Problem

Each year, CarMax spends $45 million on car repair sublets – repair work they are unable or unwilling to do in the limited number of service bays they have on site. RepairPal formed a partnership with CarMax in 2017. CarMax wants to begin referring a majority of this repair work for their MaxCare Extended Service Plan (warranty) customers to RepairPal Certified automotive repair shops.

CarMax customers often travel 200 miles or more to purchase a car at a CarMax store and commonly need repair work done close to their location, not near the CarMax store where they made their purchase.

The referral system in place was disjointed and inefficient. When CarMax service associates received phone calls from customers needing warranty repair work, they had to switch back and forth between multiple systems and tools before they were able to refer the customer to an appropriate shop. These systems and tools included:

• CarMax World – the CarMax store intranet, in which customer ESP information is stored

• The RepairPal.com CarMax landing page used by consumers to find a shop (a separate product I had previously designed)

• A “placemat” of sorts with an incomplete and often outdated list of sublet shops close to that particular CarMax store (but not necessarily close to the customer), taped to the associate’s desktop

• A marketing card with talking points about RepairPal shop referrals taped to the side of the associate’s computer monitor

Solution

For warranty customers

Provide a one-stop, full-service “concierge” experience for finding a repair shop and booking an appointment.

• Make a phone call when broken down or in need of repairs, and have repair shop appointment info, warranty plan information and any non-warranty estimates texted or emailed to you by the time you hang up

For CarMax service associates

Consolidate the disjointed tools currently in use into a single, standalone product for daily use. This product

• Streamlines referrals to RepairPal shops, maximizing ROI from shops enrolled in the CarMax program and increases revenue for RepairPal 

• Greatly reduces friction when handling calls from warranty customers

• “Automagically” identifies customers and pre-populates vehicle information, by using incoming call numbers and/or last part of VIN (Vehicle Identification Number)

• Allows easy shop referrals based on the location of the customer, not the CarMax store

• Quickly send shop referrals, warranty contract info and estimates to phone customers with handy text and email CTAs

The CarMax associate page was an urgent “drop everything” project for for me – the lead designer for partners products, and engineers from both teams, with design and implementation completed in just over two weeks.

For CarMax employees, the experience is purely desktop, as they are unable to access CarMax customer information and CarMax World intranet from mobile devices. However, for CarMax ESP customers, mobile email and text experiences were designed to meet the needs of customers who find themselves in a wide range of environments while in need of car repair.

Anticipated Impact

The CarMax Associate Page is expected to be the leading source of referrals to RepairPal shops, with correlating revenue, in 2019.

CarMax Corporate and CarMax store employees were really excited during the development and launch of this product.

For RepairPal, it is a scalable and hugely important new lead generation product which can be offered to other partners as well. TWG and ForeverCar have already asked for a version of this.

Process

Research

Field observation and interviews

Following the project brief, my first action was to make a visit to the service department of one of the largest CarMax stores in northern California, the Fremont store. Along with a product manager, we observed associates fielding calls from warranty customers. We interviewed the VP General Shop Manager as well as general staff, discussing how they were currently handling referrals to RepairPal shops, asking about their current sublet process, pain points and product needs. We asked about

• The sheer number of systems associates must touch during the referral process

• Issues with customer trust around referrals to a network outside of CarMax

Findings

• Once customers get shop referrals over the phone, they must write down those RepairPal shops’ contact info, then call to reserve an appointment themselves. CTAs to schedule appointments on behalf of customers and send shop details via text or email is needed for service associate use.

• There is a need for a speedy response over the phone. Associates receive calls from drivers broken down on the side of the road who are frantic and in need of assistance.

• Current shop referrals are ad hoc, including many non-RepairPal-Certified shops. We need to make it as effortless as possible for associates to refer customers to top quality Certified shops convenient to their location.

