Network Extender, free & self-serve.

Turning a hidden hardware benefit into a proactive retention tool for customers with poor home signal

PROBLEM

CHURN CHALLENGE

28%

of surveyed at-risk customers named network performance as their primary reason to leave.

CHURN CHALLENGE

28%

of surveyed at-risk customers named network performance as their primary reason to leave.


  • No digital path: Customers had to call support. There was no online option.

  • Manual qualification: Agents had to manually check accounts and determine eligibility for equipment.

  • Disconnected systems: Signal diagnostics weren't linked to fulfillment — so even after a customer was identified as eligible, the ordering process was a separate, slow workflow.

  • Reactive by design: Help only arrived after customers had already experienced failure — often repeatedly.


  • No digital path: Customers had to call support. There was no online option.

  • Manual qualification: Agents had to manually check accounts and determine eligibility for equipment.

  • Disconnected systems: Signal diagnostics weren't linked to fulfillment — so even after a customer was identified as eligible, the ordering process was a separate, slow workflow.

  • Reactive by design: Help only arrived after customers had already experienced failure — often repeatedly.

CONTEXT

Verizon already had the solution to poor home signal: a free Network Extender device eligible customers could receive at no cost. The problem wasn't the product — it was the path to it. The only way to get one was to call customer care, navigate a manual triage process, and wait up to 7–8 business days for resolution.

For customers already frustrated by weak signal, that barrier was often the last straw.

This project replaced that friction-filled journey with a fully digital, self-serve flow — one that could proactively reach customers before they gave up and churned.

My Role: Lead Experience Designer — Strategy, Interaction Design, Omnichannel Implementation, cross-functional collaboration with Network Operations, Engineering, and Support.

DESIGN STRATEGY

Rather than patching the existing support call flow, we rethought the experience from the ground up around four pillars

Proactive Reach

Use SMS and the My Verizon App to surface the offer before total service failure — reaching customers while they're still reachable.

Reactive Journey

For customers who do reach out, meet them where they are. Surface the Network Extender offer contextually within Support and Troubleshooting flows, so it feels like a natural next step rather than a detour.

Frictionless Fulfillment

A two-click order experience with pre-configured, $0 carts and authenticated account data injected automatically

Consistent design pattern across omnichannel experience

The Network Extender offer was implemented across Digital experience in Support & Troubleshooting as well as Assisted channels

SYSTEM MAP

We mapped multiple entry points across Verizon's digital and assisted ecosystem — ensuring the Network Extender offer could surface wherever a customer was most likely to need it. This wasn't a single page redesign; it was a connected system of moments, each capable of routing an eligible customer to the same streamlined fulfillment flow.

FINAL EXPERIENCE

Four screens, zero calls, free device at the end.

The flow begins with a proactive Smartlink sent to eligible customers. It opens with a plain-language signal check — asking one honest question to confirm eligibility. If they qualify, they're taken directly into the order flow: confirm address, review the $0 order, done.

Every decision in the design prioritized transparency and forward momentum:

  • Plain language throughout — no technical jargon, no Verizon-internal terminology

  • An honest "what happens next" — customers always knew where they were in the process

  • A graceful exit for non-qualifying customers — no dead ends, no abandoned states

"Our goal was to move from support being a friction point to support being a retention strategy. The Network Extender isn't just hardware — it's a commitment to the customer's connectivity."