Key’n Go is Goldcar’s self-service kiosk solution, designed to streamline the rental experience by allowing customers to skip the counter and go straight to their car. While the product delivered on speed and convenience, it lacked one of the most important value drivers for the business: the ability to upsell.
Traditionally, staff at the counter played a key role in offering upgrades and add-ons. But with 27% of global rentals—over 238,000 bookings last year—now taking place through Key’n Go, the absence of a digital upselling strategy represented a significant missed opportunity.
This project set out to integrate upselling into the Key’n Go flow in a way that respected the self-service promise. The goal was to bring the business impact of counter-based sales into the kiosk experience without slowing users down or compromising trust. We focused on designing a seamless, persuasive, and contextual interaction that could surface relevant offers while maintaining the product’s core advantage: speed and autonomy.
I led the design of this initiative as the Product Designer embedded within the digital self-service stream at Goldcar. My role covered end-to-end responsibilities: from framing the problem with stakeholders to conducting field research, ideating and prototyping upselling touchpoints, and testing them with real users. I also collaborated closely with our analytics team to define success metrics and track impact post-launch.
The project was a multidisciplinary effort involving Product, Engineering, Marketing, and Operations teams. We worked in tight feedback loops to ensure business goals aligned with user needs and operational constraints. Close coordination with country managers and station staff was essential to understand contextual differences across markets and ensure a consistent experience globally.
Part of customer station digitalization initiative
Key’n’Go, Sign on tablet, and QMS:
Core projects driving station digitalization
On site immersion
Mapping the journey
Data insights
To complement the fieldwork and journey mapping, we analyzed internal performance data to understand the revenue gap between desk and kiosk channels. One figure stood out immediately: while vehicle and insurance upsells at the counter reached up to 28% attachment rate (e.g., Mega Relax), Key’n Go customers showed virtually no upsell activity, simply because the offers didn’t exist at pick-up.
We also saw that in 2024, only 1.3% of Key’n Go rentals were manually upsold to Mega Relax at the counter — far below the 28% for non-automated journeys. In contrast, vehicle upgrades were accepted by 2% of kiosk users versus 6% at the desk. This pointed to a clear upside: even modest improvements to the kiosk experience could unlock significant revenue gains, especially considering that Key’n Go already represents 27% of Goldcar’s total rentals, or over 238,000 bookings annually.
Opportunities
With research findings and data insights in hand, we consolidated everything into an opportunity map to visualize where the biggest impact areas were — both for the business and for users. We used the Opportunity Tree framework to connect desired business outcomes (e.g. increase ARPD, reduce operational dependency on counters) with customer needs and potential product interventions.
Key opportunities emerged around the pick-up experience at the kiosk. Customers wanted transparency, reassurance, and flexibility — but the current flow offered no chance to revisit or adapt their booking. On the business side, there was a clear goal to recover the ancillary revenue traditionally driven by human interaction. The overlap between these needs pointed us toward value-aligned interventions: contextual upsells, informative comparisons (especially for coverages), and frictionless add-ons that felt like enhancements, not interruptions.
This mapping exercise helped us prioritize what to test first (e.g. insurance upsells via Mega Relax) and what to defer (e.g. full vehicle upgrade integration, which required more operational readiness). It also ensured that each design decision was grounded in validated insight — not just assumption or internal pressure.
Alignment
Given the strategic importance of the Key’n Go channel, aligning with business stakeholders, legal teams, and country managers was a critical step before moving into solution design. We facilitated multiple alignment sessions across departments to ensure that the proposed upselling features met revenue goals, legal compliance, operational feasibility, and user experience standards.
From a business standpoint, the goal was clear: replicate the counter’s ancillary conversion rates in the kiosk flow without increasing friction or damaging NPS. Legal teams helped define what could or couldn’t be shown to customers, especially around consent, contract updates, and cross-market variations. Country managers brought valuable context about local rental station operations, customer behaviors, and market readiness — ensuring we weren’t designing for an abstract “average” user.
This cross-functional alignment enabled faster decision-making, a clearer scope for the MVP, and built the foundation for scalable rollout. Everyone agreed on a shared vision: deliver a self-service experience that doesn’t just replace the counter, but enhances it with smarter, customer-driven upselling.
1
Speed is sacred
Users deeply value the fast, no-hassle nature of the Key’n Go experience. Any upselling intervention had to respect this expectation — no long flows, no mandatory steps, and no ambiguity.
2
Lack of visibility = missed opportunity
Without prompts or context, users weren’t even aware that they could enhance their rental with extras. Transparency and surfacing options at the right moment were key.
3
Timing matters
The best moment to introduce upsells is just before confirmation — when the user feels in control and confident, but hasn't yet mentally “completed” the process.
4
Trust over pressure
Counter interactions benefit from human reassurance. At the kiosk, trust must be built through clear copy, comparisons, and visual simplicity — not by pushing offers aggressively.
