Increasing Consumer Satisfaction on ImmoScout24's Commercial Platform

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Consumer Satisfaction ImmoScout24

Con. sat. ImmoScout24

Overview

In early 2020, ImmoScout24, Germany's leading real estate marketplace, embarked on an ambitious project aimed at boosting consumer satisfaction on its Gewerbeflächen platform. The platform offers specialized services tailored to the unique demands of the commercial sector. In early 2020, we initiated a significant redesign of the platform’s user experience and Corporate Design, recognized with the German Brand Award 2020. Additionally, our goal was to strategically enhance user satisfaction from 53% to 58% by undertaking a significant redesign of the platform’s user experience. This initiative was aligned with modern usability standards and the latest design trends to simplify the user interface and enhance functionality, making the platform more intuitive and user-friendly. This update was critical in maintaining our market leadership and underpins our commitment to excellence in serving the commercial real estate market. These changes not only aimed to improve the user experience, but also to strengthen the platform's competitive position amidst intense market competition.

Objective

The primary goal was to increase consumer satisfaction from 53% to 58% by the end of 2020. This objective was set to reinforce ImmoScout24’s position as a leader in the market and to further satisfy the needs of its users, both desktop and mobile.

Department/Platform Information

The commercial department at ImmoScout24, which attracts approximately 700,000 monthly users, benefits greatly from the expertise of a dedicated cross-functional team. This team, comprising front-end and back-end developers, marketing experts, and sales professionals, collaborates closely to align and optimize the platform's offerings. Regular interactions between sales, research, and product management ensure that user feedback and market demands are swiftly incorporated into ongoing developments. A key strategy in our approach involves rigorous A/B testing, which allows us to measure the impact of new features and design changes accurately. This methodical testing is followed by a structured rollout process, ensuring that updates are implemented smoothly and effectively, enhancing user satisfaction and platform performance.

Objective

Department/Platform Information

Objective

Department/Platform Information

Solution and Approach

To achieve the set goals, the project focused on a user-centered design approach, utilizing methodologies like the Double Diamond and Design Thinking. Cross-functional workshops involving various agile methods, such as How Might We (HMW), brainwriting, and impact mapping, became a staple in our process, ensuring diverse inputs and innovative solutions.

Process

The enhancement process involved significant improvements to the Information Architecture (IA) to align more closely with user needs, simplification of the User Interface (UI) to reduce complexity, and making the products more appealing to our professional customers (providers).

Working closely with mobile and web applications, the project leveraged the expertise of local and remote teams spanning backend and frontend systems. Our approach was iterative, allowing for continuous feedback and adjustment, supported by agile development methods like Scrum and Kanban.

Solution and Approach

Process

Solution and Approach

Process

"First" format

New Redesign (top): Professional customers who book this product for their listings, get the placement in the standard sorting on top of the result list. Furthermore, it stands out visually and informational from the other listing types, as it did before. But we've made it much easier for the eye to scan important information. Such as the headline, the dadress the sub-listings.

"Business" format

New Redesign (top): Booking this format places your listings below the “First” but above the standard listings. Moreover, it offers some more information than the basic listings. As well as we did for the “First”, we have made the information hierarchy much simpler, to scan it quicker. Sub-listings on the old design were horizontally scrollable, which hides information and forces the user to interact, every time, to see more. With the sub-listings as a list, we've made that way easier. Also, we've got rid (with the help of A/B-Testing) of the mail-icon-button and the black “To offer” button.

"Basic" the standard listing

New Redesign (top): This is the standard listing format. On the old approach, it's been a business-strategy to make the image even smaller, so professional customers are more willing to book another listing type. This strategy, unfortunately, offers a bad UX to all consumers. Since we've increased the image size of the other two listing types, we were able to argue for a proper size even for the standard listing. Again, we've designed the whole listing much simpler.

Outcome

By the end of 2020, the efforts surpassed the initial goals with consumer satisfaction rising to 60%, a notable increase of 10%. This improvement was a direct result of the simplifications made to the platform and the closer alignment with user expectations. The project not only enhanced the user experience but also contributed to a stronger market presence.

Conclusion

This case study of ImmoScout24's initiative to improve user satisfaction on its Gewerbeflächen platform demonstrates the effectiveness of a structured, user-focused approach in digital platform enhancements. Through diligent planning, execution, and continuous iteration, the project achieved remarkable success, setting a benchmark for future endeavors in the commercial real estate digital marketplace.