Opapeleo - Market study with users by BeHappy: Research, User Experience, Interviews, Surveys.

Digital Innovation Project for Opapeleo

The Customer

Opapeleo is a Consular Agency based in Washington DC with a market share of 5% that works with the Cuban community of 1.8M individuals in the US. They focus around consular services, offering a variety of passport, visa, and legalization procedures, and are expanding to also offer shipments, tours, and assistance with trip planning.

As their mission, Opapeleo strives to offer a legendary service through continuous improvement and a user-centric approach. Apart from their polished interface design, their call centers are open 7 days a week, boasting their constant availability and desire to help their clients.

The Request

Opapeleo was competing against several strong businesses, among which were the Cuban Consulate and the US Embassy in Cuba. As these companies were typically more established and government-run, Opapeleo needed to find a way to differentiate themselves from the others.

The goals of the project were to completely innovate and simplify the standard business strategy by shifting towards the digital environment. Through this, Opapeleo became the first company of its kind to test this concept and perform procedures both online and over the phone.

The Idea

While many customers waste precious time completing consular procedures, others struggle with contacting representatives, depending on the mailing system, and finding a trustworthy company with an accessible location nearby.

Opapeleo emerged as a reliable and efficient service that aided in the process of filling out information and processing payments easily while personalizing the overall experience. Its integration of cutting-edge providers has made legal paperwork and other services easily attainable in both desktop and mobile devices.

The Challenge

The common struggle that clients face when having to complete consular procedures is the complexity and inefficiency of the current services being offered. Opapeleo has resolved to tackle this issue by addressing these pain points and completely redefining the concept of their sector.

The long and tedious process to renew a passport or obtain a visa was now condensed into a few simple steps. Any doubts or questions could be directly addressed and resolved by Opapeleo’s team of customer service representatives, and customers were provided with several different options on how to complete their procedures to suit their convenience.

Our Work

Our Role

BeHappy designed and created a platform to connect the digital world with consular services. It involved a complete business model transformation to become 100% online.

Throughout this time, we followed up and collaborated regularly with our clients by hosting catch-up sessions, sending them updates, and interacting with the platform together. This ensured that our goals were aligned throughout each step of the process and improved our efficiency.

"They were able to accomplish a project that other companies failed to complete”
Ernesto Cabo - President of Opapeleo

The Process

We began by discussing the scope of the project with our stakeholders. We planned out the entire process by setting budgets, timelines, and objectives to be met. To define these elements, we spent a considerable amount of time analyzing and curating data. We then set out to properly define the problem, involving some of Opapeleo’s team leaders in qualitative interviews. User Experience research was also necessary to complete this project, as the platform we were creating was not for Opapeleo, but for the clients who would be using it.

The iterative process followed to achieve this included performing market analyses, building a product design strategy, designing low and high definition wireframes and interfaces involving Opapeleo’s users in the process, conducting KPI research and SEO planning, defining a strong and scalable tech-stack for the new products, and constantly testing our performance to create as seamless of a process as possible.

Design Thinking

Throughout the project, we have followed a Design Thinking approach to help us accomplish tasks and fulfill objectives. This technique starts with empathizing with the users to gain insights on their pain points, after which the problem is defined and ideas are brainstormed to solve it.

Through prototyping and testing, the final product is created in the most efficient way possible, solving the real needs of the users. In all aspects of our progress, we have applied an iterative process by checking and double-checking our work, many times repeating steps and improving the product as we went along.

Agile Methodology

We needed to make sure everything was coherent before continuing to the next stages. To reinforce this, we employed the Agile Methodology as a way to prioritize ongoing tasks. Each step was broken down into sub-steps to discover the root of the problem and then ranked to differentiate the top tasks from the rest.

Additionally, we kept a constant flow of communication between all members of our team. This allowed us to discuss and solve bigger issues and agree on next steps more easily. Through continuous updates and improvements, we embraced and adapted to the change that inevitably comes with a project of this scale.

The Results

Developing this digital transformation allowed Opapeleo to tremendously improve and simplify its procedures, saving time and energy for both its team and its customers. Planning a KPI strategy and analyzing all related insights made them aware of their existing strengths and shortcomings, as well as of new opportunities for growth.

Website analytics from last year:

+38.4%
Total Revenue
+259
# of Procedures
+14.7%
Total NPS

"Congratulations for all the management and support that has been excellent. I am aware that this type of development takes a lot of effort and time"

- Opapeleo Team Member

The Future

This project is just the first part of a complete digital transformation for the business. Our agreement with Opapeleo now is building a long-term relationship to include a wider range of procedures and products and expand the firm’s value proposition and client base. We will be collaborating to create online services including a blog, a shop, shipments, and traveling between the US and Cuba.

In the coming months, we will also be working in optimizing their online presence and striving for excellence and quality results. This will be paired with more research and continuous improvement on their current platform for a seamless interface.

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