Valvoline Guidance Optimizely Digital Experience Platform New Design Replatform
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New Visual Design and CMS Revitalizes An Iconic American Brand

Valvoline’s newly redesigned Optimizely Digital Experience Platform CMS website abounds with new store locator and digital wallet functionality.

5 minute read

Who Should Read This?

This case study will be especially relevant for those interested in the following topics:

  • Automotive
  • Store Locator
  • Reputation Management
  • Omnichannel
  • Visual Design
  • Digital Wallet
  • Coupons
  • Facebook Integration
  • Optimizely Digital Experience Platform

THE CHALLENGE

Valvoline’s Instant Oil Change web presence required an overhaul that would connect all customer touchpoints (both physical and digital) into a cohesive experience. Valvoline selected Guidance to upgrade their legacy website to Optimizely Digital Experience Platform CMS and integrate business priorities like store location, online reputation management and digital coupon functionality.

THE BRAND

Founded in 1866 by the inventor of a petroleum lubricant for steam engines, Dr. John Ellis, Valvoline is one of the largest oil change service providers in the United States with over 1,500 locations across the country. Now a global leader in vehicle care, Valvoline powers the future of mobility through innovative services and products for vehicles with electric, hybrid and internal combustion powertrains. Valvoline has established itself as the world's number one supplier of battery fluids to electric vehicle manufacturers, offering tailored products to help extend vehicle range and efficiency.

Beyond Well-Oiled: Optimizely Digital Experience Platform CMS Sparks New Growth

At over 150 years old, Valvoline has seen many shifts in the evolving automotive landscape but perhaps none so great as their digital (and omnichannel) growth. As pioneers in the American automotive quilt, their digital experience had to display the same commitment to cutting-edge technology as their brand. Valvoline selected Guidance, the preeminent Optimizely Digital Experience Platform Solution Partner, not just to heighten their digital presence but as true partners to ensure ongoing iterations are at the forefront of technology.

To that end, Valvoline chose Optimizely Digital Experience Platform’s CMS for its best-in-class tools that are needed to quickly and easily create captivating experiences through interactive content. Optimizely Digital Experience Platform’s tools provide actionable insights and analytics that automatically capture visitor data to deliver a complete overview of user behavior. Omnichannel tracking is available for a holistic view of personal preferences and campaign engagement on every visitor to Valvoline’s VIOC.com website from multiple channels.

Guidance built Valvoline’s website framework on Optimizely Digital Experience Platform’s Content Cloud CMS to enable easy authoring with drag and drop functionality, content blocks and easy image upload to quickly create new pages and add new content. The new website allows editing and previewing across all devices and fully supports responsive and adaptive design. In addition, during the replatform, Guidance produced a website that carries visual design best practices and delivers an intuitive usability approach.

By building the new website on the Optimizely Digital Experience Platform framework, Valvoline reduces the risk of accruing technology debt and decreases the total cost of ownership. The website is kept updated with continuous Optimizely Digital Experience Platform security releases and regular deployments of multi-tenant services ensure the product is always the newest on the market. Furthermore, Optimizely Digital Experience Platform’s technology is flexible and allows integrations with many ecommerce solutions to strengthen the Valvoline website offering such as a full-service coupon solution, shop locator tools, ratings and reviews and social media integrations.

Optimizely Episerver Content Cloud User Interface

Valvoline chose Optimizely Digital Experience Platform’s CMS for its best-in-class tools that are needed to quickly and easily create captivating experiences through interactive content.

Data-Driven & Mobile-First Visual Design

Valvoline’s previous design was dark and confusing. Its genesis was also not one of mobile-first best practices. The century and a half old company was searching for a new visual design that was as sophisticated as their brand yet captivating for their audience. Guidance performed an analysis of Valvoline’s target audience and based the design on those results.

The new elevated, mobile-first visual design provides a more intuitive experience for customers and offers a guided experience for users. The main navigation displays the key user journeys and clearly offers the value-add services Valvoline provides to its customers. Guidance achieved a balanced visual design language with select brand colors and a proper use of white space to call attention to CTAs and other interactive information.

Valvoline Desktop Mobile Customer Experience

Valvoline's new elevated, mobile-first visual design provides a more intuitive experience for customers and offers a guided experience for users.

On-the-go Store Locator Improves Omnichannel Experience

Guidance’s deepdive research into user behavior revealed important factors that would steer the design and technology stack. One such discovery uncovered a deep dependence on mobile technology and on-the-go store locator tools. Many customers book their oil change well in advance but just as many find an opening in their schedule for a quick unscheduled visit.
Customers search for instant oil change shops using their mobile devices and having a store locator solution was an absolute business priority.

