Develop a new consumer portal to aid consumers with job scheduling, status, messaging and live displays to create a cohesive service journey from job creation to closure and survey. Responsive web application, connected to multiple cross product back ends with integrated email and SMS based messaging.
Starting Position
Consumers were traditionally out of the loop when it came to service job work flows and statuses. Consumers were forced to call into a call center to find out the current status of a work order, reschedule, or book a new service job. With all the improvements we had made to creating a central integration layer and creating hooks for status work flows, real time updates from the field and live map views from GPS enabled devices it seemed such a natural extension to create a configurable, brand-able consumer portal that would include customers in the experience, cut down on call center calls, and create a tighter relationship between the service company and the consumer.
Concept
The initial concept was developed in the product team out of the idea that consumers wanted to be much more involved in the service process. In addition the general consumer space was starting to real-time updates and live map views, think of Fedex, Uber, Amazon, etc. all providing real-time status and map views of your packages, driver, and orders. Combining those updates and views with the ability to schedule service appointments, add photos, and additional information as well as message or call your technicians created a self contained portal just for consumers.
Process
-
Developed initial UI mockups and messaging flows, for approval by executive team, along with a high level budget, roadmap and timeline.
-
Built a team comprised of internal and external resources. Internal resources would build out all of the API's and messaging. Outsourced team would build the UI components.
-
Created a full set of UI designs and walk throughs which were refined with input from the internal and external review teams.
-
Iterated through development sprints to deliver first MVP, which was delivered to pre-sales team so it could be demonstrated to customers and prospects.
-
First client rollout and support for professional services team.
Results
Within the first 6 months of the first client go live over 1M status events had been processed through the customer portal, rave reviews from both consumers and the clients. Field service technicians appreciated the extra information they were able to see on the mobile device and it provided more accountability for field service timeliness. One field manager commented that it felt like he was virtually sitting in the passenger seats of every technicians van, because of the additional KPI improvements his team was showing.
