Case study · Kohl’s · Consumer · Service design

WISMO — three weeks to quiet the phones.

“Where is my order?” calls made up roughly 10% of all Kohl’s customer-service inquiries. With peak season 30 days away, we had three weeks to reduce them — using research-driven, low-tech changes, not a replatform.

ROLE

Product Designer

TEAM

Order Lifecycle Balanced Team

TIMELINE

Oct — Nov 2021 · three-week sprint

CONSTRAINT

Peak season 30 days out · low-tech only

−400 bps

WISMO call volume year over year — beating the original 2–3% reduction goal

−70%

partial-package delivery complaints, directly improving customer satisfaction

−41% · $222K

estimated YoY servicing-expense reduction in the four weeks post-launch (weeks 43–46)

Context

Every WISMO call is a design failure somewhere upstream.

Since 2019, “Where is my order?” inquiries had hovered around 10% of all Kohls.com customer-service contacts. When the project began in October 2021, the cost of handling those calls alone stood at $500K year-to-date — before counting customer ill-will and remediation costs.

This was my first project, in my first month at Kohl’s — new to the company, new to the tools, and entrusted with a time-sensitive, cross-departmental problem with peak season 30 days out.

~10%

of all customer-service inquiries were WISMO calls, consistently since 2019

$500K

year-to-date handling cost at project start — excluding ill-will and remediation

Discovery & research

A multi-layered research sprint: behavior, testing, and the people answering the phones.

CLICK ANALYTICS

The most-clicked link wasn’t a link to what users wanted

Click-tracking on Order History showed the Order/Receipt Number had the highest engagement — customers clicked it expecting tracking updates. Interface labeling and user intent were misaligned at the most important moment.

USABILITY TESTING · USERZOOM

8 of 10 participants clicked the wrong link first

In unmoderated remote testing with a clickable prototype, users confused tracking with order details and named estimated delivery date as the most valuable piece of information.

“It wasn’t clear to me if the two items were shipped together or separately.” — usability participant

CALL LISTENING · AGENT INTERVIEWS

Agents confirmed what the data suggested

Call reviews and live agent interviews traced WISMO volume to confusing or missing tracking links, inconsistent link formats, broken carrier URLs — and statuses like “In Fulfillment” and “Complete” that added confusion instead of clarity.

TERMINOLOGY & TIMING

The system was overpromising

Pre-scan delivery estimates from the tracking vendor set false expectations before carriers ever scanned a package, and tracking info differed between email and digital channels — the experience contradicted itself across touchpoints.

Solution strategies

Three lightweight, testable changes — each one insight-first.

Stop overpromising: remove pre-scan delivery estimates

Estimated dates were shown before carriers scanned packages, creating expectations the system couldn’t keep. Working with the tracking-vendor integration team, we removed pre-scan estimates and aligned the experience with actual carrier data — eliminating contradictory information and restoring trust in the delivery timeline.

Redesign Order History around what users actually seek

Across desktop, mobile web, and the native app: tracking and delivery status moved front and center, the Order ID was visually separated from tracking links to prevent misclicks, and ambiguous labels like “In Fulfillment” were removed or replaced based on user and agent input. We validated with a second round of UserZoom testing — users interpreted their order status accurately without assistance.

Before — Order/Receipt# read as a tracking link; “In Fulfillment” and “Complete” statuses added confusion

After — per-item status and tracking, with the order number visually separated from links

Standardize the tracking journey itself

An audit found 12–15% of tracking links broken, outdated, or mapped to the wrong carrier — and email links behaved differently from on-site ones. We migrated 91% of URLs to a single branded tracking experience and initiated a longer-term automation plan to prevent link degradation across platforms.

Results & business impact

Rapid, measurable — and it kept compounding.

Due to the sensitive nature of Kohl’s financial and customer-operations data, specific internal metrics and full documentation are excluded from this case study.

WISMO call volume dropped 400 basis points year over year — surpassing the original 2–3% reduction goal

Partial-package delivery complaints fell 70%

Servicing expenses reduced an estimated 41% YoY — approximately $222,000 — in the four weeks post-launch (weeks 43–46)

Early category trends: WISMO “Other” calls fell from a 5-week average of 22% to 15%; “Partial Package/Order Delivery” from 17% to 4%

Follow-up testing confirmed faster task completion and better comprehension of tracking and delivery status

Call agents reported fewer escalations, thanks to clearer UI and consistent tracking links

Transactions vs WISMO servicing cost, variance to last year

Servicing cost fell below last year even as transactions held — the reduction wasn’t driven by lower volume

WISMO servicing cost difference, this year to last year

Weekly servicing-cost difference vs last year — the deepest drops land in weeks 43–46, post-launch

Percent of total Kohls.com calls attributed to clarity issues, by fiscal week

“Issue with clarity” and “unexpected experience” calls as a share of total Kohls.com calls, trending down through the fiscal weeks after launch

Reflection

Onboarding through impact.

This was my first assignment at Kohl’s — three weeks into the job, spanning Customer Experience, Order History, Wallet & Account, and Engineering. I grounded every decision in real user pain points and agent feedback, using research to influence outcomes even in areas outside my direct ownership.

It taught me that great UX isn’t only about the interface — it’s clarity, collaboration, and composure under pressure. Thoughtful, user-centered changes — even low-tech ones — can create extraordinary value for customers and the business alike.