HomeServe
HomeServe · Discovery, service design, front-end build · At Razor
- Asked for
- Fix inaccurate boiler surveys and poor quote conversion.
- Actually
- Customers were told which boiler they'd get, with no reasoning and no say. Surveyors carried the installation rules in their heads, and installers paid for every slip.
+50%
sales conversion, which I attribute to the choice screen I designed and built
HomeServe already knew surveys were going wrong and quotes weren't converting. I started with their senior people, then booked a boiler quote at my own home to see it from the customer's side. The answer was a guided survey that codified the install rules, and a final screen that let the customer choose.
- Discovery
- Service design
- Front end
- Client
- HomeServe
- Through
- Razor
- My role
- Discovery lead, designer, front-end developer
- Built
- Progressive web app for quoting
Starting where they were
HomeServe came to us knowing two things. Surveys were often incomplete or wrong, and too many quotes didn't turn into sales. I spent the first stretch with their senior stakeholders, working out what they believed was happening and why.
Then I did the obvious thing nobody had done. I booked a boiler quote at my house.
What I saw at home
The surveyor spent most of the visit muttering at an iPad. Then he told me which boiler I'd be getting. I had no idea why, and no idea there was a choice.
That visit didn't discover the survey problem. HomeServe already knew about that. What it showed me was the customer's side of it: the reasoning was hidden, the options were hidden, and the person being asked to pay for a new boiler was the least informed person in the room.
It also explained the survey errors. The surveyor was working the installation rules from memory: the gas pipe route and its bends, where the flue can exit and what it has to clear. Miss one and an engineer turns up on install day to a job they can't finish, with an unhappy customer watching.
The quote visit
Before
- Rules from memoryPipe routes and flue clearances, recalled on the spot
- One boiler, prescribedThe reasoning stays on the iPad
- Errors found on install dayEngineer can't complete the job
After
- Guided surveyThe app asks every question the install needs
- Rules applied as you goConstraints narrow the boilers that will fit
- Customer choosesEvery boiler that suits the house, side by side
How to present the recommendation
One boiler, better explained
Least change for the sales team. Still asks the customer to trust a decision they can't see.
The whole range
Honest, but most of it wouldn't fit the house. Choice without the constraints is just noise.
Chosen
Every boiler that suits this house
The survey has already done the filtering. The customer gets a real choice and the surveyor stops being the bottleneck.
Building it
I designed the app and built the front end myself, including that final choice screen. Being both designer and developer meant the survey's guardrails and the layout of the choice could change together, instead of being negotiated across a handover.
+50%