Pala: A HubSpot CMS platform that connects users with local services
Pala is a service by Sociala that helps people find reliable local services. It brings together catering, cleaning, security, property management, and care services. Pala needed a new platform where users could easily find and connect with service providers and where small businesses could become more visible and expand their client base.
The starting point
Every successful project begins with asking the right questions, and that’s exactly what we did. We conducted a workshop that included key stakeholders from Sociala, a business architect from Roger Studio, and developers and designers from Evermade.
We got to know the people we would be working with and familiarized ourselves with their needs and expectations for the upcoming project. We sketched out a rough design of the website and examined the customer journey. We wanted to deeply understand the users and what mattered most to them.
"Evermade’s experts suggested functionalities for the user interface that we hadn’t been able to come up with ourselves. We were all united by the enthusiasm to develop a digital service that genuinely has social significance and adds value for customers."
Hanna Hauta-Aho
CEO, Sociala
Project phases
After the workshop, we created an action plan with clear cost estimates for each project phase.
We divided the project into four phases:
- Design and first iteration with the client
- Custom search and testing
- Implementation and second iteration with the client
- Launching the service and small fixes
Design
Pala did not have a distinct brand and mostly adopted the style of the Sociala website. We refreshed Pala’s fonts and colors, added simple illustrations, and created new images.
When designing the platform and its elements, we had to keep in mind three defined user personas and their needs:
Persona #1, Alina
An elderly woman looking for services to help with daily tasks as she lives alone. She values simplicity, a minimal number of actions to perform, readability, and a clear message to help her find what she is looking for.
Persona #2, Hannu
The owner of a small company providing home care services like catering, cleaning, security, or property management. He visits the site to become a Pala partner, post his services, and find new clients. He needs clear instructions on how to register as a service provider and for the steps after.
Persona #3, Maria
A social work professional always looking for the best care solutions for her clients. She visits Pala to find reliable home care service providers, gather information about them, and share it with her clients. She needs a user-friendly search feature and an option to print the pages.
Custom search function
The main feature of the Pala website is to help users find the right service provider in their location. We combined data from HubSpot CRM and other databases to show results as people type in the search bar. Each result matches what is typed and is also based on the user’s location. The search results include the category and the service provider’s name. Since it detects the user’s location, relevant results are shown even if the location field is left blank.
Implementation
The Pala website uses several HubSpot hubs. We combined those to create a powerful and easy-to-use service. The core of this system is HubSpot CMS, with data stored in HubSpot CRM. We developed a custom HubSpot CMS theme with a set of building blocks, making it easy for Pala’s website editors to create and edit pages on their own.
In the second iteration, we examined how Pala’s clients would view and use the website and improved the website experience for both service providers and users. We worked closely together to ensure that every section of the website has a purpose and is easy to access.
Launch and aftercare
Launching a new website can be hectic, especially for the client. We reserved an entire day to ensure everything worked perfectly. HubSpot CMS made the process very straightforward, so everyone felt relaxed about the launch and excited about the new site.
After the launch, we’ve continued to help Sociala shape and improve the new, improved Pala service to be able to offer easy and convenient access to care services in Finland.
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