Identifying the need
For a salesperson at a dealership, the single most important character skill is good communication. The software behind the communication plays a major role in how effective the salespeople can be. If a text comes in and they don’t see it in a timely fashion, that potential sale could have moved on by the time they are able to text back.
Molding existing technologies
Working on the PrecisePrice application (B2B2C) on the dealer website side, we had a JavaScript plugin that was always present on the website, and different calls to action in various locations could start the application. By leveraging that technology and merging it with platforms like LinkedIn, Gmail, or Facebook, we could have all communications on the surface of the application. When I designed this, email, texting, and calling were all in separate parts of the application.
Design process
These mockups were done during afterhours time amidst the busy Desking rebuild. I considered this project highly important for the application and wanted to complete it while the ideas were still fresh. In the product office, there were discussions about transitioning some teams and initiating the email rebuild. As I mentioned earlier, effective communication is crucial in the automotive industry, so I looked to the communication giants, Google and Facebook, for inspiration. The project excelled in integrating the sales opportunity (dealer view of the client) into this workflow and determining the necessary informational components to include.
Market reception
The product department had walked through some clients during their regularly scheduled calls. There was a significant need in the market for an overarching conversation tool, especially nested and connected into a CRM. Obviously, restructuring multiple pieces of main functionality in a large enterprise application is not easy. Before I moved on to my next opportunity, we had completed the email portion, which involved a complete redesign and mostly backend development. We emulated Gmail's process by having a small window that opens in the bottom right, along with the ability to make it marginally larger and open in a new window.