Updated Dashboard
Entrata - ResidentVerify Dashboard
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Role
Product Designer
Team
Heather Sharp (UX), Britton Rowe (PM),
Chetan Gadgilwar (EM)
The Problem
One of the most important things landlords can do to prevent fraud and loss when renting is by running background checks on renters. Entrata provides a service that allows properties to run these checks, and occasionally, the criminal background check can get stalled due to court record availability. This happens with roughly 3% of all screenings, and results can take 3 to 7 business days (instead of the regular 2 hours).
Entrata customers had no way of knowing when a screening would take longer than expected, and simply had to wait to get the results. They would often call customer support to figure out why a result was not being returned.
Objective
My objective was to design a way for users to be able to know when a screening gets stalled and get an estimate of when the result will be returned.
Research
This problem was discovered during an annual UX review, where I reviewed and categorized customer support tickets, Pendo and Fullstory data, and reviewed the user-friendliness of the product. In that research, I realized that 60% of all customer support tickets were for updates on stalled screenings.
In my user interviews, I discovered that users need the following information:
Differentiate which screenings are stalled vs. not
Explain why the screening is stalled
Give an estimate of when the screening will be completed
Design Process
The solution to this problem turned out to be quite simple. I created a table that included all of the information that I learned users needed about stalled screenings. I then had several conversations with my dev team and PM to learn about the technical feasibility of the design. It took several conversations to get the whole team on board, but everyone was swayed when they learned we could drastically reduce customer support tickets with this simple table.
This design was tested in 10+ user tests, and our customers were thrilled at the concept, to say the least.
Final Product
Results
We were able to reduce stalled screening support tickets by 33%, which we considered a success. However, adoption was not as high as we’d hoped because the dashboard had to be hidden in a separate tab.
Takeaways
Sometimes simple solutions can have a powerful impact.
Translating user needs to business terms (i.e. how it affects the bottom line) significantly helps with stakeholder buy-in.