Increasing customer lifetime value with new digital user experiences

We engaged with Bella & Duke with a holistic approach to developing a customer-centric digital experience. The team created an extensive design & user research process in order to capture existing customer journeys, document pain points, and identify opportunities to improve the happiness of the customer (signature moments, we called them!). The exercise resulted in a new set of user interactions and the team was able to create several new user interface (UI) components.

The new design system was set up to transform the customer experience towards pet wellness and customer intimacy. At the end of the discovery phase (Guide, in AND lingo) and moving into Build (the second of our AND phases), the proposed technical solution had not only taken into account the design requirements but also included a future view of data management, architecture, and delivery approaches, based on research into future trends for online ordering, emotional well-being, and building lifelong relationships with the customers.

After careful research and deliberation, the project team created a tech stack that's easily supported and maintained - to a high standard - by an active community:

• A component library, based on MUI Core as a foundation, and using Storybook for demonstrating individual components, as well as multiple testing tools for quality assurance.
• A Next.js application, which extends React to bring static and server-side rendering, file-based routing, and other performance benefits.

The team also used other tooling to enable fast development, such as TypeScript for type safety, Vite for fast and extensible bundling, and Framer Motion for rich transitions and animations. 

The component library and portal application were moved into the AWS Cloud to enable future growth and stable integration with the Bella & Duke API.

The final part of the partnership focused on linking the user experience to the Bella & Duke business strategy. Developing a product vision across the organisation and implementing new ways of working to support this shift in focus. We developed a business model canvas to outline the connections between the key business partners, key propositions, and the customer segments. This was subsequently linked to the Product Vision: evolve the customer portal from a transactional to an emotional experience by utilising both technology and customer feedback loops to build customer value which is beyond expression.

To support the enhanced UX and technical expertise gained by the Bella & Duke team during the Guide and Build phases, the AND Digital project team provided coaching and training sessions on scrum & agile methodologies. Equipping the project team as well as supporting the management team in the adoption of the new ways of working was an important milestone in successfully launching the enhanced experience while setting up Bella & Duke for continued success for the growth of their offerings and platforms.