Sam Kness - Product Designer

Pizza Hut UK is a well-established pizza chain with a strong brand presence in the UK market. However, the company has identified a need to revamp its customer and loyalty experience to stay competitive and responsive to evolving consumer preferences.

The key drivers behind this initiative are:

Declining customer retention and order frequency: Despite a loyal customer base, Pizza Hut has noticed a gradual decrease in repeat business and order frequency compared to previous years.
Increasing competition from delivery-focused businesses: The rise of online food delivery platforms and specialised pizza chains has intensified the competitive landscape, putting pressure on Pizza Hut to differentiate its offerings.
Outdated loyalty program: The existing loyalty program is seen as complex and inflexible, leading to low engagement and diminishing customers' perceived value.
Lack of personalisation: Customer data is not being leveraged effectively to provide personalised experiences, recommendations, and offers, which is becoming a growing expectation among consumers.
Ambition for global expansion: Pizza Hut's parent company, Yum! Brands, has identified the need for a scalable, adaptable customer experience that can be replicated across international markets.

The key objectives for this project are:

Increase customer retention and frequency of orders:

Improve customer loyalty and encourage repeat business.
Increase the average number of orders per customer.

Boost customer satisfaction and brand loyalty:

Enhance the overall customer experience and perception of the Pizza Hut brand.
Foster stronger emotional connections and brand affinity among customers.

Create a scalable system for global implementation:

Develop a flexible and adaptable solution that can be easily deployed in various international markets.
Ensure consistency in the customer experience while accommodating local preferences and regulations.

Enhance personalisation in customer interactions:

Leverage customer data to provide personalised recommendations, offers, and experiences.
Empower customers to customise their preferences and interactions with the brand.

Improve data collection and utilisation for targeted marketing:

Implement advanced data analytics capabilities to gain deeper insights into customer behaviour and preferences.
Use these insights to craft more effective and targeted marketing campaigns.

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My role:

Product Designer
Mentor
User Research
Interaction Design
Visual design
Prototyping & Testing

Discovery

As the lead researcher on this project, I knew that gaining a deep understanding of our customers, their preferences, and the competitive landscape would be crucial to the success of this initiative. I kicked off the research phase with a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods.

First, I conducted a series of in-depth customer interviews via online video calls. I ensured a comprehensive representation of our customer base, encompassing both frequent and infrequent users, and customers from various demographic groups. This diversity in the interviews allowed me to uncover a wide range of insights about their pain points, desires, and perceptions of our existing customer experience and loyalty program.

Alongside the interviews, I also distributed detailed customer surveys to a larger sample size. Obtaining 400 responses to the quantitative study offers a margin of error of +/- 5% at the 95% confidence level. The survey covered various topics, from ordering habits and channel preferences to satisfaction levels and attitudes towards loyalty programs. The data collected from these surveys provided valuable quantitative insights that I could use to identify trends and patterns.

In parallel, I performed a comprehensive competitive analysis, studying the customer and loyalty experiences of our main regional and global competitors. I looked at their mobile apps, loyalty programs, personalisation features, and overall user experience. This allowed me to benchmark our current offerings against industry best practices and identify areas for improvement.

I conducted interviews with our international teams and partners to enhance my understanding of the global landscape further. I was particularly interested in learning about the unique preferences and behaviours of customers in different markets and the challenges they faced in delivering a consistent brand experience.

Throughout the research phase, I worked closely with our data analytics team to examine our existing customer data, including purchase history, order frequency, and redemption patterns. This quantitative analysis helped me uncover valuable insights that I could use to inform the design of our new customer experience and loyalty program.

By the end of the research phase, I had amassed a rich dataset that provided a comprehensive view of our customers, the competitive landscape, and the key considerations for global scalability. This research-driven approach laid the foundation for the subsequent solution design process, ensuring that our final product would truly address the needs and pain points of our customers, both locally and globally.

Research Methodologies

Customer research interviews (15 individuals)
Stakeholder interviews
Market and competitive review
Quantitative validation customer survey (surveyed 400 UK)

Research Objectives

The key areas we needed to validate were:

Identify current pain points in the customer journey
Assess customer satisfaction with existing loyalty program
Determine key features that drive customer loyalty
Evaluate competitors' loyalty programs and best practices
Understand customer preferences for rewards and incentives
Analyse customer segmentation and personalisation opportunities
Explore potential for omnichannel integration in loyalty program
Investigate ways to increase customer engagement and retention
Assess the impact of loyalty program on purchase frequency and order value
Determine metrics for measuring loyalty program success

Define

My team and I collaborated with other squads to brainstorm several vital components that would work together to create a truly personalised and scalable solution.

