Building a single housekeeping application to make the lives of both clients and personnel a lot easier.
Our partner at a glance
La Belle Maison is an Antwerp-based provider of home cleaning services. The company boasts a culturally diverse team of over 800 housekeepers from 74 different countries. Their philosophy is all about giving each employee the individual guidance and coaching they need to hone their craft. However, both clients and housekeepers lacked an intuitive way to manage their contracts and tasks respectively. So we sat down to create a new digital experience that's accessible and hassle-free for everyone.
The road to the app store
13 weeks was all it took to bring this idea from a concept stage all the way to the app stores. We started out with the client-side application, and expanded it with features for housekeepers during a first iteration. Each week counts as a sprint; a dedicated week of focus with clear deliverables and outcomes. The number of client check-ins should tell you their involvement mattered to us, a lot.
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One app, two sides
This project essentially hit two birds with one stone. On the one hand, we've made it easier for clients to manage appointments, and on the other we've provided housekeepers with a better way to view and update their schedule, as well as plan their annual leave. That's great news for the two main groups of stakeholders in the La Belle Maison ecosystem.
Automating communication streams
The core added value of this application, is the simplified workflow for all parties involved; clients, housekeepers, and consultants. Clients’ expectations can be managed better, housekeepers have a clear overview of their planning, and the consultant, who's responsible for managing the service vouchers using CheQpoint, can easily stay up to date.
Certain actions available in the app automatically trigger certain workflows, decreasing the organizational overhead by a significant amount. We used the cross-platform development tool Expo to materialize these features and created a custom layer to interface with the back end.
Introducing the teams
The initial scope of the project, building the client app, was handled by our team specialized in building web-based and native applications. Once the app went live, the features relevant to the housekeepers had been designed and developed by a separate team. Notably, the idea to build this app in first place was brought up by our partner, STRAREX. They have been supporting La Belle Maison with performance marketing, data collection, and marketing strategy.
A diverse workforce requires top-shelf accessibility
Language can definitely be a barrier that's difficult to overcome. It can be detrimental to the quality of communication and feedback. Misconceptions, confusion, incomprehension... You name it. This is why made extra efforts in making the application as accessible as possible. Besides best practices in terms of UX, we also provided translations for 10 different languages in the app.
Everyone can master their planning
Since both La Belle Maison housekeepers and clients operate the same application, it creates a seamless interaction between the two in terms of planning. For example, housekeepers no longer have to notify their clients themselves; the app does it for you and clients can immediately request a substitute.
Discover La Belle Maison
If you're living in the Antwerp area and you're looking for housekeeping services, we highly suggest you give La Belle Maison a shot. It's arguably one of the most convenient solutions around!
Download the app!
