Omni Rentals has made many business changes over the years. The original business model was to act as an on-demand storage company targeting users in metro cities who are without a vehicle and in need of a storage solution for one-off items. With a … — Omni Rentals has made many business changes over the years. The original business model was to act as an on-demand storage company targeting users in metro cities who are without a vehicle and in need of a storage solution for one-off items. With a warehouse full of items collecting dust, Omni decided to tap into the sharing economy with the concept that owners could allow for their item(s) to be rented. While the rental business proved to be quite popular, the operations costs were quite extensive. As a result, Omni chose to create a rental platform where inventory was supplied by small businesses rather than individual customers. This allowed for product variability and growth, placed operational onus on partnered storefronts, and allowed for Omni to expand to new markets with ease.

With each pivot to the business model, it became more and more apparent that our tech could not keep up. Building layers of complexity on top of old tech created temporary bandaids, and we soon began fighting our tech instead of having it work as intended.

Stakeholders agreed it was time to rewrite the ops product. But - gutting and rewriting the old dashboard was not going to cut it. I saw this as the perfect opportunity to make improvements and implement features that would drive efficiency and create a better user experience both internally and externally. One example was to lessen the number of missing items from orders. This was an increasing problem that I believe was coupled with tech and user error.

Operations product included a Dashboard and Driver Application. The Dashboard is responsible for housing all customer and inventory data. It is web-responsive and contains operational modules that allow workers to complete operational tasks. The Driver Application is an iOS app used by our concierge team to track the pickup and delivery of orders.

Driver Application

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User Flow - Van Scanning

User research indicated that the traditional user flow required the concierge to perform tasks that were not captured in the application. As a result, it left room for error along with valuable data uncollected. Van Scanning was the largest value add to the Driver Application.

Error Messaging

In order to reduce the amount of missing items and packages, it was important that items progressed through the entire checkout and delivery process.

Testing where users might try and cut corners or find hacks was important in this phase. Providing clear error messaging was important. Users need to understand why an action is prohibited and correct it in order to proceed so as all items made it safely to the customer.

Integrated Maps

While this feature didn’t directly aim to solve the main issue at hand, user research revealed that the original application caused safety concerns for our drivers. Customer addresses were listed as a note. As such, concierge was then required to copy the address and paste it into the mapping app of their liking. This was a large distraction as most of the users were on the road completing multiple pickups/deliveries. It was important to implement navigations into the application in the most seamless way possible.

This also provided an opportunity to improve the user experience by sending automatic notifications to the customer when the concierge was on their way and when they had arrived.

Enhanced UI

The Driver Application requires customer participation. We require a customer signature and a photo of the customer’s ID upon the delivery of a rental order.

Customer feedback indicated that sloppy UI and slow functionality lead to a negative user experience in some cases. Customers want to trust that they are renting with a legitimate company, and unfortunately, some customers will think negatively if the UI does not reflect as such.