Service consulting for Tomate

Service Design

How might we make Tomate's online ordering process more accessible and enjoyable for new customers in order to create a positive experience?

Established by chef and founder Tania Merlos-Ruiz, Tomate Fresh Kitchen is a beloved local business and has been the neighborhood favorite on Nextdoor for multiple years. During Covid, Tomate, as a small business in the Evanston area, have experienced changes and adopted a window-pickup only experience. We set out to design feasible, viable, and desirable waiting in line experiences that build community while not requiring additional effort from staff.

MY ROLE

I conducted service safari, led stakeholder interviews, and secondary research about customer satisfaction. After synthesizing the results from service safari and interviews, I created the ecology map, our client's pain points, and design principles according to their priorities. I created the "vending machine" prototype and built the final "How to Tomate?" poster.

SCOPE

5 weeks

PARTNER

Segal Design Institute (class project)

TOOLS

Service safari, intercept interviews, analogous services, insight statements, design principles, brainstorming, insight boards

RESEARCH

We conducted a service safari to understand Tomate and their customers

We observed and immersed in the ordering process to learn about the customer journey. In order to get a holistic picture, we also documented the ecosystem and some analogous services to Tomate. Later on, we were also fortunate enough to observe the workflow in the kitchen for 20 minutes and talk to some more employees. However, due to confidential reasons, those pictures will not be shown here.

IDENTIFY

We interviewed the owner and the customer to identify the design challenge

Insight board for Tania the owner. Insights came from our 30-minute interview.

Insight board for a mom who just realized the change to online ordering only at Tomate when she got to the window. Insights came from the intercept interview.

Insight statement worksheet referenced from the IDEO field guide to identify themes and insights

PROTOTYPING

We created design requirements and created 4 prototypes from our brainstorming sessions

We had multiple rounds of brainstorming as we continue to refine our how might we statements.

Our Prototypes:
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1. Tania Fathead: an automated assistant that brings the personality of Tomate while help guide confused customers
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2. Tomate tokens vending machine: addressing the dead-end of the current online ordering only design in an unconventional way
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3. Storyboard of paper ordering with Scantron: addressing the dead-end of online ordering only
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4. Paper prototype of Tomate kiosk: addressing the dead-end of the current online ordering only design

I designed the Tomate tokens vending machine hoping to bring more joy to ordering at Tomate.

TESTING

User testing in class to iterate towards the final prototype

Considering the feasibility and time constraint, we decided to proceed with the Kiosk idea and a poster to illustrate the ordering process to reduce confusion around ordering for the customers.

OUTCOME

Considering time constraint, we proceeded focused on minimizing confusion around ordering

Poster of "How to Tomate" for first time customers

In person ordering on Kiosk

REFLECTION

Successes / Challenges

Success #1.
Tania is already implementing "waiting in line" improvements

Success #2.
‍Our short and long term solutions can work together or separately

Challenge #1.
We could not directly ask a lost customer why they disliked online ordering
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Challenge #2.
‍We could not do user testing with customers due to time constraints

REFLECTION

What we learned

Having a sense of community tends to leave customers with fond memories of a business
Meeting a little a lot works better than meeting a lot a little
Despite us being Tomate lovers, this is the first time we learned how Tomate actually functions

What would I have done differently?

More testing if given more time, pushing the limits of if/how/when/why our designs break when put to use.
Communicate more on what it might take for Tomate to implement our design (from building/launching/maintaining to the placement of the kiosk in a secure and accessible spot)

A moment of Gratitude!

Without the kindness and patience from Tania and her husband Polo, we wouldn't have the chance to have this great learning journey with Tomate. We are also thankful for the mother and child who let us interview them and provided key insights that ultimately shaped our how might we statements. Finally, we'd like to thank all of the Tomate customers who let us observe them during the process.

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