Work better! Concept and Design Study
The necessity of good UX design is already well-known in all areas. We carried out a design study with MÖBEL MARTIN to establish how much UX can impact the world of service.
In inventory management, this topic affects employees just as much as customers. On a busy day, a customer is strolling through a particular department of a large store and finds something they like. They immediately have a plethora of questions:
The interested customer confronts the next store employee they find with their questions. They follow the employee to the info point so that their questions can be answered.
They often have to walk through the whole department. The employee can only begin to answer these questions after minutes of research on the system.
Sounds familiar?
We asked ourselves: how can we improve this customer touchpoint for employees and customers alike?
To answer this question, we needed a comprehensive image of this part of the customer journey. So, we turned to MÖBEL MARTIN. This family-run furniture retail company offers a varied range of products at their eight stores in Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate as well as online - from complete room furnishing sets to the smallest decorations. MÖBEL MARTIN is known for its customer-orientation, quality and individual solutions.
MÖBEL MARTIN agreed to a collaboration. We began our joint project with an introduction to the topic with our partner on site, establishing an overview of various issues:
Our aim was to change sales-based conservations for customers and employees in equal measure. Conversations should be more spontaneous, professional and informative.
In meetings at our offices as well as at MÖBEL MARTIN sites, we gathered some initial ideas to be fleshed out at Ergosign. In a concept workshop, we used valuable feedback from the MÖBEL MARTIN team to establish the most promising considerations to be expanded upon during the course of the project.
It quickly became clear: the customer experience is improved when employees can act more flexibly and access information quickly and transparently.
This sparked the idea for an app for two mobile devices: the Zebra Touch Computer and the Tablet Zebra ET5X.
Benefit 1: Transparent inventory overview
“Do you still have this lamp?“
MÖBEL MARTIN employees can now quickly answer this question when approached. After the desired product’s barcode has been scanned using the Zebra device, the employee can provide the customer with precise information regarding which designs are available and how many units are in stock. All without having to walk one step away from the product. The customer doesn’t have to follow the employee through the store to the stationary info point. The employee can have the conversation where they are needed and even point out any relevant alternatives or expansions.
Benefit 2: Inter-store information
“Is this product in stock at the Zweibrücken store? I don’t want to buy it today.“
Again, the employee can simply glance at the app to see which MÖBEL MARTIN group stores have the product in stock and even where it can be found in the display. Furthermore, our concept also lets the user reserve the item in the relevant store. This saves the user having to look through a large, confusing list.
Benefit 3: Transparent modifications
“I’m looking for a gray lamp. It was just here last week…“
Tracking changes to a department is no longer a problem. The items can be checked in and out by scanning them in the app using the item and department barcodes. So employees always know where each item is. They can then steer customers towards the desired products without any detours. The customer feels well advised and supported.
This feature is also very helpful during regular inventory, saving unnecessary extra work.
Benefit 4: No more sticky notes
“Now, where did I write that down?“
Whether you’re redesigning a space or looking up an item in the inventory management system, employees no longer have to write down product numbers on scraps of paper to then manually enter them at the stationary info point. And alterations no longer have to be entered after the fact.
This ensures that MÖBEL MARTIN employees and the brand will always make a professional impression.
Benefit 5: Customer management
“Seeing as I’m here, could you please tell me when my order will be delivered?”
Sure! While the employee is sitting with the customer on a couch, designing their new living room, they can easily use the app to directly access the customer’s information, including order history and current status overview. This streamlines the workload of searching for customer data, so the employee has more time to spend advising customers or designing the sales floor.
Use your mouse to click through a small dummy of the app for the mobile Zebra device. You can log in a user, search for an article and open its detail page. The areas that light up in blue mark interactive areas.
As competent partners, sales and department managers constantly gave us feedback on the design and concept of our study app.
We are very happy to be implementing pilot projects of this nature and would like to thank MÖBEL MARTIN for their professional support.
