We launched HelloTech in Los Angeles the Spring of 2015 with a very simple MVP that allowed customers to report their tech support issue and send us their contact information. From there, we would reached out to them directly and schedule an appointment over the phone. We had a couple of in-house techs that took all of the jobs, a few boxes of product, and managed all of our orders on an admin system that resembled a spreadsheet. All of that was about to change.
Once we started gaining some traction we worked quickly to build only what we needed, designing strategically to maximize development efforts. Upon analyzing initial data and conducting some guerilla user research, we decided to forego a customer-facing app and develop a fully functional mobile website. This would remove a barrier for the customer (not having to download an app) while allowing us to iterate quickly outside of an app store.
Problem: Designing to scale. Customers were calling in to schedule appointments over the phone instead of self-booking online. Working with limited resources, we would not be able to quickly scale our business because of current operations.
Hypothesis: Users were unfamiliar with our services and the online booking flow was lightweight, which resulted in skepticism and mistrust. Users would then call in to make sure that our operations were legitimate prior to booking their first appointment.
Goals:
Build trust with the user. We were asking people to let us into their homes to help them with their technology.
Educate the user and create brand recognition
Allow for simple and accurate online scheduling
Improve online conversions and reduce the number of inbound calls
Solutions:
Use site photography instead of artwork to focus on the tech support experience
Leverage site navigation to organize and reiterate our services
Highlight the expertise and knowledge of our techs
Validate our product through customer reviews and press
Create a mobile friendly check-out flow
