Rodney Blackney
Senior Product Designer
Currently building AI-powered products for logistics and telecommunications at Fluent Cargo. Solving complex problems through simple, intuitive design.
Network Outage Visibility, Know before you call
Designed a network outage visibility tool that gave customers real time information about outages in their area.
Outages
Status
Visibility
Product Designer
Context
When network outages occurred, Belong customers had no way to know if the problem was on their end or the network. The only option was to call support. This created a spike in inbound calls every time an outage happened, overwhelming the support team at exactly the moment they were least able to help.
Customers couldn't distinguish personal vs network issues
Outage related calls spiked during network events
Support team overwhelmed during outages
No proactive communication to affected customers
Customer frustration high during outage periods
"I just want to know if it's my problem or yours. That's all I need."
Problem
Customers experiencing outages had no self serve way to check network status. Every outage generated a wave of support calls from customers who just needed confirmation the problem was known and being fixed.
No proactive outage notifications
No customer facing outage status page
Support calls spiked during every outage
Customers felt ignored during network events
No estimated resolution time visible to customers
Approach
I worked with the network operations team to understand how outages were detected, classified and resolved internally. The data existed, it just wasn't being surfaced to customers. The design challenge was translating technical network status into plain language customers could act on, and getting it in front of them before they picked up the phone.
Worked with the network operations team to map how outages were detected, classified and communicated internally.
Mapped the customer experience during an outage to identify where communication gaps were causing unnecessary support calls.
Designed a plain language outage status experience that gave customers confirmation, cause, and estimated resolution time.
Outcomes
Giving customers real time outage visibility reduced inbound call volume during network events. Customers who could see their outage was known and being fixed were less likely to call support. The team could focus on resolving the outage rather than managing call volume.
Proactive outage notifications launched
Customers self served during network events
Support team freed up during outage periods
Improved customer satisfaction during outages
66.4% reduction in customer contacts during outages
Closing
The biggest insight was that customers don't need the outage fixed immediately. They need to know it's known. Acknowledgement reduces frustration more than speed. The design job was giving customers confidence that something was being done, not just information about what was broken.
Translate technical status into customer language
Acknowledgement reduces frustration more than speed
Proactive communication beats reactive support
Visibility is a product feature, not just an ops tool