Uhaul Redesign
was supposed to pick up my Uhaul truck at 9am and ended up leaving at 10am. And this was actually supposed to take me a lot less than that since I even chose "mobile" pickup to get out of there faster.
Although the mobile pickup worked relatively well, there are still super big flaws with the user experience that created this 1h delay and could've easily been fixed with better UX either through their website or even in-store.
So there I was thinking of UX improvements while I was waiting in line.
So the reason why I actually had to go in-line was that while I was getting my account verified (this is what you need to do when you choose mobile pickup), in one of the steps, it actually reminded me that I may want to pick-up some plastic bags for my mattresses.
What's dumb was that it asked me WHILE I WAS DOING THE PICKUP. Meaning that if I forgot to buy it, then I had to go in-store and actually buy it.
The better way to do this was to ask me while I was actually checking out online. That way, they would be able to add it in the truck I was picking up. That way I would be able to just go ahead and leave.
If that wasn't possible, the other alternative would be to offer a self-checkout. Usually, there is only 1 or maximum 2 employees at the Uhaul's I've been too. But the thing is, not every customer that comes is equal. Some might be coming and have actually no idea what they want and take actually 30 min to finally get the truck that they want (this is what happened to me today), some clients chose in-person pick-up so they would be waiting in-line, but some people know exactly what they need to buy and just need to pay and go (yup, that's me). It doesn't make sense that I HAVE to wait all this time just to pay for something, where as if there were a self-check out, I would be out and about already.
That would not only create a better customer experience, it would actually make sure that people waiting in line are actually people that need service from the employees.