OnTech In-Home Commerce
Role:
UX Designer and Researcher
Context:
Smart Home technology is in high demand, but device compatibility and complicated installations create strong barriers to entry. OnTech Smart Services solves for this by providing an all-in-one Smart Home solution, including in-home shopping of premium brands combined with expert installation, set up and education.
OKRs:
Increase on site sales revenue
Increase average work order value
Increase net promoter score
Tools Used:
UserZoom, Sketch, Invision, Figma,
The Team:
UX Design Manager: Rachel Hankins
Lead UX Researcher: Kim Mosberger
UX Researchers: Sarah Pitts, Kamden Hafke
UX Designers: James Van Camp, Kamden Hafke
Project Manager: Jessica Holzhauer
Copywriter: Ryan Flannigan
In-Home Commerce Merchandising Platform
In 2022, UX teams across the DISH enterprise came together to help OnTech provide a better overall experience and achieve their KPIs. The result was a streamlined In-Home Commerce Merchandising Platform, which was designed based on the feedback of the internal and external customers it was built to serve.
The Problem
Despite industry-leading products/services and partnerships with top brands like Google, Amazon and ADT, inconsistent experiences and out-of-date resources didn’t position OnTech for a best-in-class Smart Home offering.
Develop a new In-Home Commerce Merchandising Platform with enhanced email designs to improve customer communication and facilitate consistency, a pre-appointment survey to assist the technician with curating a custom experience, and a new On-Site Sales app to increase sales with a streamlined product catalog.
The Solution
The Approach
Research and testing were vital to ensure the best possible product for both technicians and customers. Therefore, the project began with an extensive audit of the technician and customer experiences to discover pain points for each user group. Then, potential solutions were explored to determine the best elements to formulate the merchandising platform and designs were created and tested.
Research and Testing
To ensure testing was done early and often, look-alike audiences were utilized through UserZoom, which was followed by testing with actual OnTech technicians. Additionally, for a holistic look at pain points and solutions, a robust discovery phase was implemented and included exploratory research of customer/technician journeys, tools, processes and a competitive analysis.
Methodologies
Quantitative
Technician Interviews
Customer Surveys
Stakeholder Interviews
Usability Testing
Look-alike audience
Journey Mapping
Beta Testing
Actual technicians
Qualatative
Competitive Analysis
Card Sorting
A/B Testing
Surveys
Journey Mapping
Beta Testing
Actual technicians
Findings
A full audit of the customer and technician experience through interviews and surveys was conducted to map the journey for both groups. Pain points causing unmet expectations and inconsistent communication were discovered.
Preferred Communication Methods Survey Results
Most (56.7%) respondents preferred email communications from companies they interact with.
Competitive Analysis Results
Customer onboarding used to personalize the customer experience was common in brands from multiple industries connected to in-home commerce/services. About half of similar businesses had a quiz to get started.
Technician Roundtable and Interview Results
Working with 12+ technicians and field service managers, 8 individual and round table interviews were conducted—identifying the following issues.
Existing Sales Tool
Techs don’t want to be pushy salespeople; they want to find the best solution for their customer’s needs which the current tool doesn’t cater to.
Can’t save or send quote, causing reentries and to reliance on notes apps on their personal phone.
Prices/sales/promos/credits aren’t always clear or consistent.
Outdated and hard-to-navigate product list causes issues with recommendations.
Customer Communication
Customers don’t usually fill out the pre-appointment survey, and it’s hard for techs to view on the current tool when they do. This causes techs to not have info such as WiFi speed/strength, internet provider, installation info, HVAC system, customer preferences, and rent vs own, which ensures the work can be done and they can deliver a more customized appointment.
Preparation
Product knowledge/training is lacking, leading to techs learning on the job.
Inventory issues resulting in techs not having enough products to sell and mission-critical equipment.
Top Pain Points
Pre -Appointment
Data
Not capturing customer preferences to help customize the appointment and technician’s product recommendations.
Communication
Not priming the customer for in-home shopping and setting clear expectations for the appointment—plus, emails are not branded.
Day of Appointment
Explored Solutions
Pre -Appointment
Survey
Gather information on customer preferences
Roll data into the pre-appointment emails and customer recommendation engine and incorporated with the On Site Sales App
Build appointment expectations for customer
Prime with curated products for customer to ask their technician about
Showcase products that fit with their order
Day of Appointment
On Site Sales App
Use customer data to make curated recommendations
Provide custom product solutions that fit the customer’s needs
Tie the previous touch points into a seamless experience
Resources
Technicians don’t have one tool for everything they need, including troubleshooting resources, product info, customer info and recommendations—or where they can onboard customers and make transactions.
Appointment Timeline
Design: Pre-Appointment Experience
Pre-appointment Emails
Emails were redesigned to address pain points found during the research stage.
Testing showed new designs were successful in creating a consistent experience, preparing customers for their appointment and in giving them product recommendations.
New Pre-appointment Survey
Competitive analysis and testing showed a survey was the best way to onboard a customer and gather data for general info and to assist technicians with product recommendations.
Design: In-Home Experience
On Site Sales (OSS) App
To solve the pain point of technicians not having tools for everything they need in one place, an On Site Sales App was developed to create the following benefits.
Curated In-home Shopping
With a catalog of over 600 products and growing, vans were stocked with the most popular products, but there was no way to include them all, resulting in missed opportunities for sales. Now, data collected from the pre-appointment emails and survey creates custom recommendations the technician can access through the app — allowing them to stock specific products to create an in-home shopping experience curated for their customers.
Easy-to-Find Products
With the new product catalog, technicians can filter products by brand or category, explore product details and see which ones are on the truck. This allows for faster, more accurate filtering of the hundreds of products in the OnTech catalog.
Inventory Management
Previously, technicians were required to know their vehicle stock from memory. This often resulted in a technician needing to physically check their inventory before making a sale, increasing appointment times and affecting the customer experience. Now, all they have to do is check the OSS App, which provides an updated vehicle inventory.
Resources and Guides
Technicians used to have to piece together online manuals, new articles and their own smart device apps to explain products to customers, which took time, effort and increased the learning curve for new tech.
The OSS app provides quick access to important product information and service guides that could be easily accessed from the product details page. These resources are vital for technicians when onboarding customers, giving additional info and troubleshooting.
Unmoderated Usability Testing with Look-Alike Audiences
Moderated Testing
After numerous usability tests and iterations with look-alike audiences, the prototype was tested with actual OnTech technicians both in-person and virtually.
Technicians expressed excitement about most of the changes. Product photos and detail pages were noted as a favorite, but the scheduling tool calendar view and view cart patterns didn’t meet expectations, so those were brought back to design and usability testing — and then back to the technicians, who approved the changes.
Retrospective
Pre-appointment: the pre-appointment emails were implemented, though development has been paused on the pre-appointment survey as emails and improving the technicians in-app experience were prioritized.
Day of appointment: the OSS app was not fully developed, but high priority improvements such as the dashboard and product catalog design have been implemented in the tool technicians currently use in-home.