Impact us today
Impact Us Today accelerates sustainable renovation by enabling better processes, communications and follow-ups between contractors and homeowners. With our smartly designed software, homeowners can easily connect with a contractor, providing essential information for pre-assessment without any unnecessary hassle.
Are you thinking of improving your property's energy efficiency but struggling to find the right contractor? Or maybe you're lucky to find one but it's impossible to get a hold of them? Homeowners are often left in the dark in a renovation project, and Impact Us Today wanted to change all of this. They came to Smooth Sailing to redesign their existing platform which was no longer scaleable and secure. Through extensive user research, we determined the right problems to solve.
Through extensive interviews with homeowners, we learnt there are 2 types of people interested in a renovation. The ones that feel a need to renovate, but have no idea where to start, and the ones that know exactly what they want, even down to the specific details of insulation materials.
To provide a good experience for these 2 polar opposite types of users and bring them both in touch with a suitable contractor, we created a flow with 2 options:
Talks with homeowners taught us that not all detailed information about one's home is known at the time of filing the renovation request. That’s why we created very simple questions, over different screens, with the ability to let us know if the information is unknown. And in the background, we can automatically validate if a homeowner qualifies for a renovation type.
At the end of the question flow, we instantaneously communicate what renovation types are possible, and give more information about these renovation techniques with the average cost and impact indication for each renovation technique.
If homeowners have selected specific techniques, they will see the feasibility based on the selection they made. If no specific techniques are selected, suitable ones will be recommended to them based on the information they've provided.
Through the Impact Us Today database and platform, homeowners are immediately matched to a trustworthy contractor in their region performing the renovations the homeowner requested.
On top of that, this contractor is available and will directly contact the homeowner to schedule a visit. This means homeowners no longer need to spend hours searching on Google and making endless phone calls to find an available, suitable contractor.
In the previous Impact Us Today platform there was no direct communication to homeowners after they were matched with a contractor and all communication had to be handled by that contractor. This created frustrations with homeowners and endless support requests.
We created a status dashboard, similar to an online shopping experience, where homeowners could follow along where they are in the process. Homeowners are notified of changes in their renovation requests via email so they are aware at all times of what the latest status is and what's to come in the future.
When a homeowner is matched to a contractor, that contractor is notified and the work on their end starts. However, this shouldn’t take more time than needed. We wanted to make it as easy, smooth and fast as possible.
In interviews, contractors mentioned they need information about homeowners' houses to adequately prepare for a home visit. Therefore we made sure the information homeowners provided was always accessible in the right information block. The information will stay available even when the home visit is over, just in a collapsed format as it's no longer primary information.
Additionally, we made a clean, simple interface with a stepped approach following the natural process of the renovation project. Instead of clustering all information on one page, we have created separate tabs for each step of the process with relevant information and actions needed for that step.
Contractors are also guided through the steps, once they've achieved the desired outcome at each step, we provide visual feedback with a green checkmark and immediately move on to the next tab.
The whole CRM back-office for contractors evolves around statuses to keep track of and to know where the homeowner is in the process. However, updating those statuses manually and adding the relevant information to the platform can be tedious and cumbersome.
Impact Us Today needs this data, but also wants to save time and effort for contractors in the smallest actions and details. So we spent a lot of time brainstorming how we could simplify the experience of changing status and the information that goes with it.
Through multiple iterations, we were able to automate some status changes based on the information input. And vice versa, prompt for necessary information when there is a manual status change. This way allows flexibility in the flow while making sure we have all the information needed.
There’s plenty to optimize on this platform and this is just the beginning. We want to integrate with ERP- or CRM-systems of contractors to completely unburden them on the administration. We also want to further improve the homeowner experience by allowing them to digitally approve quotes and feedback to the contractors directly via the dashboard.
Effex
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