case study
carvana comms
platform
Carvana is persistently looking for ways to evolve the
business and stay ahead of the competition. I was asked
to be a member of a task force to evolve the way
Carvana communicates with its customers.
Challenge
INSPIRE SENIOR LEADERSHIP
This presentation was designed to illustrate how an artificial intelligence
driven chatbot + select digital tools could answer virtually any question a user
might have about the car buying experience. The goal was to get buy off for a
bigger AI team and get a variety of digital tools on the product roadmap. As the
Comms Platform team met periodically to ideate, I began to visualize the best way
to communicate our ideas.
PROTO PERSONA JOURNEYS
With the help of a senior designer I put together a presentation that
culminated the ideas of the team as well as pushed many of them to the next level.
We took into consideration the way AI and various comms touchpoints could help
our users throughout our digital platform and put together a presentation that
showed how we could connect a variety of digital touchpoints.
We decided the best way to showcase our ideas was to show the journeys of several
customers utilizing proto personas. Our proto personas were created mostly on
assumption but also directional knowledge from Carvana’s Analytics team.
CLAYTON’S JOURNEY
Clayton was created to illustrate a user with an increased budget and penchant for
detail. Apart from our typically budget conscious consumer, Clayton sets out to find
a vehicle that fits his current lifestyle without compromise. Below is the journey we
illustrated with Clayton. The original presentation was built in Keynote with light
animations to enhance the storytelling.
Seeks Out Support
Clayton knows he’s ready for a
luxury class vehicle that handles
well but is slightly overwhelmed
by the number of results and
seeks Support.
Notices ‘Get In Touch’
Expecting to call customer support
Clayton is pleasantly surprised by
the ‘Find Your Match’ feature shown
in the Recommended section.
Explores ‘Find Your Match’
Clayton clicks the CTA and
answers a handful of simple
questions in hopes of better
targeting vehicles that fit
his needs.
Sees Curated Results
Based on his selections, Clayton is
shown narrowed results all with a
percent match.
Views a Recommended
Vehicle
Clayton views the vehicle that is
most highly recommended.
He likes the features but is not
thrilled about the price.
Chats with Sebastian
Sebastian greets him and
Invites him to ‘Ask me anything!’
Clayton expresses his concern.
Gets a helping hand
Sebastian needs a few
seconds to think but doesn’t
leave Clayton hanging.
Sebastian responds with a similar
vehicle that is $1,500 lower.
Purchases Car, Sees
Document
Upload Dashboard
Clayton ends up purchasing the
recommended vehicle and is
prompted to upload documents in
My Carvana.
Gets Alerted
After a few days his documents
are verified... with one
exception.
Clayton is alerted that since he
has cosigned his last loan, his
partner needs to upload a
driver’s license.
RESULTS: WIN, WIN
As of today the Comms Platform team has grown from its original 3 members to
over 25. The team manages Sebastian, Carvana’s AI personality. Additionally the team
is responsible for email communication, SMS communication and site wide alert
messaging.
There are multiple products live throughout the Carvana experience that were
inspired by this presentation and the original Comms task force. This includes our in
page chat product, Car Finder–a quiz to help users locate the perfect vehicle, and
our Support Center. The Support Center boasts a series of videos narrated by our
customer advocates that was directly inspired from the Comms task force
presentation!
Carvana’s chat bot gets smarter by the day. This is the result not only of the original
vision of this team but the hard work put in by Product Managers and Engineers to
continuously build Sebastian’s knowledge base. Our customers benefit from having a
truly intelligent chat bot and the business continues to benefit from the creative
ways the bot is used to reduce customer service man hours.
Above: Carvana’s chat interface provides the flexibility to answer questions by providing actual content. Users are often given answers
that lead them into helpful experiences while providing useful tips based on a history of contextual questions.
Above: Carvana’s Car Finder product was directly inspired from this presentation to stakeholders. Users who use this product are
almost twice as likely to buy a vehicle from Carvana.
Above: Carvana’s Car Finder product was directly inspired from this presentation to stakeholders. Users who use this product are
almost twice as likely to buy a vehicle from Carvana.