Tax exemption self-service
A comprehensive feature that empowers customers with round-the-clock visibility and management capabilities.
Problem
Managing tax exemptions presents challenges for multi-location corporate accounts. Currently, customers rely on customer service channels to confirm exemption statuses, renew, or request new exemptions. This manual process strains resources and contributes to the overall cost-to-serve.
Hypothesis
Implementing self-service capabilities and proactive notifications for tax exemptions will reduce CSR burden, leading to a lower cost-to-serve.
Simultaneously, digitizing tax exemptions is a step towards achieving progressive onboarding. By allowing customers to manage exemptions after account creation, we can remove it from the account application, resulting in faster processing and access to products.
Client
Univar Solutions is a leading, B2B distributor of chemicals and ingredients and provider of services.
Sales occur through both online and offline channels.
Project Details
Workstream: Manage, then Self-Service under re-org
Role: UX research and design lead
Status: On hold
Category: Desktop/mobile
Methods
Secondary research: Build foundational knowledge of tax exemption complexities.
Stakeholder interviews: Gain insights from key players on current processes and requirements.
Comparative analysis: Benchmark expectations using solutions from Amazon Business, Home Depot, and Walmart.
Subject expert review: Wireframes iterated based on feedback from internal subject experts due to time constraints and limited funding for customer research.
Insights
Tax exemptions are incredibly complex. Requirements may vary by state, type, and items covered.
Request processes are error-prone due to such complexity. Errors necessitate CSR follow-up, and the contact is not always the best person to follow up with.
Competitors offer solutions that attempt to minimize errors. Some utilize ‘tax wizards’ that guide the customer through the process. Highly visible FAQs were also common (view overview of analysis).
Cross functional team identifies opportunities
01
Tax exemption dashboard: view status
Dashboard upload feature: add or renew exemptions
02
Option A - section expands in page
Option B - modal
Option C - new page
Checkout enhancement: add/renew exemption
03
Option A
Option B
Option C
Notification center: Automated messaging for status changes
04
Minimum Marketable Feature (MMF): Dashboard
The dashboard would be a high impact feature. It would provide instant access for customers to their exemption statuses, with zero reliance on CSRs.
Feedback from the SAP team and e-commerce specialists refined the dashboard content, ensuring it would meet customer needs effectively.
Key highlights
Affordances
The MMF includes a chevron and hover state to indicate expandable lines. In future iterations, the chevron will switch to a kebab icon when edit/renew exemption capabilities are added.
Search and filter
Given that corporate accounts may have hundreds of line items, robust filter and search functionalities are prioritized, with sort as a potential nice-to-have.
Pagination
New and improved pagination pattern, to be implemented site-wide. The larger touch targets will improve usability, particularly for mobile.
Technical limitation
'Pending' exemptions cannot be displayed at this time, but resolving this issue is planned for future iterations.
MMF2: Add exemptions
Key highlights
‘Helpful tips’
Tips were compiled from CSR feedback, based on common errors.
Drag and drop document upload
Some exemptions require multiple documents. Initially, I proposed a 'tax wizard' to guide customers in submitting the correct documents, but the team advised against it due to liability concerns. Instead, I designed a drag-and-drop feature, allowing customers to upload one or multiple documents at their discretion.
‘Exemption contact’
The account holder is listed by default, but they have the option to designate an alternate. This will cut down on back-and-forth in the times where CSRs need to obtain further information, and the account holder isn’t the ideal contact (CSR pain-point).
Multi ship-to select
The product owner initially requested a 1:1 process (one certificate, one ship-to per submission), mirroring the way CSRs processed requests. However, research revealed that a single certificate frequently applies to multiple addresses. Failure to associate certificates with all relevant ship-tos causes inconvenience for customers and increases workload for CSRs (CSR pain-point). To address this, I proposed a multi-address select combo-box. With enthusiastic support from the CSR organization, the team agreed to integrate this feature to save customers time and streamline the process.
Next iteration - Pending requests
Since the dashboard wouldn’t be able to display pending requests, I proposed adding ‘recent requests’ on the bottom of the requests page. Providing visibility would help with the cognitive load for a customer who needs to add multiple certificates within a session. MMF2 wouldn’t include this display, but it would be added soon after.
Outcome
Though the project didn't launch during my tenure, its potential impact on CSR workflow and the overall cost-to-serve is undeniable. Prior to the dashboard implementation, customers had limited options, relying solely on email or phone contact with CSRs for tax exemption needs. With the introduction of the dashboard (MMF), customers would have gained 24/7 access to their tax exemptions, empowering them with self-service capabilities for the first time.
By reducing CSR workload, we may be able to improve overall response times and ultimately enhance customer satisfaction.
Retrospect
Reflecting on the project journey, we encountered several significant challenges that shaped our approach to tax exemption management at Univar Solutions.
Firstly, navigating the complexities of tax exemption proved to be a formidable hurdle. With rules varying by state, exemption type, and covered items, understanding and addressing these intricacies required extensive research and collaboration with stakeholders.
Secondly, designing a solution that was feasible from a technical perspective presented its own set of challenges. Meticulous planning and attention to detail were essential to ensure alignment between the solution and the data in SAP.
Additionally, the absence of direct customer feedback posed a significant obstacle. While insights from internal stakeholders, including the tax team and CSRs, were valuable, the lack of direct customer input limited our ability to fully align the solution with customer needs and preferences.
Lastly, navigating turbulence stemming from multiple reorganizations within the digital team further challenged our ability to maintain momentum and focus. Despite these challenges, our dedication to collaboration, adaptability, and perseverance drove us to overcome obstacles and deliver a solution that laid the foundation for improved tax exemption management at Univar Solutions.