Bill Plant Driving School had very poor digital infrastructure
The business was losing customers because first-time learners had to call to book their first lesson, which often put them on a waiting list.
Compounding this was a shortage of driving instructors who wanted to be part of the franchise. More independent instructors in the market meant more competition and longer waiting lists. Worse still, customer data wasn’t centralised, so Bill Plant would lose contact with learners when they were allocated an instructor, giving them limited control over the customer experience.
They required much-needed digital transformation that would not only tackle the business problems they had today but also help them leapfrog the competition in the future, setting them up to realise their vision of becoming the market leader.
BETTER INSIGHT
- As 80% of traffic was from mobile devices, they needed a mobile first site.
- Lots of people were gifted driving lessons from relatives, so they needed a voucher purchase and redemption functionality.
- Numerous systems existed across the instructor/learner experience, but none of them worked together. Integrating them would be critical.
- Instructors we spoke to wanted to be teaching, not managing bookings and rescheduling lessons. Having a platform that automated all of this would make being a Bill Plant instructor more attractive.
- Few clicks as possible and fast loading were particularly important, as learners would often compare several providers quickly.
- Scalability would be important to accommodate the ambitions of the brand.
- Where multiple franchisees existed in similar areas, we would need to find a way of filtering them in the best interest of the users first, but also fairly, so one instructor wasn’t always favoured.
BETTER IDEAS
Our solution of a Headless architecture, created from a combination of WordPress, Nuxt.js and Supabase, means the platform is scalable in the future and supports Bill Plant Driving School’s ambitions to develop further applications aimed at both instructors and pupils.
The beauty of Supabase in this framework enabled us to centralise centralise Bill Plant’s data and act as a middleman for the platform’s data streams. It allows us to handle data efficiently without worrying about managing servers. Features like real-time updates and user authentication made the development process faster and easier. Using Supabase, our application can quickly exchange data with other systems, like Microsoft Dynamics (Bill Plant’s CRM of choice).
We streamlined the fragmented systems managing the instructor and learner experience, integrating Microsoft Dynamics, Stripe, and scheduling systems. The core platform connects the booking flow with Supabase and Dynamics, using a custom Instructors’ API to provide fast, accurate instructor data by syncing it from Dynamics rather than querying directly.
To ensure relevant instructor and pupil matches, we developed a “taxi rank” system. It filters instructors by transmission type, availability and proximity, displaying results by last booking date for fairness. Franchisees set local pricing, which syncs with Dynamics and is saved for seamless checkout via Supabase and Stripe.
Automated background processes now handle payments, update records in Dynamics, trigger emails and manage subscriptions. This integration reduces admin time, minimises errors and enhances the overall experience.
As with any new website, we made a considered effort to ensure it was accessible to all users, including those with disabilities. Adding alt text for images and text alternatives for non-text content such as diagrams and ensuring sufficient colour contrast between text and backgrounds were key considerations not only during design and UX, but all the way through the build and testing process.
“Working with Ponderosa has been an absolute pleasure. Their creativity and expertise have transformed our brand and website, exceeding our expectations. We’re excited about our ongoing partnership and the future growth it promises!”
– Tom Ward, Commercial Director at Bill Plant Driving School
