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.

The case in 6 moves

  1. "Make waiting feel better"
  2. Two scenarios out of five
  3. Make-It-Happen + KnockKnock
  4. Field staff defending the work
  5. Reframing the design target
  6. Prototypes still running
2
live branch prototypes
12/12
design criteria met
Branch-led
branch-led extension

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? Investigating the brief rather than executing it surfaced the actual problem: not waiting itself, but 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 us to "make waiting feel better"

Pro Pickup is the moment a contractor walks into a Ferguson branch to collect an order placed by phone or email. Ferguson wanted satisfaction in that moment to improve. They framed it as a perception-of-waiting problem.

The work sat inside Ferguson's CX team, partnered with their internal service design lead. Solo on the design side, part-time, with light oversight. The seven-phase framework — 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 03

Make-It-Happen and KnockKnock, tested live in real branches

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

How field staff went from skeptical to defending the work

Participants came in skeptical — especially field staff, who'd never been part of work like this. By the final round, they were presenting their own concepts, citing their own metrics, asking to keep going. A branch lead who understands why the solution works can adapt it when conditions change. A branch lead handed a solution can'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

Why 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. None of that would have prevented a contractor from leaving disappointed or abandoned.

What stays behind

Both prototypes still running, and what the branch leads did next

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 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.

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