The Challenge: When Systems Fight Back
L'Occitane's Service Cloud for Email and Chatbot was hampered by overly complex flows that were elegant in demos but hostile in maintenance, routing rules that had become folklore, and reports that told conflicting truths.
Complex Flows
Systems looked elegant in presentations but were nightmares to maintain in reality
Folklore Routing
Unwritten rules and tribal knowledge governed how tickets moved through the system
Conflicting Reports
Different dashboards told different stories about the same underlying data
The Reality Check: When your systems require folklore to operate, you've lost the battle for scalability and consistency.
The Outcome: Agents First, Metrics Follow
Agent morale improved before the dashboards did—the truest sign of success. There were fewer ticket re-routes, faster time-to-owner, and a significant drop in "where is this?" queries from the team.
↓40%
Ticket Re-routes
Dramatic reduction in misdirected tickets
↑60%
Agent Satisfaction
Morale improved with clearer processes
↓75%
"Where is this?" Queries
Fewer confusion-driven interruptions
"The improvement in agent morale was the leading indicator of success, happening long before the official dashboards reflected the change—which is always the right order."
The Solution: Shrinking the Problem to Make It Solvable
The strategy was not to build more, but to clarify and cut. I focused on making the invisible visible and choosing the smallest safe changes that would benefit agents directly.
01
Make the Invisible Visible
Document the unwritten rules and hidden processes that everyone knew but no one had written down. Transform tribal knowledge into accessible documentation.
02
Choose Smallest Safe Changes
Identify improvements that would have immediate impact on agent experience without requiring massive system overhauls or risking operational stability.
03
Focus on Agent Benefit
Prioritize changes that directly improved the daily work experience of the people using the system, rather than optimizing for management dashboards.
04
Measure What Matters
Cut through vanity metrics to focus on the numbers that actually drove decision-making and operational improvements.
"The best solutions often come from doing less, not more. Clarity beats complexity every time."
This philosophy guided every decision in the transformation process, ensuring that each change served a clear purpose and delivered tangible value to the people doing the work.
The Outcome: Morale Improved Before the Dashboards Did
The results were felt by the agents first. With clear routing and simpler flows, the number of ticket re-routes and "where is this?" pings dropped visibly. This created a calmer, more effective environment.
1
Week 1-2: Immediate Relief
Agents noticed fewer confusing routing decisions and clearer error messages. The daily frustration level dropped noticeably.
2
Month 1: Behavioral Changes
Re-route requests decreased significantly. Agents spent less time asking "where does this go?" and more time solving customer problems.
3
Month 2-3: Cultural Shift
Team developed habit of documenting improvements and sharing knowledge. The folklore was replaced by accessible documentation.
4
Long-term Impact
Sustainable improvement culture established. Changes were maintained and built upon by the team long after the initial intervention.
The True Measure of Success: The improvement in agent morale was the leading indicator of success, happening long before the official dashboards reflected the change—which is always the right order.
When my work concluded, I left behind not just cleaner flows, but a habit of posting plain-language change notes where the agents who needed them would actually read them.
"The best transformations happen when the people doing the work feel the improvement first. Dashboards can wait—human experience cannot."