Improving YouTube TV activation and Setup

Role: Lead content designer

Team: Frontier Communications

The challenge

Optimize the activation experience for YouTube TV to help customers who were getting stuck at specific points in the flow.

The solution

Use call center reporting, user research, customer feedback, and analytics to identify points of confusion and friction in the activation flow. Build and test creative that solves customer pain points.

Context

Shortly after launching YouTube TV as an add-on for our customers, we saw increased YouTube TV support calls from customers who were having trouble activating and using the product.

Overview

We started with user research and a CX audit, which identified two pages causing friction in the activation experience:

1. The activation page customers use to accept and activate their subscriptions.

2. The confirmation page customers see after activation.

Activation page

Customers land on the activation page after receiving a personalized link in an email or text message. Then, they must log in to their Google account through single sign-on to activate YouTube TV.

User research found that the activation page provided insufficient information for single sign-on and activation steps. It also contained sales and marketing language that distracted customers from their primary task: activation.

Together with the A/B testing team and CX, we hypothesized that removing the marketing messaging from the page, focusing entirely on the activation steps, and including visuals for each step could reduce customer confusion and customer service calls.

I worked with UX design leads to build a new hierarchy for the page and improve the content. Our updates included:

1. Reduced the size of the hero and removed the image so the text was front and center.

2. I updated the headline to be more conversational and added a subhead to lead into the steps below.

3. Removed the marketing-focused component and customer testimonials.

4. Elevated the steps with imagery of the screens customers can expect to see during activation.

5. Overhauled the copy to focus entirely on activation and explain each step in a simple, direct voice and tone.

6. Added a secondary CTA to the page so customers could proceed to single sign-on after reading each step.

7. Updated FAQs to focus exclusively on activation.

Unfortunately, we were unable to test the activation page because dynamic functionality prevented Adobe Target from reliably serving the content. However, after launching the page, we saw a 10% decrease in activation-related calls.

Confirmation page

This is the final page in the activation flow. Customers land here after accepting the YouTube TV offer.

User research found that some customers were having trouble navigating the YouTube TV support center and needed guidance from Frontier on how to set up and use YouTube TV on their devices. Also, device setup wasn’t mandatory on the confirmation page, leaving some customers confused and unsure of what to do next.

We hypothesized that if we made device setup the page's focal point, with clear CTAs for the instructions for each device type, we’d improve the customer experience and reduce customer service calls.

Here's how I partnered with UX design to improve the page:

1. Updated the hero copy to provide a more direct confirmation that the customer’s subscription is active.

2. A subhead was added to provide a connection between the hero and the device setup component.

3. Removed the “Start watching YouTube TV now” component and replaced it with a simple tabbed component focused on device setup.

4. Wrote detailed setup copy and directly linked customers to each device's YouTube TV setup instructions.

5. Elevated the “Need help?” section with a more prominent component.

6. Updated FAQs to focus on device setup and streaming support.

We A/B tested the new creative, and after reaching significance, the redesigned page was the clear winner:

Click-through rate: +209% at 100% significance (6.1% -> 18.9%)

Bounce rate: -23% with 99.9% significance (53.2% -> 41%)

Time on page: +134% (3:51 -> 8:21)

We also saw a 10% decrease in call volume for YouTube TV setup after launching the redesign.