Scan-Xpress
Scan-Xpress is a metrology and quality inspection equipment distributor and service provider located in Melbourne, Australia. From April 2021 to August 2022, I was hired to help elevate their digital business approach. The objectives were to increase the amount of leads generated by our digital channels and contribute to sales closures.
Overview
Project Brief
Scan-Xpress is a small private engineering firm focused on industrial metrology and 3D scanning. The company was looking to pivot from primarily being a service provider to an equipment sales focused company. I was hired to help acheive this pivot during the height of COVID.
The design approach
This project was my first doing digital design and what ultimately fueled me to study UX/UI design. I was improvising and learning as I went while drawing from my past experiences. As you will see from the case study below, I utilized most aspects of the design thinking process intuitively as I was trying to solve the business problem at hand.
But what is Metrology?
Metrology is the science of measures or of measurement (source). In manufacturing and engineering, metrology equipment is used to precisely measure components to ensure they are alighed with design and quality standards. Metrology tools can range from manual tools such as rulers, calipers, and gauges to advanced, automated machines such as coordinate measurement, X-Ray or high power optical sensors.
Tools used
Initial state
Branding
The Scan-Xpress brand was already developed when I started in the role, although no clear design guide existed. I did my best to stay consistent to the existing image while making changes that would elevate business results.
Website
The website, designed and managed on Wordpress, was performing extremely poorly. It was virtually not attracting any leads, difficult to navigate & read, sported an extremely slow load time, and a high bounce rate.
Technology perception challenge
Scan-Xpress’ main value proposition is centered around the use of optical metrology equipment. Although optical technology is one of the most efficient methods for measuring and analysing manufactured components, it was not widely accepted in Australia where engineers preferred to use manual tools or contact sensors.
GOM Scan 1 optical metrology system in action at Scan-Xpress offices.
ZEISS contact measurement sensor in action (Source: ZEISS Industrial Metrology)
Social media
Scan-Xpress had active Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube channels with the LinkedIn platform having the most followers and reach. Posting across these channels was performed ad hoc, without a consistency or strategic intent, and no growth strategies were actively employed.
Empathise
Observation & interviews
In order to understand our customers’ needs and pain points, I observed a number of sales calls. I also connected with potential customers via LinkedIn and started having conversations. Finally, I interviewed a dozen past customers. Based on these conversations, I was able to synthesise the following key findings to help defined the problems space.
Survey
In order to validate the key finding above and further understand the market, I conducted an online survey using Google Forms.The survey was answered by 34 responded and provided great insight into our target user profiles.
Audience profile
95% engineering professionals
82% utilise LinkedIn for business communications
they are spread across a large number of industries including automotive, aerospace, medical device, defence, mining and rail
Business profile
Only 40% of companies manufacture in bulk locally
80% utilise manual tools for quality inspection
80% experience bottlenecks in engineering and manufacturing
Define
Design Thinking workshops
In order to ground my ideation and solution development, I organized multiple designing thinking workshops involving the whole team and select partners. We performed in-depth analyses of our business, the market and our target customers.
Sales prospect journey map
We also created the journey map below depicting the ideal sales customer user journey. This helped us determine areas of opportunity for touch points and digital assets enabling positive outcomes in our sales process. It also helped our team understand the sales experience from the customer’s perspective allowing them to better tailor their approach.
Persona Development
Based on our workshop results, customer interviews and survey; we developed the following three principal customer personas which would be used to guide our digital design and marketing/sales strategic decisions.
How Might We…
Create relatable content and improve Scan-Xpress’ customer experience to help manufacturing industry professionals understand our optical metrology product portfolio, the technology’s benefits, and ROI.
Ideation
International networking
In order to inform my design solution, I researched international companies with similar objectives that I could draw from as sources of inspiration. I developed working relationships with the marketing teams of Capture 3D and Hands On Metrology, two companies operating in the quality inspection and metrology space who were having a great deal of success in their respective markets.
Thanks to the help of both of these teams, I was able to use their knowledge and experience to replicate their successes while adjusting for the needs of the local market.
Competitor inspiration
Based on my market research, I identified two key competitors in the Australian market that were our biggest threats, but also had a well crafted and mature digital brand. I drew from their examples when redesigning the Scan-Xpress website and creating our digital marketing strategy.
Solution
Website redesign
In redesigning the home page and individual product marketing pages, I kept our personas in mind and tried to address their potential pain points while making the content pertinent and relatable. I also made sure to focus on Scan-Xpress’ business goals: to generate more sales leads, and provide a platform that helps convince existing sales prospects of the benefits of our technology and the trustworthiness of our brand. I designed directly in Wordpress which allowed me to quickly visualise the impact of my changes on our users.
Application stories
In order to build trust in our brand and technology, I began to create a series of video-stories where a specific tech applications or success stories was showcased. Since we had limited budget, I would write the script, film and edit these assets myself. To maximise the reach of these stories, I would push the content across all our digital channels.
Photography
I created in-house photo assets which I would use throughout our digital communications. This further helped build a recognizable and unique brand identity.
LinkedIn growth
Given our target audience’s preference for using LinkedIn, I focused most of my social media marketing efforts on this channel.
I also used LinkedIn as a business development tool. I connected and started conversations with local engineers and manufacturing professionals. Although only a few would become leads, this helped grow our LinkedIn audience.
Online demos & webinars
Since we could no longer perform on-site visits and demonstrations, I created a demo space within our company workshop which would allow us to host online demonstrations and webinars on a regular basis. I helped coach the team through their scripts and organized 4 successful webinar campaigns, which led to sales leads and even closures.
Blog posts
To help diversify the website traffic sources and improve our SEO I converted all of the application story videos into blog posts. These would be back-linked into our monthly newsletter, social media posts and other communications. It also provided an opportunity to directly link our product pages, encouraging users to navigate to our main site.
Consumables strategy
In 2020, Scan-Xpress had added a new product to their portfolio: AESUB 3D scanning spray. This was a fast moving, consumable type product which we could sell to any user of 3D scanning or optical metrology technology. I helped design the business and marketing strategy for this product as well as the online order experience.
Results
Digital channel growth
20% more traffic across digital channels
15% decrease in website bounce rate
Solution Sales growth
Increase in number and quality of leads
First ATOS automated metrology sale in Australia
150% sales revenue increase
Consumable sales growth
200% sales revenue increase
Conclusion
Lesson 1: no “i” in team
The collaborative efforts from the Scan-Xpress team is really what led to our success. Without buy-in and follow through from sales, customer service and technical leads, any marketing or user experience strategy I had attempted to put in place would have fallen short of its objectives.
Lesson 2: prototyping in the real world
Working using an agile approach and putting out live prototypes in the real world really helped me quickly iterate and test out solutions. I found it was the best way to validate assumptions and determine what resonated with our target customers.
Next steps
Here are some of my recommandations for next steps that I imparted for the Scan-Xpress team prior to my departure:
Perform further user testing on the website
Implement HotJar to analyze user behaviour in detail
Add online payment functionalities for fast moving products
Create a digital product selector to facilitate navigation
Special thanks
I wanted to extend special thanks to the whole Scan-Xpress team and management for providing me with this great opportunity. This role helped me develop valuable web design and UX skills, and I am extremely grateful for the trust and support I got from the team.
