people and was important for launching a new sports lotto product.
Since the team was keen to understand the current prize-claim process first-hand from winners and staff, I designed a generative research plan, including methods, recruitment criteria, and deliverables. I knew this was how we’d achieve the cross-functional view the team needed to identify opportunities for improvement.
I then divided the work of conducting the research amongst the team so that we could deliver insights more quickly.
I worked with the team to combine our notes, create a journey map, and prioritize opportunities.
Last, we worked together with the wider business to share our insights and recommendations to begin operationalizing service changes.
Methods included
Field intercepts to observe winners directly
Interviews with past lottery winners and front-line staff
A large-scale survey to lottery retailers
Deliverables included
A journey-map showing prize-claim winners end-to-end experience
A service blueprint, based on the winner’s journey, with staff perspectives
Recommendations for service improvements
Results
Our work drove service changes at the company-level, including increasing the prize payout threshold from $2,000 to $10,000.
The prize payout threshold had the greatest effect on both BCLC and winners. Winners could claim larger prizes at locations with better hours and access, easing the pressure on staff during busy times like the Superbowl or just after a $1 million lotto draw.
We also improved:
Customer support messaging for prize-claim winners
Expanded prize claim centre hours during peak times, such as right after a big lotto draw.
