Vehicle Valuation Report
The Vehicle Valuation Report was designed to give car dealers and car auctions a better way to understand the true value of a vehicle down to the trim level.
Role of Product
Vehicle Valuation was not a tool or feature that our customers were asking us for – at least not directly. But through observing how they used our current products and observing their current workflow with their customers we crafted a new customer journey that we believed would solve the pricing problem for them better then their existing solution.
Our research was extensive! We even went so far as to hang out at car dealerships on the weekends to observe first-hand the entire customer journey and the dealer process.
Armed with this information we decided that speed would be a key factor in making a new pricing tool effective. By the time a potential customer comes into the dealership they have all but decided what new car they want to purchase and how much they think they should get for their trade in. And with their phones in their pockets they can very quickly get a quote from another dealer down the road – or 3 towns away.
Design
The design needed to be intuitive and to layer in seemlessly with the dealer’s existing workflow.
To simplify the process we spent a lot of time and dev effort to built as much intelligence into the tool as possible and to make it as mistake proof as possible. (If there is no such thing as a 4-wheel drive Toyota Matrix then that should never be something the user can select).
Behind the Scenes & Final Product
When it comes to designing great products you never get it right on the first attempt. Or maybe not even the 10th.
We did a *lot* of user testing with this product. We had to get it right on two levels. 1) The data had to be accurate. If we gave bad information then people would pay the wrong amount for their vehicle inventory and it wouldn’t matter how good the UX and design was – we would lose their trust forever. 2) It had to be quick and easy to use and fit within the natural workflow of the vehicle appraiser and purchasers. People don’t love change and they don’t love being told they’ve been doing it wrong all these years.
Marketing
The marketing hit at the heart of the problem we researches and tested and knew would create an emotional reaction with our target market.
Want to learn more about this project?
I’m always up for talking about building products and learning new ways to build them better. If you want to connect and get into the details for this product or another one then let’s connect.