Biometric Check-In:
Enhancing Customer Experience and Driving Dealership Efficiency
Project Type
B2B discovery engagement that improved the CX and increased customer retention by 24%.
Role and Contribution
UX Designer responsible for conducting user research, idea session, and producing artifacts depicting the solution.
Methods
User Interviews
Storyboarding
Service Blueprint
Background
As a member of NEC's Business Incubation Team, I participated in a discovery engagement with a local dealership. The goal was to demonstrate how NEC’s biometric check-in solution could enhance the customer experience while aligning with the dealership's business objectives.
The Challenge
The dealership sought to improve customer service retention by increasing sales of Prepaid Maintenance (PPM) plans.
What is a Prepaid Maintenance Plan (PPM)?
A PPM is a contract covering a predefined period of scheduled vehicle maintenance—such as oil changes and tire rotations—based on the guidelines in the vehicle's owner’s manual.
NEC’s Biometric Check-In Solution
NEC’s check-in solution allowed customers to register their facial biometrics through a web app before arriving at the dealership. Upon arrival, customers would check in at NEC’s table kiosk, where their biometrics were authenticated.
After authentication, a text notification containing the customer’s name, photo, and personalized details was sent to the assigned sales representative. This enabled the representative to identify the customer by their photo, greet them by name, and deliver a tailored experience.
This flow chart demonstrates how NEC’s facial biometric check-in solution works.
Discovery Research
Customer Interviews
Customers expressed a strong preference for fast, affordable, and professional service. However, they perceived dealership services as costly and associated them with longer wait times. As a result, many customers felt that a Prepaid Maintenance Plan (PPM) was not the right choice for them.
Customer Needs
Avoid higher dealership costs.
Minimize time spent on vehicle servicing.
Maintain their vehicle in optimal condition.
Protect the value of their purchase.
Employee Interviews
I conducted interviews with employees to better understand Prepaid Maintenance (PPM) plans and their role in the customer experience. Typically, PPM plans were purchased during the final stage of the vehicle purchase process (the F&I phase). However, depending on the OEM policy, customers could also sign up for a PPM plan after the vehicle purchase.
Benefits of PPM Plans:
Fixed Costs: Protects customers from inflationary price increases over the life of the contract.
Service Reminders: Customers receive reminders when scheduled maintenance is due.
OEM-Certified Service Technicians:
Extend the vehicle's lifespan.
Maintain the vehicle's resale value.
Provide fast service with scheduled maintenance appointments.
Problem Statement
Following employee and customer interviews, we defined our core problem:
How might we help customers perceive PPM plans as the obvious choice to meet their needs?
Ideation
Together with my business development partners and the incubation team, I brainstormed ways to leverage our existing solution to enable F&I Representatives to present compelling content about PPM plans.
The resulting idea was to equip Sales Representatives with detailed information not only about the customer but also about their vehicle. This would allow F&I Representatives to compare the cost of a PPM plan over the life of the customer’s vehicle with the potential costs of using a local repair shop, factoring in the rate of inflation.
Storyboard demonstrates how a personalized customer experience results in the sale of a PPM plan.
Bringing it all in
With the narrative defined, we needed to demonstrate how the desired customer experience could be supported by our solution. To achieve this, I developed a Service Blueprint that outlined all the key components and interactions.
Service Blueprint demonstrating how the customer experience is supported by touch-points, back-end services, and F&I sales reps.
Conclusion
Through research and supporting artifacts, I demonstrated how our biometric check-in solution could deliver a personalized customer experience that would drive PPM plan sales. This presentation gave the dealership the confidence to run a one-month pilot.
During the pilot, four PPM plans were sold as a direct result of the new customer flow, which enabled F&I Representatives to engage customers with personalized information about the benefits of the PPM plan.