Primary Research: Interviews

We held weekly meetings to gain more insights regarding the needs that we should address with the redesign and also get their approval of the design concepts that we propose. These weekly Interviews/meeting were crucial to my design colleague and I because we were brought into this redesign project 2 month after the start date and we also had part responsibility to rely the client insights to the developers.

Empathy Map

To really be able to empathize with the user, we created an empathy map that would break down, what they say, do, feel and think. By doing this, we can understand the users needs, and their pain points.

User persona

With the data and insights gathered during the weekly meetings, we created a persona that gives an idea of what kind of users are the Sales agents.

Heuristic evaluation

To better understand some of the issues addressed from the client, we had to see for ourselves how the current CPOS CRM worked. It was really important that our design also does not have a complete learning curve with the Sales agent. We had to balance designing UI that helps better organize the data that is being communicated but also consider what is still working within this current CRM.

Other agent roles

Throughout the interviewing process, we had to design for different user access levels within the new CRM. The user experience would various base on if the user is an outside sales agent, inside sales agent or a Territory Manager. For this specific case study, we will be focusing more on the outside Sale agents and Territory Manager because they make up a majority of CPOS’s employees.

Process mapping

To lay out the flow of the portal, we created a process diagram that helps layout every point of interaction. This laid out the process from the Sales agent adding the information of the potential client to finalizing a deal. We had to make sure that, although there may be some new features added within this new design, the process would still be a straight forward process for the Sales agent.

Wireframing

Creating very rough wireframes give us an idea of how we can layout key pieces of data within the portal. At this stage, knowing that there a lot of data being displayed within each window that the Sale agent interacts with, we felt that it would not be a good use of our time to have, different UI layouts for every section in the portal. Consistency with the layout of information would help in speeding up the process of the development of the CRM.

Colour and font

Once the general layout flow of the portal was mapped out, we then diverted our focus to styling the UI. The colours used in the UI would mainly be different shades of the blue that is used in CPOS's logo. As for the font, we used "Open Sans" because it was the best for reading on a digital medium and also accenting certain data being displayed.

UI exploration

Taking some of the wireframes, we implemented some of the colours to see what works well with displaying major interactions within the portal.

Signing in

In this new design, every CPOS employee will sign in through their CPOS google account. The whole portal has been developed to be google API driven. When the user signs in, it will bring them directly to their account dashboard. The dashboard contains the agent's KPI' regarding their sales, leads submitted and applications submitted. They can compare their numbers with other agents to see who made more sales during the week. The agent also can track their progress regarding each of their potential clients that they are trying to reach a deal with.

Depending on the individuals user access level or if the user is a territory, they would also have access to a teams version of the dashboard where they can track their teams sales numbers and also set monthly quotas for them.

Add new

For an agent to add a potential client/ customer into the portal, they would access the "new button." They would have 3 options to either add a new lead, opportunity or an application. The agent would choose one of these options depending on what the status of their customers interest in buy the product.

For adding a new lead, they would typically be customer where there has not been much communication regarding their interest with the product. This would usually be customers/ clients that were approached through cold calls or emails and fill out the information that is provided. Adding a new opportunity would be used when the customer/ client is interested in the product and would like to know more about it so, they would skip the leads section.

In the situation where the a client/ customer confirms from the start that they want to buy the product, the Sales agent does not need to go through the trouble of going through the Leads and opportunities stage and can fill out the Sales application in one go.

Leads tab

When a customer lead is added, they get sent to the chart in the leads tab. Depending on how the initial meeting or follow-ups with the lead goes, the agent would assign a status to the lead that would help indicate its chances to move into the opportunities stage. To perform this action, the agent would click into the lead's Business name column. If they click onto the leads, second column on the chart containing the content, it would open up a drawer on the right side that would give quick access to the lead's details.

When the Agent goes into the leads profile in the full window, they would have access to their business details and also perform the actions of changing their stage and status within the "log activities section". If they confirm that the lead has a more defined interest in buying, they can convert the lead which would transfer the clients information into the opportunities tabs.

Opportunities tab

The Opportunities tab has 2 different views to display the list of potential customers: There is the regular chart view which is the same as in leads, and then the Kanban/ pipeline view. The difference between the 2 views is that the chart view is more for displaying customer information and the Kanban/ pipeline view is more for displaying the Sales agents progress in closing a sales deal. In the opportunities tab, this is where the Agent goes in more detail of the products and services that they sell.

Depending on how the negotiation with the customer goes, the agent would have the option of indicating if this opportunity or potential sale can be closed or not. If the negotiation with the customer is successful, they confirm the status of the customer as "Won" either in the Kanban/ pipeline board or by accessing their profile detail in the chart view.

In the profile window of the customer in the opportunities tab, this is where the agent will choose the products that the customer is interested in purchasing or renting when they click on "add products". When they finishing adding the products to the customer's account, a quote would be generated in the proposal section of the profile that shows the products being ordered and also the various fee's that would be added on it.

Sales application

When the negotiation with the client is "Won" and the products are decided, the agent would then access the application tab. This section is a confirmation all the details that were filled out when add a new lead/ opportunity and adding the products. The information would auto-populate into this final application where the agent would look it over and also fill out some additional information regarding the customer. Once that is done, they can sent it off to CPOS's onboarding team for further verification of the order.

As the agent is going through the application go through the final application, they can provide notes on the side that would help with the onboarding teams verification process. When the agent submits the application order, they can view the stage and status of it. Depending on the user access level of the agent, they can also change the stage and status of the application. For the onboarding team, if they come across any issues with the application they can change the status of it and send it back to the agent.

Client list

For any customers that have purchased or rented out products/ services from CPOS in the past, they would be put into the clients tab. This section would provide all the information regarding the customer/ client's business, all the applications that have been submitted and the products/ services that are active. If they ever want to purchase or rent new products/ services, the agent can also do it here.

Mobile application

In the process of designing the web version of the sales portal, there was talks from CPOS to also build a mobile application version of the portal. This would be used more of on to go actions when the agent is negotiating with the customer/ client. Many of the features in the web portal would not be the mobile application.

Continuous updates

Going into this project, I was aware that not all features and designs would be implemented with our given timeline. Upon future interactions with CPOS, there will be continuous updates and changes to the portal even if I am no longer taking part in this project.