Uniting Colmar with their customers
With a great deal of returning customers, Colmar was looking for a loyalty application to be able to reward their clientele. Achilles guided Colmar through the complete creation of their loyalty platform.
Challenge
Uniting Colmar with their customers
Colmar wants to serve good food in a place where customers feel at home and choose to come back to. It is important to get to know your customers to create such an environment. Therefore Colmar wanted on the one hand to retain more of their guests, and on the other gain insight in their behavior. On top of that Colmar was looking for a way to reward their returning clientele and enhance the communication between them.
Solution
A user friendly loyalty application
To achieve customer insight and customer loyalty, the team agreed upon a smart saving system for the application. Customers start saving from their first scan, by presenting either the app itself or the physical card. And the sooner they come back, the more they can save. It’s possible to use the saved up credit any time the customer wants, in all of the restaurants. Colmar gains information and grows customer retention, and the customer can save money: a win-win situation.
From exploring the business of Colmar, to analyzing their customer needs, to following up the development of the application. Achilles Design applied their strategy, UX/UI & branding skills to merge the Colmar brand with a strong digital platform and was the driving force behind this project from A to Z.
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In depth
Case study: Bringing Appti to life
For Colmar, Achilles Design took the lead throughout the whole design process. Firstly they defined an efficient UX strategy, validating this through workshops and user testing. Next they focused on UX Design, testing different prototypes until agreeing upon the perfect flow. After that the team worked on UI design. Finally Achilles supervised the development by our software partner Cubitec and also delivered the support.
Strategy
A strategy for succes
First things first: Achilles started with laying out a sound strategy. During a series of workshops, they guided the Colmar team in defining the strategy for this new service. Our designers helped them in determining a clear goal and purpose, and to match the business requirements with customer needs. This process led to laying out the blueprint of the loyalty program’s mechanism. Also, the requirements for the minimum viable product (MVP) were defined.
UX design
Setting the user story straight
With the MVP scope defined, it was time to transform this into user stories. This is a fundamental step in the designing process. Different user flows are conceived. Positive actions are taken into account, but also the unhappy flows, when a user encounters a certain problem. Especially these ‘edge’ cases should be drawn out properly to prevent gridlock. These flows are set up for distinctive users, each with their own goals leading to a specific outcome.
UX Design
Every feature that is added, has to end up in the right place. Therefore prototyping is an important part of the process. During the design of these prototypes Achilles uses a minimal design which can be adjusted quickly, when given feedback. The design is basic and uniform, so the user can focus on functionality, and the look of the application is not perceived as the final design.
UX Design
The evaluation of these prototypes happened during a testing period in 2 different Colmar restaurants. Over twenty people were questioned about their experience. The panel consisted of a diverse group: from digital natives to elderly people. To confirm assumptions, forms were composed and the data was used to correct ‘hiccups’ in the process.
UI Design
UI Design: a flowing architecture
Besides being functional, a product also has to have the right look. For Colmar, Achilles embraced a ‘digital first’ branding approach. Colmar has a recognizable, warm design, which Achilles wanted to adapt into the new Appti brand. They helped in creating this new brand extension from brand name to final visual concept. By adopting elements of the Colmar brand identity as a basis, it was made sure that the new platform fitted perfectly with the existing Colmar brand.
UI Design
Every screen that is part of the application is extensively tested. The ‘happy flow’ screens and also the screens that are shown when something goes wrong: multiple possibilities are taken into account. These flows are set up by drawing out a map of expectation patterns and testing these assumptions. A final touch to the user flows is the use of microcopy, or specific interaction copywriting, to make sure every part of a sentence is unambiguous. This attention to detail creates a frictionless user flow.
UI Design
Apart from applying effortless movement throughout the application, Achilles also pays attention in making a product scalable. This scalability is established by consistent documentation and the creation of a design system. This way components can easily be re-used and expanded when needed.
Development
A well-oiled platform
Finally Achilles put together all these design elements into the creation of the application. The development of the application was coordinated by Achilles and executed by their software partner Cubitec. The platform is built as a responsive web application, to enable perfect usage on both desktop and mobile devices. The Achilles team ensured that the designs were correctly implemented into the platform, to establish a smooth user experience. Also after Appti went ‘live’, they were responsible for the follow-up of the application.
The result
The result of this project is an established loyalty application, with already 50.000 users in Belgium and France and new customers applying every week.
Are you ready to connect with your customers?