Capturing and validating Aged Care customer journeys
Client: Aged Care Quality & Safety Commission
Role: Lead Designer, User Researcher
Agency: Paper Giant
Year: 2024
How can we enhance older Australians’ safety, health and quality of life?
We helped the aged-care industry regulator, Australian Care Quality and Safety Commission, understand and visualise the customer experience. The findings enabled the design of a Future State Blueprint and Guiding Principles for the future.
The Challenge
The industry regulator, the Australian Care Quality and Safety Commission, is a federal body charged with improving and upholding the standard of care for older Australians. Among other things, the ACQSC helps aged-care providers to understand and meet their obligations and it investigates complaints from aged-care customers and their relatives.
The ACQSC wants to improve its service experience for both aged-care customers and aged-care providers. This brief was the definition of a wicked problem. Australia’s aged-care system is fiendishly difficult to navigate for both groups. Public confidence is low following the 2022 Royal Commission into Aged Care.
Methodology
Gathering different perspectives
We collaborated with the ACQSC to visualise the customer journey to improve their service. This included consulting with staff and aged care providers. We also interviewed aged care recipients, family members, friends, community members, and organisations to gain a deeper understanding of the customer experience.
Service Blueprints
We developed a Current State Service Blueprint that provides a comprehensive overview of the ACQSC departments and their relationship with Aged Care Service Providers. This blueprint includes insights into their experiences, needs and pain points.
(The final, printed poster was around six metres long!)
We also created a Future-State Service Blueprint that outlines a strategic approach for the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission. This blueprint outlines the steps required to deliver innovative products and services that cater to the specific needs of both Older Australians and Aged Care Providers.
Impact
This was the first time the ACQSC and its customers had undergone a process to truly understand the customer’s experience when engaging with aged care services. The needs of people seeking aged care are, of course, highly specific. This means there are almost endless variations in the customer journey. Still, through the research it was possible to identify common routes and pain points - both internally for ACQSC teams and also for customers.
This project uncovered a complex but clear picture of the ways in which different players in the ecosystem interact and influence one another.
“This looks fantastic, I can really see how it’s going to help us”