Context & Initiative
For new and existing Cox Business customers who place a new order, the self-serve registration experience is a critical moment in their digital journey: it should drive adoption of self-service capabilities and build confidence in Cox as a provider. The previous registration experience had too many steps, and each step contained large, input-heavy forms that discouraged completion and contributed to a low post-order registration completion rate.
Medium-to-enterprise customers were historically not expected to self-register. Customer service representatives handled account creation and onboarding as part of a white glove experience. One structural blocker compounded this: registration required an order number, which many users did not have on hand. This project removed that hard dependency - a user without an order number could still create a profile, with automated overnight services linking their account to the order on the backend. The combination of CSR-dependency and the order number gate explains why post-order self-registration rates were as low as they were.
Initiative
- Reimagine and improve the registration process from the ground up, starting with the order process
- Increase registration completion through a streamlined, step-guided, mobile-first experience
- Introduce tokenized links (email and mobile) so new customers receive clear paths to register after placing an order
- Verify contact methods during registration to support multi-factor authentication (MFA)
- Eliminate the need for users to manually enable MFA later by building it into the registration flow
My Role
Lead UX designer. I spearheaded the creation of the streamlined, step-guided registration process, from defining multiple user flows (tokenized links, default registration CTA, administrator-guided registration), through wireframing and prototyping, to collaboration with security, customer service, and order management, and through baseline user testing and Pendo-driven analysis.
Success Metrics
- Improved customer experience and satisfaction: Registration should feel simple and guided
- Operational efficiency: Shift profile placement from back-office operations into a guided, customer-driven experience
- Reduction of duplicate profiles: Shell profile cleanup and redesigned Profile Management for CSRs
- Digital engagement: Channel containment with elegant handoff when needed
Constraints
Scope was bounded by the registration and profile-placement flows and by building on the CB Force hierarchy work. The initiative did not include the hierarchy transition itself. All part of the broader new-customer vision (order status, self-install, dashboard, guided tours) aimed at increasing digital adoption.
Discovery
Registration Landscape
Registration sits at the intersection of order completion, account security, and ongoing self-service. New customers could use Cox Business services without registering, but doing so limited their ability to get support, manage services, or manage equipment. The opportunity was to tie registration to the order moment and use it to verify contact methods and introduce MFA.
Understanding the Legacy State
The legacy flow had too many steps, and each step asked users to complete large, input-dense forms. That combination created fatigue and significantly increased abandonment.
Problem Definition
The previous registration experience had too many steps, and each step required users to work through large, cumbersome forms. That structure discouraged completion and contributed to a low post-order registration completion rate. Contact methods were not verified during registration, and MFA was left for users to enable later. Root cause: the flow was overbuilt and form-heavy instead of being streamlined, context-aware, and tied to the order moment and security needs.
“Users needed a clear, efficient path to register and verify their contact methods; instead, they faced too many steps with large forms in each step plus a later MFA prompt. That mismatch discouraged completion and delayed stronger account security.
Supporting Evidence
- Low post-order completion despite the order moment being a high-intent opportunity
- Not registering created challenges when customers needed support or wished to manage services
- Contact verification and MFA were not part of registration, leaving accounts less secure
- Security, customer service, and order management all had a stake in improving completion
Process & Rationale
Approach
- Define user flows: Identify and define multiple entry points: tokenized links, default registration CTA, administrator-guided registration
- Refine flows: Refine the four defined flows to ensure coverage of all key scenarios and outcomes
- Wireframe: Create wireframes with a strong emphasis on a mobile-friendly, step-by-step guided process
- Prototype: Build prototypes accounting for all possible iterations and outcomes for each flow
- Stakeholder and cross-team review: Review with security, customer service, and order management
- Internal refinement: Incorporate feedback and refine flows and prototypes
- Baseline user testing: Run user testing to ensure each flow was seamless
- Launch and monitor: Introduce Pendo for ongoing behavior analysis
Why This Process
Why multiple flows first? Tokenized links, default CTA, and administrator-guided registration represent distinct contexts and user mindsets. Defining these before wireframing ensured we didn't optimize for one path at the expense of others.
Why step-guided and mobile-first? The legacy single form was a major source of abandonment. A step-by-step, mobile-friendly process reduces cognitive load and works across devices.
Why prototype all iterations? Registration includes branching (verification steps, errors, recovery). Prototyping all iterations allowed stakeholders to review real scenarios and reduced risk of edge-case failures.
