Ferguson CX · V1 · prototype-focused · See V2 (process-focused) → Read the editorial memo →
Ferguson Enterprises · 2022 Solo service designer

Waiting wasn't the problem

Two branch prototypes that replaced a vague "make waiting feel better" brief with two named service breakdowns — and kept running after the engagement ended.

2
prototypes deployed in live branches
12/12
design criteria met across both
Branch-led
extension to additional locations

A $20B distributor asked for a way to make waiting feel better. That brief is straightforward in shape and slippery in substance. Waiting where? Waiting because of what? Waiting that costs the customer what? This case is about what happened when the team investigated the brief rather than executing it — and found that the actual problem wasn't waiting at all. It was the two specific moments where a wait turns into a betrayal. Fixing those two moments produced two named prototypes, deployed live in real branches, that field staff kept running and started extending after the engagement ended.

Chapter 01

A $20B distributor asked for a way to "make waiting feel better"

The Pro Pickup (PPU) is the moment a contractor walks into a Ferguson branch to collect an order placed by phone or email. Ferguson wanted customer satisfaction in that moment to improve. The way they framed it: the perception of waiting. That brief is slippery. "Perception of waiting" sounds like a problem but isn't yet a design target. Waiting where? For how long, compared to what expectation? Waiting that costs the customer what?

The work sat inside Ferguson's CX team, partnered with their internal service design lead. Solo on the design side, part time, with a light oversight structure. The seven-phase framework I built — Monitor & Frame, Explore & Identify, Ideate & Visualize, Prototype & Envision, Experiment, Refine, Optimize — was built while running it, not designed in advance. Two pieces of upstream work shaped everything: a Pro Pickup service blueprint mapping what was supposed to happen at each step, and eight Counter Experience Principles that became the rubric the prototyping teams used to evaluate every concept.

Affinity-clustering board grouping post-it notes into themes: Ease, Modes of interaction, TRUST, Speed, Efficiency and simplicity, We value you — the synthesis behind the eight Counter Experience Principles.
Synthesis behind the Counter Experience Principles — the eight that became the rubric for evaluating every prototype concept.

Chapter 02

Five wait scenarios, two that mattered — and a reframe that changed the design target

Customer insights work surfaced five Wait Time Scenarios. The SME Advisory Board picked the two that mattered most. Neither was about the duration of the wait.

Order Not Ready. A customer arrives on time and finds out their order won't be complete. The wait curdles into disappointment. The moment of betrayal is the gap between the commitment made at ordering and the reality at pickup.

Associate Not Present. A customer arrives at a designated PPU area and there's no one to help. The wait curdles into abandonment. The moment of betrayal is the absence of any human acknowledgment.

Translating "perception of waiting" into two named service breakdowns changed the design problem entirely. The job stopped being "reduce or distract from waiting" and became "prevent the two moments where waiting becomes betrayal." Every prototype that followed was a response to a specific operational failure — not a generic wait-time experience.

Waiting wasn't the problem. The wait turning into something worse was.

Chapter 03

Two named prototypes, tested live with real customers

Both prototypes went live in their designated branches and were tested with real customers who didn't know they were part of a study.

Make-It-Happen, Round Rock TX — targets Order Not Ready. A coordination system with three working parts: a dedicated Microsoft Teams channel (PPU specialists only) where sales reps confirm their ability to meet a customer's timeline before committing; automatic short-pick email rules notifying a dispatcher when an order can't be fulfilled in full; and a Sales Rep Flowchart walking associates through every order-related task not otherwise captured in existing systems. Met all 5 of its design criteria.

KnockKnock, Tamarac FL — targets Associate Not Present. A weatherproof video doorbell with two-way intercom at the PPU area, paired with an SOP for staff response. Two-way radios let associates coordinate without involving the customer. For branches whose devices couldn't support the alert app, the prototype added preloaded mobile devices. Met all 7 of its design criteria.

Round Rock concept-development canvas for Make-It-Happen: set customer expectations when taking order, with description, backstage actions, and the Teams channel plus short-pick email plus flowchart architecture.
Fig. 01 · Make-It-Happen, Round Rock TX — targets Order Not Ready. Met all 5 design criteria.
Tamarac concept canvas for KnockKnock: a visual and audible alert system using a video doorbell to notify a PPU associate when a customer arrives, with key personnel, build steps, and learning questions.
Fig. 02 · KnockKnock, Tamarac FL — targets Associate Not Present. Met all 7 design criteria.

Chapter 04

The field staff started defending the work

Participants came in skeptical — especially the field staff, who had never been part of work like this. By the final round of presentations, they were presenting their own concepts, citing their own metrics, and asking to keep going. A branch lead who understands why the solution works is in a position to adapt it when conditions change. A branch lead who was handed a solution isn't. The prototyping process built understanding, not just output.

It gives us a better way to look at things and help us along the process. Not telling us what to do, but helping you figure out what you want to do.

— Kevin Sills, Round Rock branch lead

The reframe

We stopped trying to make waiting feel better

We were hired to improve the customer's perception of waiting. The research showed that the customer's perception of waiting was already fine — right up until waiting turned into something worse. The two service breakdowns had nothing to do with how long the wait was. They had to do with a commitment made and then broken, and with the feeling of being invisible in a space designed to serve you. Redesigning the perception of an intact wait would have produced nicer waiting areas, better signage, more distractions. It would not have prevented a contractor from leaving disappointed or abandoned.

What stays behind

Both prototypes kept running — and the branch leads started extending them

Both prototypes kept running past the engagement, operated by their respective branch leads with internal CX support. The Round Rock team started taking Make-It-Happen into nearby non-WMS locations, with a goal of scaling across every Blended CG before expanding into other Texas markets. Tamarac kept testing KnockKnock and was looking at how to take it to busier non-WMS locations that weren't fully staffed for Pro Pickup.

The branch leads even asked, unprompted, about cross-pollinating: trying KnockKnock at Round Rock and Make-It-Happen at Tamarac. The CX leadership read: the service design approach gave the business a quick, low-cost way to test whether something was worth exploring further. The prototyping teams were now positioned to keep iterating with support rather than dependency.

We have gone light years ahead in our communication by not just leaving them to work it out for themselves.

— Kevin Sills, Round Rock branch lead