Spinny helps people purchase used cars - you can browse cars online, sign up for a test drive & get the car delivered to your doorstep.
The time taken to list a new car on its platform used to be 7 days because they followed a rigorous quality check process.
Every car was physically inspected by a photographer & an inspector on a stringent 200-point quality checklist
But the process seemed to be failing…
What was the problem?
Many buyers highlighted problems with the car when they took it out for a spin, they mentioned that the details of the car did not match what they had seen on the website. A large % ended up cancelling the booking after the test drive.
The buyer experience was broken.
But, how did they solve it? 🤔
The product team at Spinny embarked on an adventure, to solve this mystery. They shadowed the inspectors & photographers in the field for one whole week.
They made some important discoveries during this adventure:
➡️ The form was not filled by the inspectors when they were in the field. They were actually filling it once they came back to the office. No one can possibly remember 800-1000 data points for the 4-5 cars they just inspected. This led to wrong information being entered & a broken experience.
➡️ The actual number of inspections every day was only 3-4 compared to the expectation of 10-12 inspections/per day. Inspectors were assigned cars across the city & they were spending a lot of time just travelling.
Oooh, interesting, but how did they really fix it?
➡️ Built a digitized form, where data points were grouped in categories - making it super easy for inspectors to enter the right information - when they were in the field.
➡️ Built geographical clusters basis proximity to the inspector's home. Each cluster was assigned to a few inspectors. This reduced travel time and ensured that 10-12 cars could be easily inspected in a day.
➡️ The inspectors were given good phones so that they could click pictures & easily use the solution. Spinny no longer needed two different people to complete the inspection.
When in doubt, go back to the customer 👌
The reason they got the product just right and created an immense impact on the business was that they took the time to deeply understand the users.
They got the product & process right down to the last detail:
➡️ Giving inspectors high-end phones that helped them take photographs & use the product.
➡️ Ensuring inspectors were assigned clusters close to their home
➡️ Grouping information the right way, making it super quick for inspectors to use the product & enter the information in the field
The secret sauce really - is that there is no secret!
Going back to the basics of spending time with users & really understanding their challenges can help you build products loved by millions.