Personalised web experience that would set the foundations for a new App: I spearheaded the web redesign, creating a user-friendly interface that could adapt to individual customer preferences. This provided a seamless ordering experience and offered personalised recommendations, making it easier for customers to find their favourite Pizza.

I assigned the junior designer on my team to research best practices in mobile app UI/UX, and they came back with some great benchmark examples from leading food delivery apps.

Together, we ideated on ways to implement AI/ML-driven personalised recommendations. The junior designer led the wireframing of the "Pizza Profile" feature, where customers can customise their preferences. I guided ensuring smooth integration with the backend systems to deliver accurate recommendations.

Simplified Loyalty Program Revamping the loyalty program was a critical piece of the puzzle. I knew we needed to make it more intuitive and rewarding for customers. I tasked the junior designer with benchmarking competitor loyalty programs and presenting their findings. Based on that research, we collaborated on the membership structure and the reward redemption mechanism.

I took a hands-on approach in designing the progress bar and worked with the PM to define exclusive benefits. This was an area where I could leverage gamification and behavioural psychology to create a program that would truly engage customers.

Omnichannel Experience: Ensuring a consistent experience across all customer touchpoints is essential for building brand loyalty. I worked closely with the product managers, market stakeholders, and engineering team to map the customer journey, create a service blueprint, and identify seamless integration points between the mobile app, website, and in-store interactions.

I assigned the junior designer to explore innovative solutions like QR code scanning for in-store ordering.

As the lead designer, I understood the paramount importance of data-driven decision-making. I collaborated with the data science team to conceptualise the centralised customer data platform and the predictive analytics capabilities, instilling confidence in our strategic approach.
Localisation Framework Ensuring global scalability was a key priority. I worked with the international expansion team to define the requirements for a flexible localisation framework. I assigned the junior designer to research successful global expansion case studies and present their findings.

We ideated on multi-language support, regional menu customisation, and loyalty programme variations.

Throughout this process, I provided mentorship and guidance to the junior designer, encouraging them to take ownership of specific tasks while also collaborating closely on the overall solution. Their fresh perspectives and innovative ideas complemented my experience, resulting in a comprehensive and scalable redesign of Pizza Hut UK's customer and loyalty experience.

Service Blueprinting Multi-modal Loyalty

Deliver

As we moved into the implementation phase, my role shifted to liaison between the design and development teams. I led the handoff meetings, ensuring our design intentions were clearly communicated.

I oversaw the design QA process during the phased rollout in the UK. I showed Nat how to effectively communicate design issues to the development team, emphasising the importance of clear, constructive feedback.

As we approached the launch date, it became clear that our initial scope was ambitious, given our agreed launch date with the UK market. As the lead designer, I worked closely with our product team and senior leadership to prioritise features and identify items that could be pushed to the next delivery phase.

After thorough discussions with product managers and stakeholders, we decided to prioritise the following for the initial launch:

The redesigned mobile app with basic personalisation
The new loyalty program structure
Essential omnichannel experiences (web, mobile, and in-store ordering integration)

We had to push several features to the next phase, including:

Advanced AI-driven recommendations
Dietary preferences
Social media integration for logon
Some aspects of the localisation framework

With our revised scope, I led the design handoff meetings, ensuring that our core design intentions were clearly communicated to the development team. I assigned Nat to create a prioritised list of design components, specifically the focus needed for our core functionality.

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Business & User Outcomes

Results (3 months post-launch in UK):

25% increase in customer retention rate:
This significant improvement was primarily attributed our new end to end CX and to our new loyalty program. We saw a marked decrease in customer churn, particularly among casual users who were now more motivated to reach higher loyalty rewards.
12% boost in loyalty program engagement:
The simplified tier system and more immediate rewards led to increased interaction with the loyalty program.
15% increase in average order value:
This was an unexpected but welcome result. The app's personalized recommendations seemed to encourage users to try new menu items or add extras to their orders.
10% improvement in customer satisfaction scores:
Our post-order surveys showed higher satisfaction across various touch points.

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works

Customer & Loyalty

Client •