Petco

How does a national pet retail company redefine the vet booking experience?

Client

Petco

Involvement

Design / Project Lead

Date

June - September 2021

Intro

In 2020, Petco embarked on a rebrand to transform from a retailer into a health and wellness company. As part of that transformation we were brought in to evaluate the digital customer experiences of Petco health offerings. Our objective was to identify, define, and validate opportunities to improve the pet health customer experience. Through our research, we identified vet discovery and booking as a key customer journey for improvement. We helped Petco develop a clear, north-star digital vision for vet service that delivered on the ambition Petco had set for the business.

My Role

I was design and project lead on this engagment. Leading a team of 4 (1 project manager, 2 designers, 1 business strategist) over the course of 3 months. I over saw and contributed to the research, design development and hand off. Main responsibilities were to ensure quality of work and interface directly with Petco stakeholders to ensure client alignment.

A disjointed current state

The current Petco Vet Service business strategy was a collection of internal initiatives combined with external vet acquisitions. Meant to quickly establish a physical presence nationally, this strategy caused the digital presence to be overlooked and customer experience to suffer.

Pet parents have a education & awareness gap

We began by mapping the pet parent’s vet booking journey through a series of interviews with Petco stakeholders and pet parents. We found that pet parents had a vague understanding of pet medical offerings and a extremely low awareness of Petco vet services. Pet parents were entering the experience at a disadvantage.

A jargon-filled experience with limited guidance

We then audited and mapped the current web flow. A key pain point discovered was the booking process was overly reliant on pet parents understanding Petco vet facility types. Petco broke down all their vet locations into two categories, however these terms were medical-heavy and the content did little to explain the facility differences. For a pet parent to successfully navigate they would need to do their own research to match a location to their needs.

A shift to a needs-first approach

By presenting facility types first, the current experience created unnessary friction. There was an opportunity to lead with medical needs first then presenting relevent vet locations. This would mimic a more natural discovery experience and would assist in navigating the nuance of Petco vet services.

Potential design directions

We designed two potential needs-first futures for the Petco vet discovery and booking. They focused on two distinct values of discovery - guidance or speed. The directions consisted of —

Digital Care Assistant

A guided and personalized discovery and booking experience with a service-first approach that builds trust.

Quick Care Selector

A intuitive and quick-access discovery and booking experience with a location-first approach to provide convenience.

Validating directions with pet parents

We ran 60 min qualitative interviews with 14 pet parents to compare the two design directions to understand general habits & preferences pertaining to vet care, and identify the aspects of design that lend to easy discovery & booking.

We asked each pet parent to book a routine care appointment for their pet with each concept then had the participant compare experiences.

Synthesis and final concept development

After synthesis we developed a final concept by bringing together aspects of both designs that resonated with the pet parents. More than usability and experience findings, we were able to document content and copy insights that we brought into the final design.

A needs-first vet discovery experience

Based on testing findings, we combined aspects of each direction to create - A needs-first discovery experience that guides pet parents to book an appointment that’s most convenient for them.

Provide a clear path to booking based on common pet needs

Use a booking widget that leads with pet parents needs in regards to vets, instead of facility type. Use simple and direct language to guide pet parents to the right appointment type.

Establish trust with guided questions

Use conversational language to set a supportive tone with the pet parent that mirrors their 1:1 conversations with their vet. Provide step-by-step guided questionnaire not only capture data, but to personalize service recommendations and builds trust in rest of the booking experience.

Build confidence through relevant search results

Empower the pet parent with all the information they need to find the option that is best for them: a map-based location view, ability to filter by services, and a comprehensive view of availability.

Outcome

Petco began implementing in early 2021 of our designs on their website. They continued to roll out improvements and new features throughout 2022, using our vision as a north star for improved discovery and booking customer experience.