Empathy is at the heart of the design thinking approach. When designers have empathy, they discover pain points that are initially difficult to identify, and come up with designs that address users’ needs and bring a positive, lasting impact.

Stepping into other people’s shoes is the key to driving innovation and promoting cooperation within companies. By developing a people-centric attitude, designers can solve problems and create smarter and more successful businesses.

In the design thinking approach, user shadowing is the gateway to developing that empathy and understanding the way users think and behave.

By quietly observing a user’s interactions and behaviour for a day, designers gain valuable insights on their routines and decision-making patterns, and develop ideas to improve them.

At CLP, Norman Chan and his colleagues in the Customer Success Experience (CSE) team used this method to design a smart solution with AI tools to help colleagues handle applications for the CLP Eco Building Fund (EBF). 

Building a more efficient service

The CLP EBF provides subsidies for residential, commercial and industrial customers to carry out energy-saving improvement works. It has received more than 500 applications a year since its launch in 2018.

Applications are usually processed manually and site visits are then conducted to monitor the progress of installation, according to Nicole Tung from the EBF team, who says she and her colleagues struggled for some time to increase their efficiency.

After joining a site visit with the EBF team, Chan learned about the pain points faced by Tung. Chan’s team then reached out to Tung to offer solutions using the design thinking approach. “To start with, we considered how we might help the EBF team improve the operational efficiency of the application process,” Chan explains. “We decided on user shadowing, as it is very useful in understanding the subliminal needs of users.”

Chan and his colleague Michelle Luk paid visits to observe how EBF team members worked at the office and on sites. They even recorded team members’ facial expressions.

“We noticed the EBF team took many photos and climbed up and down to record the serial numbers of equipment at different sites before they returned to the office to upload them to the system,” Luk recalls.

“The status updates were not timely, and there were many time-consuming manual tasks involved because of complicated workflows.”

Four solutions were developed based on innovative and AI technologies, including a project progress update system, a repeated application detector AI matching tool, a site assessment team SharePoint portal with dashboards and a mobile app.

For each solution, Chan’s team sought EBF team members’ feedback at every stage and modified the AI tools according to their needs.

Tung explains: “With the end-to-end project progress update system, the real-time dashboard automatically shows the customers’ equipment installation status for easy follow-up action.”

“For the site assessment, meanwhile, we can simply take a photo of the equipment label, and the mobile app will automatically search for the relevant data on the server. We can also directly upload equipment photos to the cloud management platform for our records.”

The use of the new tool had led to a four-fold increase in the response rate to customers inquiring about their equipment installation status, while the time used for processing applications has been shortened by 10%.

Stepping forward together

Embracing new and innovative solutions has become increasingly important in an age of rapidly evolving technology. Before finding solutions, however, it is important to consider the needs and experience of users and provide them with personalised solutions.

CLP is committed to continue to draw on the latest innovations and digital capabilities with a people-centric mindset to deliver better services and solutions for its employees, customers, and the community at large.