THE BOUQS CO
A user-centered approach to building an internal messaging system that streamlines communication with a nation-wide network of florists within a one month timeline.
The Bouqs partners with FTD, one of the largest florist networks in the world, to provide a select assortment of bouquets from that network of florists. We have the partnership mainly to help fulfill Same Day Delivery.
I was the sole designer responsible for designing an internal message system for The Bouqs to communicate back and fourth with FTD’s nationwide network of florists. The new internal message system streamlines communication between The Bouqs and FTD's florists, enabling real-time collaboration for price adjustments, flower substitutions, delivery rescheduling, and undeliverable addresses.
FTD's Message Center within Mercury Cloud, currently used for communication between The Bouqs and FTD's florist network, is being deprecated. This poses a challenge for The Bouqs' CX and Ops teams who rely on this system for critical order discussions with florists. These discussions are crucial for resolving issues such as price adjustments, flower substitutions, delivery rescheduling, and undeliverable addresses.
Without a way to communicate with this florist network, The Bouqs will undoubtedly see an impact on order fulfillment, customer satisfaction, and overall operational efficiency.
Our own internal message system that fosters seamless communication between The Bouqs and FTD's florists.
The solution must address two key constraints:
Rapid turnaround: The new system needs to enable quick and efficient communication to maintain The Bouqs' commitment to fast order processing and customer service, and with one month until FTD depreciated their message center, we were essentially working under the umbrella of a countdown clock.
WebLink integration: Resources were limited to build a complex, proprietary solution from the ground up, so we focused on building a React app inside Weblinc, our operations management system. This solution also proved to be challenging because WebLinc couldn’t handle many of the functionalities that the end users (The Bouqs CX team and the florist network) were used to in FTD’s system, Mercury Cloud.
These challenges required me to focus on a straightforward yet impactful solution that would create a seamless transition from the old system to the new.
FTD’s current messaging center uses The Mercury Network, a messaging system utilizing a series of message and status types to send orders for a product or service and administrative messaging.
In order to create a seamless transition for the end user, The Bouqs CX team, I needed to understand how our agents currently use FTD’s message system.
I stayed in constant communication with our CX team throughout the project, and learned that FTD’s current system was a catch-all for different use cases, some of which were not relevant, and in fact created noise and navigational difficulty for our team.
The user flow below cuts out the noise and details only the actions and responses relevant to our team.
The idea was to embed the message center into the order page in Weblinc, which would enable our team to initiate and respond to messages faster and more efficiently.
Next step was to present the user journey and page comp to the Product Manager and Engineer on the project.
By involving the development team early on, I ensured the back-end infrastructure could support my front-end vision. This included a clear understanding of the limitations of embedding a React app within Weblinc, minimizing development revisions throughout the process.
After getting sign off from Engineering, I used Chakra’s native UI elements to create the final design, thereby speeding up hand-off and overall development time.
ORDER/OUT > ORDER DELIVERED full message list example
Improved Collaboration: The new internal message system fosters smoother communication between The Bouqs and FTD's florists, enabling real-time collaboration on order fulfillment. This can lead to faster resolution of issues like pricing adjustments, substitutions, and delivery changes.
Enhanced Customer Satisfaction: Streamlined communication between The Bouqs and florists reduces the likelihood of errors and delays, ultimately improving customer satisfaction with order accuracy and timeliness.
Increased Operational Efficiency: A dedicated message system eliminates reliance on external platforms like FTD's Mercury Cloud, potentially reducing overall communication overhead and improving internal workflows.
Seamless Integration: By integrating seamlessly with The Bouqs' existing Weblinc system, the new message system minimizes disruption to current operations and encourages user adoption among CX and Ops teams.
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