Ford Delivery Day Tool
Across the United States, no matter where you're located, your background, or your beliefs, we can all agree on one thing; buying a car sucks. You're in the dealership for hours, test driving, negotiating, reading reddit blogs to find out if you're getting a good deal. Ford understands this is a big financial decision and we want our customers to feel confident in their purchase while making the process a little easier. I came into the DDT space after early concept prototyping to take in dealership research and enhance our delivery process.
Challenge
In addition to a lengthy process of car purchasing, new car owners are often left without fully understanding their new vehicle's capabilities and miss out on key features that keep the car running smoothly. We identified a need for a platform that would ensure all customers understood key parts of their new vehicle's while cutting time on setting their vehicles up. We started with our EV owners and expanded out to all Ford vehicles.
User Research
With a new EV technology, the average car buying waiting 7-10 years to purchase a new vehicle, and new vehicle owners often being older, we knew we needed a platform that would be straightforward and versatile. Dealers are our main user, so we also needed to understand their needs of being flexible and adaptable.
Ford Customer
Customers are often fatigued by the end of the car buying process. They need key highlights only as well as assitance and demonstrations on new features they may not know how to use. Their most important question being "how do I connect my Bluetooth?"
Ford Dealer
Dealers range from new to the auto industry to being in the field for 30+ years. We needed a tool that would service our newest employees as well as be quick and easy for our more seasoned folks to run through. With new EV's and model updates being released, having a tool with core information at first mile is cruicial.
Mobile First
We know our dealers don't sit still. They are running around, phone or tablet in hand, walking the customer trough their new purchase in the passengers seat. We needed a mobile first approach to be adaptable for the hustle of our dealers and create a better learning environment for our customers.
Analysis
Dealers need a tool that is simple and easy to pick up and use at the first try. They need to integrate with their dealer inventory, ability to scan a VIN for a spot buy, have an easy system for a customer to activate their modem, and assist in any learnings for their customer or activate any additional trials or features they may desire.
User Journey
The dealer needs to be able to add a VIN to DDT to deliver the vehicle to the customer. This involves DDT also communicating with the customer's cell phone and their Ford App so the customer can activate their vehicle's modem.
Product Screens
As we continued to build DDT, we were making trips to different dealerships across the country gathering real time feedback on how to improve DDT. We understood simplicity is better, mobile is optimal, and device communication improved their process. In addition, a new Ford Design System was released which helped to bring DDT into the 21st century.
Original Landing Page
Original Delivery Checklist
Original BlueCruise Map
Updated Landing Page
Updated Delivery Checklist
Updated BlueCruise Map
Enhance and Expand
As we started rolling out our MVP experience to select dealers, we we're gearing up to expand to all Lincoln dealerships in the United States. With a more luxury line of vehicles, we started working alongside our Lincoln dealers to ensure the customer had a catered and efficient experience.
Outcomes
In our frist three months of launch DDT delivered over 200k vehicles using DDT, 77% of our retail sales.
2,869
Dealerships
18%
Lift in modem activation
15%
Lift in setting preferred dealer