Avontage, a pioneering bartering service platform, aimed to revolutionize the concept of trading services. However, the company faced several challenges in customer conversion, onboarding, and retention. I was engaged to address these issues through a comprehensive discovery process, aligning internal stakeholders, enhancing customer understanding, and redesigning their product and onboarding processes.
Discovery
During the initial discovery sessions with Avontage’s CEO and direct reports, it became apparent that there was a lack of shared understanding about the company’s identity and value proposition. Furthermore, customer perceptions of Avontage’s value proposition varied widely. Moreover, the customer needs were not integrated into the product design process, which led to misalignment between the platform’s offerings and user expectations.
Approach
To tackle these issues, I devised a multi-step approach:
- Alignment of Definitions: I facilitated workshops to establish a clear and unified understanding of Avontage’s mission, value proposition, and goals among the leadership team. This ensured that everyone within the organization conveyed a consistent message about the company’s identity.
- Customer-Centric Approach: I conducted in-depth analysis of the feedback collected from customers, identifying their pain points, expectations, and suggestions. This information was used to bridge the gap between customer perceptions and the company’s intended value proposition.
- Strategic Process Improvement: Collaboratively with the CEO, I redesigned the corporate model and various business processes to embed customer needs and feedback into Avontage’s operations. This included refining the communication strategy and internal workflows.
- Product Design and Onboarding Enhancement: Using insights from the discovery phase and customer feedback, we revamped the product design and onboarding flow to create a more seamless and engaging user experience. This involved simplifying navigation, clarifying value propositions, and providing interactive onboarding tutorials.
The Outcome
The implementation of these strategic initiatives yielded remarkable improvements for Avontage:
- Retention Increase: The company experienced a significant 45% increase in user retention. By aligning the platform’s offerings with customer expectations and consistently delivering value, users were more likely to stay engaged and continue using the service.
- Onboarding Success: Avontage’s onboarding success rate surged by an impressive 80%. The revamped onboarding process, which now aligned with customer preferences and needs, resulted in a smoother transition for new users onto the platform.
Conclusion
Through a meticulous discovery process, strategic alignment, and customer-centric design changes, Avontage transformed from a struggling bartering service platform into a thriving modernized marketplace. By bridging the gap between internal perceptions and external customer experiences, Avontage not only improved its customer conversion, onboarding, and retention rates but also solidified its position as a leader in the evolving world of service bartering.