Volvo Cars App pairing
(Research & Design)
Volvo Cars App:
Connecting the app to the car
(research & design)
Imagine being able to unlock the features of your brand new Volvo at their full potential with just a few clicks!
Easy-peasy, right?
Well, this is the kind of experience we want our customers to have.
To quote Steve Krug, "Don't make me think".
A user-centric approach is the basis of any successful pre-sale, sale and after-sale process, and luckily Volvo shares the same vision.
Therefore, the need for this project.
Purchasing a Volvo car should not be reduced to the mere act of owning a vehicle, but should instead open the doors to the whole Volvo experience, where the customer becomes the user and is therefore immersed in a fully assisted, service-oriented reality.
One of the key elements that make this possible is represented by the option of connecting the Volvo Car app to the car itself, in order to being able to unlock its full potential and enjoy the additional functionalities (see below).
Hence, the need to properly study and research on the pairing the app to the car journey, in order to deliver a seamless experience for the customer and develop loyalty and satisfaction towards our brand.
What this research aims to achieve is to decrease the volume of customer care cases and issues related to app to car connectivity, and everything that revolves around it.
Additionally, it is to be noted that this inquiry was designed to continuously improve the latest software version present in the new EX90 model, SPA2, by learning from the previous ones, Classic and iCUP.
As we all know, organisations collect data to make better informed decisions.
Although we were not about to launch a new product while conducting this research, mine and my teammates' scope was to improve the existing one (which was still quite new, to be fair) and all the precedent versions also in the possibility of a consequent implementation in the future software.
In regard to data collection, we surfed Salesforce to see what most recurring issues held the biggest percentage when it came to the Volvo Cars App.
As it turned out, the main problem occurring to users and therefore reported to our customer service involved "connectivity issues".
When a customer buys a new Volvo, the salesmen at the dealership or at the shop are to set up the VCC app on the customer's phone and connect it to the car itself.
The strong advantages of this pairing can be consulted here.
(continues below)
However, due to different reasons, this pairing was not 100% able to be made in the shop nor from professionals.
Therefore, the most efficient way to allow customers to connect the app to the car was to solve the problem at its root, meaning increasing accessibility regardless of the knowledge of the person carrying out the action.
Given the occasion, we decided to also increase the usability level of the app when it comes to adding a second or more driver to the car, which had proven to represent a customer journey's pain point as well.
As seen above, I included a screenshot from the Tesla mobile app given the fact that competitive analysis was a strong aid in conducting this research, to resolve both pain points (merely, accessibility and usability).