How We Provide the Solutions Our Users Need
A business wouldn’t be a business without customers. The reason you make the products you make or offer the services you offer is to bring value to your customer base. Quite often, this means solving a problem your prospects face on a regular basis. If this is your ultimate goal, how could you possibly achieve this without listening to your customers?
To provide the best mobility solutions in the industry, VMI talks directly to people in the disabled community. We use customer input to drive product development and enhancements. In fact, both our Northstar E manual wheelchair van and our manufacturer-integrated power systems were developed as a result of customer feedback. But these are only two examples. Customer needs shape all of our mobility solutions – and will continue to do so.
How We Are Doing It
Research Collective, a human factors and usability consultancy, has partnered with VMI to help us better understand the needs of our customers. Research Collective’s team of user experience researchers is visiting wheelchair users in their homes and conducting structured interviews to better understand their current transportation methods and expectations in a mobility vehicle.
By talking to potential customers and gaining visibility into typical daily routines, especially related to transportation, we hope to learn which features of a mobility vehicle are of most value to wheelchair users and caregivers. This type of in-depth interview allows VMI to get firsthand accounts of what a day in the life might be like for VMI’s users. Not only can we gain insight into the lives of wheelchair users and caregivers through this research, we hope to uncover new design and functionality opportunities that will help better meet customer needs in the future.
Participants in this observational research include:
- Independent wheelchair users who drive
- Adult wheelchair users and their caregivers who handle the driving
- Parents of minors/adolescents in wheelchairs
For the purposes of this study, we are speaking with individuals who do not currently own a conversion van, but who have indicated that they are in the market to purchase a wheelchair-accessible vehicle in the coming year.
At VMI, we are always looking to innovate so we can provide the best possible solutions for our customers. We know that is best achieved through gaining an understanding of the challenges and needs of the disabled community. As we strive to create the most useful and intuitive mobility solutions on the market, listening to our customers will continue to be a large part of our efforts.
If you would like to participate in future feedback/focus group sessions, send an email to info@vantagemobility.com. Or, please share your feedback here.
