Fellow Barber
A barber & customer pairing service designed for fellow barber, a high-end franchised barbershop in the USA to retain new customers and improve their customer experience.
TEAM
Advisors - Brian Ballan (Fellow Barber), Marshall Sitten
Team - Jinpei Wei, Frank Gong, Hyelim Lim, Shuchen Wang
CONTRIBUTION
User Research, Research Analysis, IA, Prototyping
TIMELINE
Oct - Dec 2019
ROLE
Lead Product Designer User Researcher
01 - Problem Context
Business Goal: Inconvenient online booking service & failure to utilize customer data
Customers needs: Negative feedback on Google & Yelp reviews
Fellow Barber’s customers should go through more than five steps to book an appointment online. This process is inconvenient for customers, and the customers still send text messages or call in for a reservation. Other competitors in the market often provide users with a better booking experience.
Moreover, even though they collect customer feedback, they do not fully leverage them to improve the quality of service or to run effective customer loyalty programs.
From our observation in barbershop, we found that customers might feel uncomfortable to give negative feedback nearby barbers. Many critical reviews on Yelp and Google express their dissatisfaction with individual barbers; for example, the barber is not good at the hairstyle that they want or misinterprets the wants of the client, which leads to a bad haircut.
02 - Research
Salient Attribute
Highly-trained barbers
Because Fellow Barber has about one hundred barbers, customers can choose the barber. They manage their barbers by dividing them into three levels: Junior, fellow, and senior barbers. By grading them, they guarantee their expertise thought these three levels.
Competitor Analysis
BUSINESS GOALS
➊ Offer more customized service to customers
➋ Gain customers’ feedback effectively
➌ Retain new customers
03 - User Research
Stakeholder interviews
First-hand customer experience
One of my team members experienced the service in Fellow Barbers’ West Villages’ shop. By observing the service, my team found the major pain point: Ineffective communication between a barber and a customer.
In the beginning of the service, the barber asked him several questions about what kind of hairstyles he wants. However, he did not have a specific idea. Then, the barber encouraged him to search for a target picture online, instead of suggesting a hairstyle for him. He felt embarrassed to browse the internet and also unsure that he can find the right picture.
Spatial Journey Map
User Journey Map
Service Blue print
04 - Co-design
Problem identification
Based on the research, my team segregated pain points, insights, and opportunities. After creating a customer journey map and service blue print, we grouped each idea and categorized them.
Co-design Workshop
My team carried out a co-design session with the Marketing Director, the head of product , Managerial head and one of team members who experienced the service(portraying the role of a customer). After the meeting and Co-design session, my team and stakeholders decided to focus on solving three problems below.
CORE OPPORTUNITIES
➊ It is hard for Customers to choose their barber with limited information.
➋ It is hard for barbers to recommend hairstyle to customers without visual references
➌ Hard to get useful feedback for barbers.
05 - Design & Prototyping
Three innovations in Information Architecture
Throughout the user testing, my team figured out that customers feel confused about Fellow Barber’s existing site.
Wireframing
Initial design
User testing
KEY FINDINGS
1. Location is essential and most relevant
2. Users prefer to book barber based on time and availability.
3. Hairstyle categorization would guide them through the booking process, but it does not need to be a start point of navigation.
4. It requires to populate barbers' availability in the calendar.
Iteration 2 - Prototype
06 - Future Scope
Risk Analysis
Sustainability analysis
This service design proposal is consistent with the future trend of barbershop market. This project will help Fellow Barber offering customers a better quality and more customized service by focusing on how to gain a better understanding of customers’ preferences, especially for first time customers.
- US Barbershop Market Context: Man’s barbershop market grows fast and estimated to reach $26B by 2020.
- Hairstyle becomes more and more important to people.
- Offering a new experience for customers is a key for barbershops.