Collaboration
Prototypes were reviewed by multiple stakeholders and teams outside the product team, including security, customer service, and order management. This collaboration ensured solutions accommodated both customers and internal teams.
Solution
Before & After
- Too many steps with large, input-heavy forms
- No tokenized links
- Contact methods not verified
- MFA enabled manually later
- Not mobile-optimized
- Mobile-first, step-guided flow
- Tokenized links via email & mobile
- Contact verification built in
- MFA integrated into registration
- Four defined entry flows
Before/after screens: single form vs. step-guided registration flow
Key Design Decisions
Tokenized Links from the Order Moment
New customers receive tokenized links via email and mobile after placing an order, tackling low post-order completion and verifying contact methods for stronger initial account security.
Step-Guided, Mobile-First Process
Replacing the step-heavy, form-dense legacy flow with a streamlined, mobile-friendly process reduced cognitive load and abandonment. Designing for mobile first ensured the experience worked where many users open links and complete registration.
MFA and Contact Verification Inside Registration
Building contact verification and MFA into registration improved security from the start and removed the need for users to manually enable MFA later, reducing friction and increasing the likelihood accounts would be secured early.
Four Flows, One Consistent Experience
Designing for tokenized links, default CTA, and administrator-guided registration ensured we didn't optimize for one entry point only; all paths shared the same step-guided, verification, and MFA logic.
The administrator-guided flow is a variation of the tokenized link experience. Once an account holder registers, they can add an administrator by providing their email address. That email triggers a tokenized link for the new user. The administrator's registration path is the simplest of the four flows - name, email, and MFA verification - as they skip the team-building step that account holders complete.
Validation & Iteration
Key Iterations
After Stakeholder Review
Internal refinements based on feedback from security, customer service, and order management ensured solutions worked for both customers and internal teams.
After Baseline User Testing
Baseline testing showed the redesigned flow improved overall registration completion, with the strongest gains on mobile. In the legacy experience, users often started registration on phone and moved to desktop to finish; the new flow reduced that device-switching pattern and increased completion in-session.
Post-Launch Monitoring
Use of Pendo to understand behavior and swiftly address emerging hurdles in the registration flows post-launch.
Outcome & Reflection
The project exceeded its goal of providing a better registration process for both users and Cox Business by addressing issues before users hit them: tokenized links and step-guided flows for completion, and MFA and contact verification built into registration.
Digital adoption in this context measures self-service account registration - users creating and activating their own accounts rather than relying on CSRs to do it for them. Prior to this project, CSR-assisted account creation was the de facto path for medium-to-enterprise customers. The YoY increase reflects the shift toward self-service as the primary registration channel.
Formal MFA completion data within registration was not surfaced to the team post-launch. However, MFA initiatives across Cox Business had consistently been treated as internal successes, and the 20%+ YoY digital adoption increase includes newly registered users who completed MFA as part of the flow - meaning both completion and security goals were directionally met.
Results
- Registration experience: Mobile-first, step-guided registration replaced the previous step-heavy, input-dense flow
- MFA and security: Multi-factor authentication introduced into registration; users no longer need to manually enable MFA
- Operational efficiency: Registration and profile placement shifted from back-office operations to a guided, customer-driven flow
- Engagement and security: Significantly improved user engagement and security
- Digital adoption: 20%+ year-over-year increase in digital adoption
Learnings
- Meaningful collaboration with intentional wireframes increases buy-in. Showcasing simplified flows through wireframes, from what exists today to what is possible, directly showed how enabling users for success increases motivation to self-serve.
- Showcasing the gap (today vs. possible) makes the case for change. Wireframes contrasting current state with the proposed experience helped collaborating teams see the impact.
What I'd Do Differently
I'd jump to prototyping even faster. Registration is not an unknown process, and with AI tooling I could have received even faster and more emphatic buy-in from all collaborating teams if I had pitched them a more robust prototype instead of wireframes first. Everyone can feel the result and expectations of a fully fleshed-out prototype. I'd use that earlier to align and excite stakeholders.
I would have collaborated more closely with the team responsible for tokenized link delivery to establish open rate, click-through, and flow-specific registration attribution from the start. Post-launch, it was difficult to isolate the performance of the tokenized path from other entry points. Defining that measurement upfront would have made the impact of the order-moment hook far easier to demonstrate.
Future Implications
Future implications included onboarding initiatives through Pendo-driven walkthroughs and guides, providing the newly registered user a seamless entry point into the Cox Business My Account dashboard.
