Building a door in that wall

How we cashed in on an (overlooked) opportunity to onboard users.

At Shipwaves, our goal is to make it easy for manufacturers, shippers & BCOs to participate in global trade. Simplifying the experience means that we design a way for our customers to reduce time, money, physical or mental effort spent in shipping goods internationally.

The first steps of a journey are crucial in the grand scheme of things— Photo by Etienne Boulanger on Unsplash

When users arrive on our website, there are a couple of entry points to serve their need:

1. Request a Quote — Shippers submit a quote request via a form on our website. In response, within the next 24 hours, our support team emails a quote based on the services requested.
2. Sign up — Shippers create an account by submitting their name, contact info & company name. Once logged in, users can look up rates instantly, request all-in quotes, track and manage shipments.

Roughly, 90% of our users took the path of requesting for a quote; 10% created an account. This was only demonstrative of the fact that a quote request form was far more valuable/satisfying than a sign up process that didn’t entirely indicate if a new user’s immediate need would be met.

When users submitted a quote request, an account was created in the background but we didn’t do a good job at educating them about it. A feedback message followed stating that our team would get in touch. Often users left at this point.

Quote-request flow originally | Quote request form (left), Success on form submission (right)

For these users, logging in to manage enquiries and quotes wasn’t straightforward as they hadn’t set up password. The only way for them to log in was the indirect ‘forgot password’ route.

As an immediate quick fix we sent a ‘setup password’ link in every email communication (quote, order confirmation, etc).

However, this either went unnoticed or the timing was bad (low motivation and no compelling trigger). We saw an increase in login by 8% and that wasn’t satisfying—the flow could be better.

Once users logged in, they navigated to all tabs in the dashboard, possibly in an attempt to familiarize. The web app however was only a functioning skeleton that lacked compelling content to educate users. It felt lifeless.

Zero state originally | Blank shipments tab inside the dashboard

This situation presented an opportunity to design an effective way for users to be introduced into their dashboard & then get acquainted with it.

I decided to place a trigger right when users got done submitting their quote request. At this point I wanted a frictionless way to port our users into their dashboard.

We chose to present users with a way to set up password to access their dashboard.

Redesigned quote-request flow | Quote request form (left), to Success + sign in option (middle), to First time dashboard view (right)

This worked.

Almost 97% of users that requested a quote from the website, chose to sign in to their dashboard (in spite of the additional step of setting up password). Since time & effort was already invested in requesting a quote, this relatively seemed like a small step. We also had a mechanism to identify existing customers who were either logged in or not and a way for them to enter their dashboard either directly or by typing their password.

I redesigned the zero states of all sections on the dashboard to guide users around and educate them about the possibilities.

Redesigned zero state | Empty shipments page with examples of what’s possible

With this change, people spent an average time of 3.8 minutes inside the dashboard (compare this with the average of less than a minute earlier). This also seemed to have a latent effect on how much a user returned to the dashboard. For customers that don’t have any shipments yet, the hook is our instant freight rate estimator. And customers that ship with us, return to manage different aspects of their shipments — track shipments, check rates to plan ahead, send quote requests, and keep a check on invoices & payments.
(We’re a high-touch business and ultimately the entire encompassing experience defines if a user comes back for more).

Design lessons

1. User disappointment & failed business objectives are often tied to each other. It reflects an opportunity to rethink the experience.
2. Guide users so they’re not left feeling deserted, confused or disappointed. Build that door and then lead them in by gradually engaging them.
3. Use zero states as an opportunity to set customer expectations. Show them how the system looks when there’s data. This is especially important in enterprise softwares which often ignore contextually educating customers through the app and rely on on-site training sessions alone.