What is KW Service?
KW Service is a local, family-owned appliance repair company. I was hired to build a responsive website that brings in new customers.
After the website’s launch, KW saw a 36% increase in new customer accounts created within two months.
Don’t feel like reading or scrolling? Check out the live website here!
Appliance owners need a way to get easy and reliable appliance repair. The repair technicians will be entering their homes, so people need to be able to trust their repair company. We will know this product is successful when we see a 20% increase in scheduled calls.
Problem Statement:
Build a website for KW Service that brings in new customers for their appliance repair services. This website should not only convince customers as to why they should choose KW, but also provide information all appliance owners should know.
Goal:
Tools: Figma, SquareSpace, Google Drawings, Zoom
Role: Product Designer & UX Researcher
Scale: 2 months
What are other companies doing?
Overview: J&M Appliance (https://jmappliance.com/) is a family-owned repair company located in Redlands, CA. Their core message is to guarantee customer satisfaction and they pride themselves on over 40 years of service.
What do we need to do?
I developed a business requirements document to combine the customer’s needs and the company’s needs into one cohesive place.
Our goal: get users to schedule service easily and in a timely manner.
“I need to know if the company is legit, because the repairman will be coming into my home. It’s where I live, where my family lives. They have to be trustworthy; have good reviews.”
-
Determine what information users are looking for when deciding on an appliance repair company.
Learn the challenges and frustrations users have encountered with appliance repair companies in the past.
Figure out what additional appliance information may be useful to users, i.e. warranty and where to locate a model/serial number.
-
I interviewed 5 participants both online and in-person. I found that:
Our users aren’t appliance experts, so having sections that show them how to find the model/serial numbers or their warranty information would be helpful.
One of the most popular ways users find repair companies is online, so good SEO is important for drawing in new customers.
The website needs to include information like brands serviced, locations serviced, and prices.
Analyzing & Synthesizing data
With the data I gathered throughout the interviews, I created two personas that represent the target user base..
If my personas are able to complete their goals with our final product, we are on the right track.
User Stories
I used user journey maps to help visualize the pain points and common experiences that our users will face.
This allowed me to align my mental model with the stakeholders and locate opportunities for improvement.
From Pen to Figma
Usability Testing + Results
I recruited 5 participants both in-person and online to test my mid-fidelity prototype.
Problems:
80% of participants went straight to scheduling, skipping the information page that lists the serviced brands and areas, so they were unsure if KW would be able to schedule them.
No business hours are located outside of the form confirmation.
Changes I Made:
I added business hours to the footer of all pages, as well as on the top of the contact page. In addition, I added the brands and areas serviced directly on the contact page.
Changed the first CTA to “Learn More” so that users can be informed about the company’s services before jumping straight in to the contact page.
Final Website
You can see KW Service’s website in action here! The finalized version was created and published with SquareSpace. It is available on both desktop and mobile.
Impact
There was a 36% increase in the average number of new customer accounts created within Service Bench after 2 months of publishing the website. This means that there was a 36% increase in customers who scheduled at least one appliance repair service.
Future Iterations
As of now, there are very few Yelp reviews. If KW decided to offer incentives for positive reviews (e.g., $5 off service), I'd include a community feedback section.
Although they're not interested now, I suggested a first-time customer coupon on the home or contact page to attract new clients.
I'd like to enable direct scheduling on the website instead of using an email form.
I initially planned to provide visuals for locating model and serial numbers, but it wasn’t implemented due to time and resource constraints.
Retrospective
My goal was to create a website that attracts new customers to KW's appliance repair services, and I successfully achieved that.
In terms of challenges, one issue arose when I discovered that KW lacked professional business photos. This normally wouldn’t have been an issue, but I didn’t find this out until I was about 90% done with the design process. Rushing to get photos taken ended up delaying the website launch by 2 weeks. If I had communicated my photography requirements from the initial design phase, this issue could have been avoided. In the future, I will ensure to provide a clear checklist of necessary client information and be mindful of available resources and time constraints.