• Trust comes hand in hand with brand loyalty; Customers are loyal to CarMax and have a positive brand experience, so they are willing to trust shop referrals that come directly from CarMax. However, we need to provide conveniently located talking points within the associate page tool to ensure that service associates consistently communicate the ‘Why RepairPal’ selling points.
  
  

CarMax Service Associate Shop Referral User Journey

Needs and page types

Page types needed include 1. Shop listings (full and list view), 2. General non-location-specific page for national call center, 3. MaxCare ESP (Extended Service Plan) lookup, 4. Estimate page, 5. Print version of shop listings.

To reduce friction, display shop listings within the local area on default page load.

Each CarMax store will have a unique URL for their associate page, such that the page on default is populated with a map and listings for the area in which that store is located.

While the RepairPal.com/CarMax landing page is a useful consumer-facing tool for finding a RepairPal shop in one’s local area, CarMax associates have slightly different information needs. The Associate page must be a separate product, with additional information such as shop lead times and a contact person for each shop – information that should not be publicly available online to consumers. Additionally, information not relevant to CarMax associates can be removed, such as individual shop warranty information.

The full-service ‘concierge’ experience’ when a CarMax warranty customer calls the store service department – Enable the service associate to complete critical actions on behalf of the customer in the duration of that call, including

• Scheduling a repair appointment and sending appointment details to the customer via text or email

• Sending RepairPal shop listings in the customer’s immediate area via text or email, when a customer is not yet ready to book a repair appointment

• Looking up details of the customer’s MaxCare plan and verifying that it is active. Send plan information to the customer via text or email

• Looking up repair and maintenance estimates that may not be covered under warranty and sending details to the customer via text or email

Design

Primary page tab for service associates – shop listings

The primary function of the service associate-facing page is RepairPal Certified shop listings and referrals. Showing local shop listings on default page load means the associate will have fewer steps to complete in many cases, when fielding phone calls from MaxCare customers.

Existing landing page for consumers – find a shop or get an estimate

There is a separate consumer-facing page for MaxCare customers on the RepairPal website, which – after much online user testing – was optimized for the consumer. However, prior to this project, CarMax service associates were using this page to look up shop information for customers calling in. They have different immediate needs, and we needed a product specifically for their internal use.

The CarMax associate page contains critical information not available to consumers on the RepairPal consumer website CarMax landing page – shop lead time for appointment and a shop contact name, should the associate need to call the shop and speak directly with a manager or owner before making an appointment on behalf of the customer.

UI Behavior:

• Select specific shops on the shop information cards, which appear in the form at the right, with the option to text and/or email details to the customer.

• Uncheck shops on the shop cards or on the form, to remove that shop.

• Select ‘Full View’ or condensed ‘List View’ of shop cards

• Complete feedback loop with a success modal containing the names of sent shops immediately after emailing or texting. This clears the form at the right.

See more listings at one time in a condensed list view.

Print a list of shops generated in ZIP Code results, for the less common case of a CarMax store walk-in warranty customer. The customer can take this with her before committing to setting up an appointment with a repair shop.

Easily look up and view the status of a customer’s Extended Service Plan using either the incoming call phone number (automatically populated in form), manually entering a policy phone number provided by the customer, or using the last 8 digits of VIN (Vehicle Identification Number). This obviates the need for the service associate to switch over to the CarMax intranet to look up customer plan information.

‘Why Refer Your Customers to a RepairPal Shop’ phone talking points are shown in the page right rail. This replaces a printed card taped to the side of the service associate’s computer monitor.

1. Shop listings – mobile email

2. Shop listings – SMS

3. MaxCare info – mobile email

4. Estimate info – mobile email

Future Features

• Refine shop listings results with special request options such as ‘open on Saturdays,’ ‘shuttle service provided,’ etc.

• Chat help capability

• RepairPal Certified Shop Dashboard update – include tools to communicate Extended Service Plan information and deductible terms to customers on the day they bring their vehicle into the shop for repair