For Joshua Holmes, CX Design Lead at Officeworks, customer-centric design is pivotal. However, gaining authentic, face-to-face insights from customers posed a unique challenge.
“We have NPS surveys and quantitative data, but it’s difficult to capture that real, human voice directly from our customers,” Joshua said.
Their team faced the dual challenge of connecting with a broad audience—ranging from hobbyists and parents to corporate clients and educational institutions—and gathering actionable insights across this diverse spectrum.
Officeworks needed a partner that could bridge this gap and bring customer feedback to the forefront of their design decisions.
Enter Askable. Through its platform, Officeworks could access a large, varied pool of customers for usability testing and qualitative research.
The Officeworks CX Design team leveraged Askable to conduct customer interviews, usability tests, and gather direct feedback from individuals representing Officeworks’ diverse audience segments.
One of the standout features Officeworks embraced was Askable’s Insight Streams, enabling them to adopt a continuous discovery framework for their ongoing CX improvements. This automated process allowed the team to collect regular insights on various aspects of their digital experience. This 13-week program focused on wayfinding and information architecture, uncovering pain points and opportunities for optimisation across their website.
“Askable’s automated and consistent process has provided us with a regular stream of research, dedicated to something large and difficult to unpack,” Joshua said.
A notable example of this approach was a deep dive into their website’s navigation and usability. Through Insight Streams, they uncovered their customer’s key pain points, which informed iterative improvements in both design and functionality.
“This allowed us to gather specific feedback on what customers needed or expected at every stage, which in turn, provided a research foundation that we could present across different teams as evidence for strategic decisions,” Joshua said.
The insights gained through Askable were transformative. By putting a face to the data, Joshua’s team provided stakeholders with a clear, customer-backed rationale for product and design decisions.
The continuous discovery framework further amplified the impact. The steady cadence of research kept the Officeworks team aligned with evolving customer needs, allowing them to prioritise changes and respond to challenges promptly.
From simplifying their website structure to enhancing personalisation for different user personas, Insight Streams proved invaluable in helping the team build tailored experiences.
“Askable helped us create a broad yet detailed starting point. With their support, we could establish foundational insights that drive multiple projects without the need to reinvent the wheel for each new initiative,” Joshua said.
For CX leaders looking to integrate data-driven design into their work, Joshua offers practical advice.
“You won’t always get unanimous agreement on your findings,” he said. “Stakeholders may not buy into raw data at first, but it’s crucial to keep iterating on your narrative and the story that you’re trying to convey with your data.”
“If a particular data point isn’t resonating, take a step back, refocus, and try a different approach.”
With Askable, Officeworks continues to place its customers at the forefront. By leveraging Insight Streams for continuous discovery, they are now better equipped to adapt to customer needs in real time.
This methodology aligns seamlessly with Officeworks’ strategy of delivering a differentiated omnichannel experience. Regular customer feedback highlights areas for innovation, such as improving mobile usability and expanding personalised recommendations, ensuring Officeworks stays ahead of shifting customer expectations.
“Askable fills the gap by creating a feedback loop that helps us stay tuned in to what matters most to our users and make smarter, more relevant decisions,” Joshua said.
Officeworks
Officeworks is one of Australia’s leading retailers, selling a range of products and services in a variety of areas including technology, stationery, education resources, furniture, art supplies, and print and create. Officeworks is convenient for its customers all over Australia, operating more than 170 stores, online channels with 40,000 products, and delivering to over 3,000 postcodes. The Officeworks Business team help Australian businesses of all sizes, including small businesses through to government, schools and early learning centres, start, run, and grow. Officeworks is helping its customers work, learn, create, and connect, so they can help make bigger things happen.
Retail
9,000+ employees
Insights Streams
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