Service simplification
We mapped the entire volunteer journey to identify friction points and unnecessary system interactions.
Samaritans
Designing a virtual contact centre to support 1,600 Samaritans volunteers
How we redesigned the operational architecture behind a critical national service, allowing volunteers to focus on human connection rather than navigating fragmented technology.
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The challenge
technology should never interrupt a human conversation
Samaritans provides critical emotional support 24/7. However, their service environment was highly fragmented. Volunteers had to navigate multiple disconnected systems to handle voice, email, and chat interactions. This operational complexity created friction, slowing down response times and adding cognitive load to volunteers who needed to focus entirely on the caller.
The insight
The challenge wasn’t technology. It was operational complexity.
This project illustrates the importance of designing customer service systems holistically. Technology, operations and customer experience cannot be improved independently. When these elements are designed together, organisations can reduce friction for both customers and frontline teams.
The response
Designed around the operation.
Unified agent workspace
We designed a single interface that brought voice, chat, and email into one seamless environment.
Real-time operational insight
We implemented dashboards that gave supervisors national visibility of service demand and volunteer availability.
1600+
volunteers supported
3
channels unified
100%
national visibility
“Creative Communications Lab helped us design a service environment that allows volunteers to focus on conversations rather than systems.”
Samaritans Leadership Team
What we learned
This project illustrates the importance of designing customer service systems holistically. Technology, operations and customer experience cannot be improved independently. When these elements are designed together, organisations can reduce friction for both customers and frontline teams.
Let’s make service work better
Start with the problem
you need to solve.
Tell us about your customers, your operation and what needs to change.