/ Introduction and genesis
L'emirGO's solution for Skoda car services
Key Box is a response to the market demand for non-contact customer service at any time of the day throughout the year.
Thanks to it, the customer can leave his car at the service or pick it up at any time of the day without any restrictions.
The L’emirGO platform was created as a starter service for an innovative service solution for the automotive industry.
It allows you to book a service at authorized Skoda Dealership services 24 hours a day and 365 days a year, wherever and whenever you want.
After arriving at the site (at any time of his choice), the customer parks his car in a guarded parking lot and leaves the car keys in an ultra-modern KeyBox solution (keypad), which is part of the solution, and can then safely walk away.
When the service is performed, client is informed about its scope and costs, and then he can pay for it in the PayBox solution or directly upon receipt at the KeyBox device.
After paying for the service performed at the service centre, the customer receives a QR code with which he can easily pick up his car keys when he wants and drive away from the car park.
/ LemirGO solutions
The process of designing a products
/ Think — Discovery Stage
The first step in the product design process was to gather preliminary information about the project and expand our knowledge of the industry, analyze it and prepare for a workshop with the client.
Next was a series of workshops with various stakeholders. The first was a workshop with the business and the client where we gathered the general assumptions and goals of the project. For this we used a variety of tools such as the Value Proposition Canvas, 5 Whys, protopersons and user stories.
Next, we conducted workshops with technology partners who were responsible for the technical aspects of our future product (manufacturer of cabinets, readers, screens or security specialists).
By running a series of workshops, we were able to gather the necessary knowledge about our project and build solid design assumptions, define problems, identify technical possibilities or legal restrictions.
In order to fully understand the customer service process in the car service, we planned two surveys: service safari and individual in-depth interviews.
Service safari consisted of my participation in the entire customer service process of a car service starting from the service at the dealership, through the process of diagnosis, like the repair itself, up to the payment and release of the car. By observing the customer service process at the car service center, I was able to become more familiar with the customer service process, learn about the problems and difficulties that customers face when using this service.
The second study was in-depth interviews with employees of the dealership and car service through which we were able to deepen information about the service’s customers, potential problems, limitations or even possible ideas for improving the service.
To deepen the information about the service at the dealership, we conducted a short paper satisfaction survey on customers to measure their level of satisfaction and investigate whether they struggle with any particular problems during their visits to the dealership.
/ Think — Ideation Stage
The main challenge of this stage was to analyze and arrange the knowledge acquired during the above studies and workshops. To this end, the canvasses and boards were updated with the information acquired on new assumptions, problems as well as project goals. We also updated our personae with new information that pertained directly to our target groups.
To deepen our market and product knowledge of best practices in designing similar solutions, I conducted research and analysis of products from intermediate industries such as parcel machines, manufacturers of screens and digital signage solutions, self-service cash registers, ticket machines.
Based on the set of information collected, we were able to determine what our final product would look like and what problems it could answer. With the support of a business analyst, we described in detail the needed functionalities within our products and planned further work. With the help of the Priority Matrix tool, we were able to define a plan for product implementation and development.
For the need for customers to book an appointment, we planned to implement a simple responsive website with a booking wizard. Thanks to the responsiveness, the site was to be accessible for use from a smartphone, which was important given the growing popularity of mobile devices.
For those who don’t have a mobile device or who would like to leave their car right away at the service center without booking in advance, we have planned the possibility of booking an appointment directly on our locker screens.
/ Make — implementation stage
At this stage, in order to better understand the workings of our solutions, I designed a series of user flows concerning the entire process of customer service in a car service center, along with the points of contact with our products. Well-prepared user flows for the products allowed me to design them more accurately and to be sure that I wouldn’t skip a step in the process of designing the final views.
Then, while working with the business analyst, we also mapped out the workings of the entire system, along with the logic of operation and information exchange between the devices and products in question, which translated into a better understanding of the product and a beachhead for the all-important design documentation.
/ Make — implementation stage
The next step in the process was to create UI views for our digital signage application in the key machine and an appointment booking page.
I started the design with low fidelity mockups for the main user paths based on the user flows prepared earlier, which helped me lay out the main elements on the screens.
I then moved on to designing a simple Style Guide based on the client’s branding for the product and a review of current trends in graphic design and UI.
After designing the final UI for both products, it was time to consult with the client and apply corrections and client comments on the final design.
/ Make — implementation stage
Once the final UI was designed, it was time to implement it. Here, I actively worked with the developers on how the views of our applications were to be implemented, e.g: , how the different elements of the interface are supposed to behave, where the clickable and interactive elements are, what the transitions and animations between the views of the application are supposed to look like and so on.
After the implementation phase, it was time for the important part, i.e. internal testing of the application and the website. We tested the digital signage application for the key fob on a screen similar to the target screen that was to be placed there, and the booking website on various desktop as well as mobile devices.
During the tests, a number of bugs and shortcomings in the user interface came to light, which could affect the reception of the solution among end users, and were therefore corrected as soon as possible.
After a series of internal tests, it was time to implement the solution on site at the customer’s car dealership. Onboarding of service and showroom staff was also part of the implementation. In order to prevent unforeseen situations, we also designed service solutions for employees, which enabled various actions to be taken during the process of booking and repairing a customer’s car, one of which was a QR code for emergency opening of the key fob if something went wrong.
In order to catch all the bugs associated with our products, we designed test procedures and a bug reporting system for the service staff, so that not only were the bugs related to the operation of the device by the staff, but also the end customer’s feedback on our solution.
Thanks to the strong commitment of the showroom staff, a large proportion of further shortcomings and errors were caught and quickly rectified.
/ Learn — Delivery Stage
A few months after the implementation of the solution at the client’s premises, it was time to collect opinions about our products. For this purpose, we designed a survey in the form of a customer satisfaction questionnaire for the LemirGO solution, which the client received after using our service.
The survey responses were generally positive and the solution was warmly welcomed by the customers of the car showroom.
On the basis of all the information gathered from the implementation of the solution, onboarding and tests in the car showroom, the satisfaction survey, we planned to implement new functionalities to improve the overall perception of our solution, such as
- Booking the service directly on the device for elderly people who had problems with the solution due to their low level of familiarity with technology including smartphone operation.
- Additional integrations with service, automotive and sales systems to reduce too many solutions that a showroom employee has to learn.
- Improving the appointment booking process by reducing the amount of data required to be filled in by the customer.
- Improving the touchscreen experience by changing to a better manufacturer and model. The same applies to the QR code reader, which had problems with hanging up.
- Installing additional security features to prevent key theft or accidental opening of key lockers.
- Developing algorithms and scenarios to manage lockers in the event of overcrowding or overbooking in relation to the capacity of the site and key machine.
/ Main problems
The main problems related to the implementation of the solution prototype:
Technological problems with devices: defects, software deficiencies, outdated components and sometimes a low level of quality control.
Integration with sales and automotive systems with which all talks were arduous and difficult.
Too much useless of problems or functionalities that ultimately were of minimal value.
And the obvious obviousness – implementation chaos, because where there are six cooks … there is nobody to do 🙂
