Mobile Mechanic
“Why wait hours even days at a garage for your vehicle to be serviced when you can conveniently wait for a mechanic to come to your home and fix it while you wait.”
Back Story
I was on a road trip from Seattle Wa, to Los Angeles Ca, when my car started to overheat. I was in the middle of Oregon early Sunday morning and I was frantically looking up garage shops in the area. There were no shops open till Monday and I had to be in L.A the next day. So I searched Craigslist for any mobile mechanics that could travel to quickly change the thermostat.
It was 8 am and my hopes weren’t up when a guy named Mike answered the phone. He said to meet him at a Walmart parking lot in an hour. When I arrived there, there was already another Truck waiting for him with a tire problem. Amazingly he had finished both our cars in under 2 hours. I thought “wow I wasn’t the only person in this remote part of the U.S that was desperately looking for a mechanic on a Sunday morning.”
What is the setback?
While scrambling to find a mechanic’s shop I knew I couldn’t drive far. My car was overheating and I couldn’t drive it anymore without damaging the engine. So while searching online I searched Craigslist, the only site I could think of that had a listing for mobile services. There were simply no other alternatives, and I found myself calling up multiple outdated sketchy ads.
- No ratings on mechanics leaving potential clients with an uneasy feeling
- Can’t tell where the mechanics are located
- Not good for repeat business
- No reviews from previous customers
Bringing your vehicle to a garage is inconvenient if not possible for some. How can we make this process easier? Hire a mechanic that comes to the car negating the overhead of a garage while incentivizing quickly working.
How do you make connecting independent mechanics with customers while making the process safer with more integrity than Craigslist?
Research
From my own experience, I thought of all the difficulties I had with mechanic shops, actually having time to have them take a look or the waiting in shop lobbies just to be told my vehicle wouldn’t be done for another day. Even the process of speaking with a mechanic shop was upsetting since many of them are slow to answer their phones.
Searching for similar tools that search for Mobile Mechanics
Tools
Personas
Take away:
- What our target users all have in common is that they value their time, and would rather be doing anything taking time to drive to a mechanic’s shop and waiting in a lobby
User Journey
Take Away:
- Research Phase: Those seeking mobile mechanics would already be searching for mobile capable mechanics either from google or craigslist
- Join Phase: Users join and submit their information willingly and in return, they get access to mechanics who are close to them
- Commit Phase: When users contact the mechanic, they can conveniently wait at home while the mechanic works on their car.
- Advocate Phase: Clients can reschedule with the same mechanic and rate the mechanic and the app
Prototype