5
Not all markets are equal
Operational realities, customer behaviors, and legal expectations vary by country. The solution had to be flexible enough to adapt to local constraints without fragmenting the core experience.
6
Insurance has the highest potential
Based on both internal data and external studies (e.g. KANTAR), protections like Mega Relax not only drive revenue, but also contribute to customer peace of mind — making them the ideal starting point for MVP.
Impact
The upsell flow affected the full journey.
Transparency
Clear, upfront info built trust and reduced doubts.
Simplicity
Less friction = faster, more confident decisions.
Reliability
What users see must match across all touchpoints.
Testing
Before scaling the upselling experience across all Key’n Go kiosks, we launched a focused testing phase to validate both usability and business impact. The goal was to ensure that the new flow respected user expectations for speed and clarity, while also proving its potential to drive ancillary sales.
We conducted end-to-end tests in live environments, starting with pilots in selected stations. These stations were chosen based on volume, operational readiness, and regional diversity to capture a broad range of user behaviors. Each pilot tested the upsell journey from screen interaction to confirmation and payment, with special attention on the Mega Relax insurance offer — our MVP focus.
We collected both quantitative metrics (attachment rate, time on screen, drop-off points) and qualitative feedback (via station staff and user intercepts). Initial results were promising: users engaged with the upsell screens without signs of confusion or friction, and early data suggested a measurable uplift in conversion compared to the control flow.
The feedback loop with station teams was critical. It surfaced minor UX tweaks (e.g., improving copy tone, emphasizing optionality, optimizing button hierarchy) that helped fine-tune the experience before full rollout. The success of the testing phase gave us confidence in the product direction — and strong internal buy-in to proceed.
Refining
Following the initial pilot and testing phase, we entered a refinement loop to address usability friction, improve clarity, and fine-tune the upselling strategy. This phase was critical to transition from a functional MVP to a polished experience ready for scale.
Based on early observations and user feedback, we identified several quick wins. For example, users hesitated when the upsell screen appeared unexpectedly — so we added a short transition message to explain the purpose of the screen and reassure them that the step was optional. We also adjusted the copy to shift from sales-driven language to benefit-driven messaging, focusing on peace of mind and flexibility rather than protection tiers.
Visual hierarchy was another key area of iteration. We reworked button sizes, contrast, and layout to make choices more intuitive — especially under time pressure. To avoid drop-offs, we ensured users could clearly identify the “continue without adding” path, avoiding any perception of forced upselling.
On the backend, we collaborated with legal and tech teams to ensure the selected ancillaries were correctly reflected in the updated rental agreement, and that users received a copy via email post-transaction.
These refinements were rolled out progressively during the pilot and helped lift confidence internally. They also served as design principles for the next set of upsell integrations — including other ancillaries like crossborder and extra driver.
Design
Results
The introduction of upselling at Key’n Go marked a significant step in transforming the kiosk from a purely functional handover point into a strategic revenue channel. Early results from the pilot confirmed both business impact and user acceptance, validating the approach and setting the stage for broader rollout.
Overall, the pilot confirmed that users are willing to engage with upselling in a digital context — when it’s done right: transparently, contextually, and without friction.
Potential global revenue
Rentals through Key'n Go
Attach rate
Introducing upselling into a self-service flow required more than just adding screens — it demanded a deep understanding of user behavior, trust dynamics, and the operational realities of car rental stations. One of the most valuable lessons was that speed and autonomy don’t have to come at the expense of business goals. When offers are framed clearly and respectfully, users are willing to engage — even in time-sensitive contexts like kiosk pick-up.
Imoprtance of cross-functional alignment. Legal, operations, product, and local markets all had legitimate constraints and priorities. By involving them early and often, we avoided rework, ensured compliance, and built internal momentum that made implementation smoother.
Cross-team collaboration was strong from the start, especially with legal, operations, and country managers — helping us move fast with fewer blockers.
The MVP approach helped us stay focused: starting with Mega Relax let us validate the concept before scaling to other ancillaries.
On-site research provided valuable insights we wouldn't have uncovered from the office — small behavior patterns made a big difference in design decisions.
Early pilot results showed real business potential without harming NPS, which helped secure buy-in for the next steps.
We could have engaged marketing and customer service earlier to prepare messaging across all touchpoints.
The kiosk hardware had limitations that slowed down iteration — we had to work around constraints rather than rethink the full experience.
Some legal requirements surfaced late in the process, creating friction during the rollout phase. A clearer legal framework from the beginning would have helped.
This project deepened my understanding of designing for hybrid environments — where digital and physical experiences overlap, and UX has to work across constraints you can’t always control. It also strengthened my skills in stakeholder alignment, helping me balance user needs with legal, business, and operational realities. Most importantly, it reminded me that good design doesn’t just solve problems — it opens up new possibilities.
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