Partner / Dealer Experience
Understand what helps partners and dealers work with you, and where tools, processes or support make it difficult.
People & Behavior
Partner / Dealer Experience research that informs clearer decisions.
Partners and dealers interact with your organization through onboarding, information, ordering, service processes and ongoing support. We study these experiences to identify unclear steps, duplicated effort and coordination gaps, helping your team prioritize improvements grounded in the people doing the work.
What we look at
Onboarding and enablement clarity- Portal task success for common jobs
- Support escalation quality
- Motivation and friction in the partner journey
How we study it
- Partner and dealer interviews
- Portal usability testing
- Journey mapping of sales and service flows
- Channel experience recommendations
When to research
When this research helps
Use this research when partners struggle to adopt a portal, complete recurring tasks, find information or resolve an issue. It can also inform a new partner program, a dealer onboarding redesign or improvements to the way sales and service teams coordinate.
A small network may need a focused study of one workflow. A larger organization may need to compare partner types, roles or markets. We define the scope around your decisions and the relationships involved.
Research focus
What we can explore
Research can cover registration, training, product information, quoting, ordering, availability updates, returns, warranty claims and support escalation. Where relevant, we can examine how partners understand incentive information, payment status and reporting requirements.
We ask where tasks stall, which workarounds people use, what information they repeat and who they depend on for help. A portal problem may involve the interface, missing information or an underlying process; we investigate rather than assume a redesign alone will resolve it.
Our approach
How we study the experience
Interviews explore specific recent interactions and recurring difficulties. Contextual observation and task analysis show how work happens, including handovers and tasks that span several systems. Portal usability testing examines whether intended users can complete agreed tasks.
Journey mapping connects digital tools, staff interactions and support processes. Surveys or authorized feedback and operational data can add context where appropriate. We keep participant accounts, observed issues and interpretations distinct, and use safe test data for sensitive tasks where practical.
From context to opportunity
Our research process
Plan participation. Set recruitment criteria, access arrangements and safeguards for candid feedback
Gather evidence. Explore recent experiences and realistic tasks through the agreed methods
Map barriers. Identify workflow difficulties, dependencies and differences between groups
Prioritize improvements. Connect findings to recommendations for tools, information, processes or support
Agree next steps. Identify owners, further testing and relevant measures where included in scope
The output
What your team receives
Depending on scope, deliverables can include a partner journey map, annotated portal findings, workflow analysis and a prioritized opportunity assessment. Findings may address onboarding, information clarity, common task barriers and escalation routes.
Reports explain who participated, which workflows were covered and what remains uncertain. A findings workshop helps your channel, product, operations and service teams agree actions. Detailed redesign, process implementation and software development are separately scoped.
Research focus
Different roles have different experiences
A dealer owner may make commercial decisions while sales staff, administrators or service technicians use the tools every day. We agree which roles to include and distinguish their needs instead of treating an organization as one user.
Depending on the question, recruitment may include new partners, experienced users, people who rarely use the portal and partners who stopped engaging. We document coverage and gaps. Access to a complete partner network or former partners is not assumed.
Research focus
Create space for honest feedback
Partners may worry that criticism will affect a commercial relationship. Before fieldwork, we agree how the study is explained, whether account managers attend sessions and how identifiable findings will be handled. Participation should be clearly distinguished from sales discussions or performance reviews.
Removing names does not necessarily prevent recognition in a small network. We agree reporting safeguards, such as grouping findings or limiting identifiable quotations, and do not promise anonymity where the study design cannot support it. Recording and any public use require clear arrangements.
Global research
Research across markets and network types
Local language, business practices, connectivity and the support available can change how partners work with you. For multi-market research, we agree relevant participant groups, workflows and local research arrangements before recruitment.
We document differences in coverage and context rather than assume one dealer model represents every market. Shared barriers may need local responses, while apparent differences may reflect role mix or study conditions.
Research focus
Evaluate improvements responsibly
Relevant measures may include task completion, errors, assistance required, repeated support contacts and user-reported effort. We agree definitions and baselines around the workflows studied.
A research session does not fully reproduce everyday operations. Qualitative findings do not estimate prevalence across the whole network, and observed portal difficulty does not establish a cause of lower sales. We do not guarantee partner engagement, revenue or a commercial return.
Before we begin
Frequently asked questions
No. The study can cover relevant distributor, reseller, franchise, service-partner or other business-partner experiences. We tailor the research to your network and workflows.
Yes. A prototype or suitable test version can be evaluated with intended roles. We document simulated steps and any limits to the tasks that can be tested.
No. The focus is how people experience your tools, processes and support. It is not an audit of contractual performance, creditworthiness or commercial compliance.
Yes. They can provide context and support agreed recruitment arrangements. Their involvement in participant sessions is considered carefully so it does not discourage candid feedback.
Tell us about your network, relevant roles, priority workflows and what your team needs to decide. Include existing feedback or tool examples if available. We will discuss access, scope, deliverables, timing and budget.
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Let us help shape the next step
Your partner experience has a UX problem.
Let’s find and fix it.
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