Redefining Customer Onboarding onto Foaps
Last Updated on Feb 25, 2025
About Foaps
Foaps is a restaurant order management system that centralises online orders, allowing restaurants to manage orders from multiple delivery partners (Eg: Uber Eats and Swiggy) on one dashboard. It also enables restaurants to update their menu across all platforms from a single point and provides data driven performance insights.
Overview
In 2022, Foaps decided to expand its offering by integrating WhatsApp as new channel. The goal was to provide restaurants with an alternative to third-party delivery platforms, allowing them to handle orders directly, eliminating high commissions. However, integrating WhatsApp posed a significant challenge as it breaks existing user flows. During this process, it became clear that a more adaptable, global flow was needed. This was not only to support WhatsApp, but also to simplify future channel integrations, making the process more adaptable and scalable. Additionally, this also presented an opportunity to address a longstanding issue: empowering restaurants to onboard themselves, reducing the dependency on customer support and the onboarding team.
My Role
As a UX Designer, I led the redesign of the onboarding experience for restaurants onto Foaps. My primary responsibility was to integrate WhatsApp as a new ordering channel, ensuring a seamless user experience while adhering to Meta’s API requirements. I was involved in all phases of the project, from gathering requirements to designing high-fidelity prototypes for Meta approval and the Beta release. I collaborated closely with the onboarding, sales, and development teams to ensure the solution was scalable and future-proof.
Team
Design Manager x1
UX Designer x1
Operations Manager x1
Sales Assistant x1
Customer Support Ast. x1
Duration
3 Months (June - Aug 2023)
Skills
Product Design
Prototyping
Beta Testing
Problem
Foaps faced a major roadblock during the integration of WhatsApp:
Disruption of existing user flows: Introducing WhatsApp to Foaps risked breaking the current user experience for integrating new channels, as the WhatsApp API had a unique set of requirements compared to other existing channels.
During research, we discovered another problem:
Increasing dependency on customer support: As the customer base grew, there was a noticeable increase in reliance on customer support, leading to bottlenecks. This was especially concerning given Foaps pushing to scale to more restaurants without increasing customer support overhead.
Solution
To address the above problems, we implemented two key solutions:
Universal channel integration flow: I led the design of a new channel integration flow that could accommodate any new channels, regardless of their API requirements, with minimal disruption. This adaptable flow ensures that future integrations can be implemented seamlessly without affecting the current user experience.
New restaurant onboarding flow: Our team developed an onboarding experience that empowers restaurants to independently set up their accounts, reducing reliance on customer support. I contributed by creating clear, step-by-step instructions and incorporating contextual help within the platform to guide users through the process.
Impact
Received positive early feedback from Meta India for integrating WhatsApp as a new channel.
The impact of other changes is currently being tracked, with the following KPIs:
Reduction in customer support requests related to onboarding.
Faster onboarding times for new restaurants.
Design Process
The research began by diving straight into the Meta’s, WhatsApp API documentation. Simply by reading the API requirements it became clear that the integration would break a lot of the current user flows. I mapped this requirements to user flows to pinpoint exactly were does the user flow breaks. Later, I worked closely with developers to explore the implications of the integration.
Current user flows
User flows after mapping WhatsApp API requirements
User Journey Map - Onboarding
