What’s more Mobile than AAA?

‘What’s more mobile than the American Automobile Association’, I found myself thinking as I was stranded on the side of the road last night. Evidently, the unique benefits to mobile haven’t yet come to AAA Colorado. However, I had some time to consider it for them:

Sitting on the side of the road in Denver, Colorado, I searched on google mobile search for “AAA Colorado”. As one may expect, the first suggestion was “www.aaacolorado.com.” But how frustrating when I was then presented with an invite to take a survey, and then an automatic redirect to AAA Washington and Northern Idaho’s site. Which is also not mobile friendly. I just wanted someone to come help me with my vehicle…in this state!

AAA Survey AAA Colorado Redirect

Eventually I got the number from 1-800-GOOG-411 and then had to wade through several levels of a voice-automated system before I was able to open a new ticket for roadside assistance.

A mobile-specific site

AAA mobi site Once I was back home, I did google “AAA Mobile” and find there is a .mobi site as well as a AAA Mobile Application for some Sprint phones (focusing primarily on navigation). But I didn’t know that, so it was no use to me when I needed help. If you have such a site and you want it to be the primary access point for mobile users, test whether or not visitors to your primary site are on mobile devices, and either ask them if they wish to view the mobile site, or direct them seamlessly.

The idea of redirecting people to a mobile experience is a bit contentious, because you’re assuming you know what the visitor is coming for. Twitter handles this by allowing a mobile user to switch between “standard” and “mobile” views.

Even the .mobi site is not really optimized for “roadside assistance” purposes, requiring several screens before simply giving me a phone number to call.

An ideal opportunity for mobile

While AAA offers many programs, I’d bet that roadside assistance is probably one of the most frequently used, and the one most pressing for people accessing the AAA website via their phones. As for any good user-centered design – consider the needs of the visitor, and make it easy for him to complete his tasks. Roadside assistance is time- and situation-sensitive, and therefore it makes more sense to surface this option quickly.

Location-awareness

According to Skyhook, there are over 2,500 location-aware iPhone applications in the App store. Think about the first question they ask you when you call Roadside assistance – “are you in a safe place?” Having a location-aware application would at least confirm where that place was, and then only the safeness of it would have to be ascertained.

iPhone Location Apps Data from Skyhook

Location awareness could be used for several purposes with a national organization like AAA. With the current .mobi site, the very first screen asks your home zip code. While there may be some business rule relative to a person’s home state versus the state they’re currently in, an awareness of where they currently are may be a convenient “shortcut”. (Indeed, when a visitor is on a mobile device, any shortcut is going to be appreciated). This is a model that Google uses: they prepopulate a field, but let you choose to change it if it’s incorrect.

Persistent information storage

When I managed to talk to someone at AAA, she needed my membership number, and then they could access my vehicle and membership information. What if I could manage that information myself, rather than having to provide the number every time? Certainly, this may actually increase the complexity of the interaction (if I have to log into a system), but it’s a possibility, and creates more of a sense of a membership than individual transactions. As well, if the web is used to keep track of my service requests, I may be more easily targeted for different products or services in the future.

…and then my car was again drivable and I stopped brainstorming on this subject. How else do you think AAA could offer mobile roadside assistance?