Shurgard - National websites in Europe

Challenge

After several years using the first and second generation of their national websites (already developed by LBi) and analysing extensively the customer behaviours, Shurgard Europe gave LBi the mission to create a fully new pan-European transactional website.

The challenge was actually both functional and technological:

One the one hand, Shurgard wanted to fully review the ergonomics of the website so that visitors access more easily the 'business critical' features and, ultimately, conversion rates rise up!

On the other hand, the website should be better coupled with the Shurgard back-office (Oracle) to shorten the total transaction time and increase customer statisfaction.

Solutions

To respond to the functional challenge, a consultant of the LBi Strategy & Planning Department made an ergonomic analysis based on current best practices and further insights.

This work resulted in a fully reviewed interface giving far more place to features such as the 'store locator' or the 'contact us' section. The client feed-back was very positive and we measured an increased conversion ratio.

The answer around the technological challenge was mainly to specify, develop and implement a new web service layer jointly with the Shurgard IS team. These webservices ensure a performant abstraction layer between the different national websites (hosted at LBi) and the Shurgard back-office systems.

Now Shurgard can update/retrieve far more easily business data on the website and accelerate the processing of customers requests, improving then the global business processes efficiency!

Responsibilities LBi

LBi managed the project from A to Z 'hand-to-hand' with Shurgard in an iterative and participative approach.

LBi consultants and delivery teams were responsible of making and implementing proposals in such domains as strategic & ergonomic consultancy, functional & technical analysis, creative design, development, deployment and hosting.

In particular, LBi worked closely with the Shurgard IS team to manage the specification, development and implementation of the 'fresh new' web services.

Result

www.shurgard.co.uk