Valvoline selected Rio SEO for a flawless store location solution tightly integrated with Optimizely Digital Experience Platform CMS. The new tool puts Valvoline’s Instant Oil Change shops on the map for increased location discovery and location-specific information. More than just a location finder for brick and mortar shops, the locator enables customers to find services and even browse careers by city, zip, or ip address. The locator also offers feature and location-specific filter options.

Beyond search optimization, Rio SEO delivers a functional, custom on-page locator that integrates core assets and design for a consistent brand voice across the customer’s journey. Furthermore, for customers who use Google Maps to find oil change locations, Rio SEO ensures the Valvoline brand is seen any time a customer searches for “oil change”, with up-to-date information across all locations.

Valvoline selected Rio SEO for a flawless store location solution tightly integrated with Optimizely Digital Experience Platform CMS.

Digital Wallet Fuels Customer Loyalty

Valvoline heavily incentivizes oil change coupons on their desktop and mobile website. Coupons have helped grow their market share, increase sales volume, cultivate loyal customers, and alleviate competition. These digital coupons are available to print, email or text to customers and encourage repeat purchases as well as help to grow the database of customer information (phone and email address).

Coupons are managed directly in the Optimizely Digital Experience Platform CMS with a location-based solution used to display coupons for specific oil change locations. Customers can create digital wallets using their custom coupons and manage all their coupons from the VIOC.com website. Guidance developed custom middleware using Epsilon to pull the coupon information from Optimizely Digital Experience Platform CMS for accurate display across country-wide coupons all the way down to each shop location’s specific coupon or offering.

Valvoline Oil Change Digital Wallet Coupons

Coupons are managed directly in the Optimizely Digital Experience Platform CMS with a location-based solution used to display coupons for specific oil change locations.

Upon mobile browser detection, the new coupon functionality will automatically feature coupons for download directly to the user’s smartphone digital wallet. Digital coupons stored directly in a smartphone’s digital wallet gives customers instant access to all offers and deals in one convenient place. Customers can easily download the coupons, present the offers upon checkout for discounts and all coupons are scanned by the local service center using the barcode.

Driving Increased Revenue with Ratings and Reviews

Ratings and reviews have been proven to increase customer confidence and ultimately boost conversion rates. This is especially true for the service-driven automotive industry and products related to services such as oil changes and car maintenance. Customers want to know what other customers truly felt about the service post-purchase and relevant content along with honest reviews is invaluable to the purchase journey. Many online reputation management solutions provide insights on the website level which is helpful but doesn’t provide the competitive insights to succeed across all channels.

Guidance helped to integrate a solution that aggregates ratings and reviews from multiple platforms and channels and makes it easily accessible to the customer. Social networks and online review sites are influencing customers like never before and responding to customers and solving issues through these channels is imperative to stay ahead and inspire customer loyalty. SMG ratings has given Valvoline the flexibility to streamline their online reputation management through multiple platforms and networks including their website, Google reviews, Yelp and Facebook. Instead of painstakingly checking the ratings and reviews for each of their brand’s locations, SMG gives Valvoline high level overview of their aggregated star ratings and allows the company to syndicate through multiple networks.

Valvoline Reputation Management Ratings Review

SMG ratings has given Valvoline the flexibility to streamline their online reputation management through multiple platforms and networks including their website, Google reviews, Yelp and Facebook.

Results

Valvoline’s previous website technology was outdated and did not permit the flexibility of changes the fast-paced digital world requires for an optimal customer experience.


The newly designed website is built on Optimizely Digital Experience Platform’s robust and scalable CMS platform and includes features such as store locator, online reputation management, coupons and digital wallet functionality.

Summary

At over 150 years old, Valvoline is an iconic American brand that has seen countless iterations to its oil change and car maintenance solutions. None have been as important as their digital transformation and their commitment to serving customers at every touchpoint, both physical and digital.

 

The newly launched Valvoline instant Oil Change upgrades their legacy technology to the secure and scalable Optimizely Digital Experience Platform CMS and now enables new additions to their technology stack. Guidance integrated a new location finder, ratings and review solution and an important digital wallet functionality. Furthermore, the new website is entirely mobile-first and provides a seamless experience for customers looking to navigate the brand’s online to offline experience.

SERVICES

  • Branding
  • Strategy
  • User Experience
  • Visual Design
  • Technology
  • Mobile
  • Technical Audit
  • Replatform

TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

  • Optimizely Digital Experience Platform CMS
  • Rio SEO Store Locator
  • SMG Ratings and Reviews
  • Epsilon Middleware
  • Facebook Integration
  • Digital Coupons

Find out how top brands are breaking boundaries and exceeding sales projections with Guidance.

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