A joined up experience for all customers
In 2019, with a growing business operating in ten countries, Specsavers began to plan a substantial programme of change to unify different local approaches. The goal was to bring consistency both to its internal processes and to customer engagement, with a particular objective of harmonising the customer web experience in all territories.
Then the pandemic hit, with all the countries in which the company operates locked down in varying degrees and customers reluctant or unable to visit Specsavers’ brick and mortar stores. The company’s eCommerce offering rose to the top of the agenda. High priorities for the business were improving the quality and perceived value in website releases and offering a seamless, streamlined customer experience to encourage appointment bookings and sales.
A fresh perspective on testing
The scope and scale of this challenge prompted Specsavers to search for a partner with a good cultural fit and a proactive mindset to help devise and implement its test strategy, in effect becoming an extension of the in-house team.
Specsavers’ User Acceptance Test Manager, notes, “We didn’t want ‘yes people’. We wanted a team who would challenge our assumptions from a position of unquestionable experience and knowledge of QA best practice. We’d worked with Digivante in the past and knew they would bring clarity to the project, including transparency on costs across the entire initiative.”
“We’ve achieved an unprecedented level of acceptance. We would never have been able to achieve this with internal resources alone.”
User Acceptance Test Manager, Specsavers
He adds, “At a very practical level, we needed ultra-fast reactive capability. In the event, the numbers speak for themselves: we’d been quoted 10 days by another prospective supplier, but thanks to Digivante’s large community of professional testers, 385 days of website and app testing were performed in just 8 days.”
Regression testing – a key focus
Specsavers has multiple project streams feeding into its monthly releases. Historically, each stream would need to undergo in-sprint QA and testing, only to reach the regression stage and require testing all over again. Digivante has more than halved the regression phase of 4 to 5 working days to just 2 working days. The resources and time previously consumed by in-sprint QA can now focus on optimising and adding value to the customer journey.
Test coverage has expanded in breadth and depth. For example, 92 issues were raised on one specific release; Digivante completed over 600 test cases against 76 different devices/browsers, strengthening quality assurance in a way never previously experienced in a Specsavers’ deployment.
They are clear about the added value Digivante has brought: “We have dramatically increased test coverage for the deliverables making it to production. In doing so, we’ve achieved an unprecedented level of acceptance. We would never, ever have been able to achieve this with internal resources alone. For me personally, the greatest gain in working with Digivante is being able to go back to our stakeholders with confidence, assured of the quality of the delivery and with data to back this up.”
They are looking forward to continuing the partnership with Digivante: “Crowdtesting has become an integral part of what we do and we intend to expand our coverage of community testing to support future development and release activities.”
“For me personally, the greatest gain in working with Digivante is being able to go back to our stakeholders with confidence, assured of the quality of the delivery and with data to back this up.”
User Acceptance Test Manager, Specsavers
8
385 days of website and app testing performed in just 8 days
½
Halved the regression phase from 4-5 days to 2 days
600+
Digivante completed over 600 test executions raising 92 issues on one specific release
