Can anyone help me pay my bills?

At Verizon we want to help our customers make payments more efficiently and effectively through the Verizon Assistant.

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My Role in this transformation

• Research coordination
• Visual QA and product testing
• Design enhancement
• Stakeholders involvement
• New patterns documentation

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MPEA - make payments easy again

Navigating the realm of payments can often present unexpected challenges. At Verizon, we recognize that unforeseen circumstances may arise, leaving individuals grappling with payment obligations beyond their control. Unfortunately, in some instances, customers find themselves caught in a cycle of penalties and account restrictions imposed by companies insensitive to their predicaments. However, at Verizon, we operate on a different ethos. We firmly believe in fostering a culture of support rather than reprimand. Thus, we embarked on a transformative journey aimed at revolutionizing the payment landscape for our valued customers. What if we could alleviate the burden of payment requests, making them more accessible and less daunting for all? Recognizing the diverse financial backgrounds of our clientele, our mission became clear: to ensure that every individual's needs are met while upholding the vitality of our business, thus enabling us to deliver unparalleled service to all. In undertaking this project, I delved deep into the intricacies of customer psychology surrounding payment behaviors. Our objective? To reshape the perception of bill payment from an obligation fraught with consequences to a satisfying accomplishment seamlessly integrated into one's daily routine. By reimagining the payment experience, we empower our customers to navigate their financial responsibilities with confidence and ease. No longer viewed as a burdensome task, paying bills becomes a simple checkbox on life's to-do list, fostering a sense of achievement and reinforcing our customers' loyalty to the Verizon brand, irrespective of their personal or financial circumstances. At Verizon, our commitment extends beyond mere transactions; it lies in fostering meaningful connections and empowering individuals to thrive. Join us as we continue to innovate and redefine what it means to serve our customers with integrity and compassion.

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AATW - AutoPay all the way

Verizon has cultivated its chatbot component library over a decade-long span, providing me with a robust foundation upon which to base my work with utmost confidence. Drawing inspiration from established web and app interfaces, I meticulously honed existing features to imbue them with a more conversational tone, aligning seamlessly with the chat-driven experience. One notable enhancement includes the integration of AutoPay functionality, empowering customers to establish recurring payment plans effortlessly. By automating bill payments, individuals can liberate themselves from the burden of manual transactions and the risk of incurring late fees. Instead, they can redirect their focus towards daily activities, enjoying the convenience of worry-free, scheduled charges on their preferred payment method.

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Step 1.  Research

Here’s how we made it happen:

• We researched and analyzed where our customers  were escalating issues with their payments.
• We browsed through community forums to document what they were saying about their payment experience.
• We brainstorm a better approach based on the outcomes of our research data.
• We tested our concepts to gauge user experience and compared them to all the other tracks, both web and app.

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Step 2A. Development

After having done our research and our conceptual testing, comparing the old designs to the new, we ended up prioritizing some fundamental questions:

• Do users understand the types of discounts and rules around AutoPay?
• Do users understand the impact of choosing a different payment method?
• Do users see value in setting up AutoPay?
• Was it easy to set up AutoPay?

It was around this time that we started to gravitate towards a newer aesthetic for our Verizon Assistant. To build an improved AutoPay experience for our customers, we tried to answer those questions to the best of our knowledge based on the research we performed and the feedback to our first drafts of the new aesthetic.

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Step 2B. Leveraging AI

Generative AI is pivotal in content strategy and design, enabling us to focus on strategic aspects while leveraging its capabilities for efficient and innovative production. Embracing this technology empowers us to craft clear, non-intrusive messaging that highlights the benefits of AutoPay to our customers. Ensuring clarity and user-centricity in our communication is fundamental to offering a stress-free solution, safeguarding against missed payments and service interruptions.

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Step 3.  Key takeaways

Through our research, we discovered that the majority of customers are inclined to enroll in AutoPay and Paper-free billing when offered a discount incentive. Additionally, it's crucial to communicate to them that they retain the flexibility to adjust their AutoPay settings both before and after enrollment. This approach helps alleviate concerns about unexpected charges, recognizing that emergencies may arise, and financial priorities within families can shift.

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Step 4.  Adjustments

We determined that the user flows should be restructured (as displayed above) to:

• At the time of the customers’ request, we let them decide what product/feature to enroll in.
• We let them know their options at the end of both flows with a “Keep in mind” message to tickle their interest.
• We explain the benefit of enrolling in AutoPay and in Paper-free billing.
• When they’re enrolled in one but not both, we let them know about the benefit of adding the additional feature highlighting the discount as positive outcome.
• Once the customers choose or shows intent, we determine the service type to offer, whether for joint account or stand alone account.

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Based on customers' intents, we proceed with the enrollment process. Our aim is to maintain consistency between Mobile and Home services experiences to minimize user confusion. Despite differences in the backends, stemming from separate creation times and teams, we strive for seamlessness in the user interface. Though not every aspect aligns perfectly, we persist in delivering an optimal solution within our constraints.

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Additional thoughts

To engage past due customers and encourage enrollment in AutoPay and Paper-free billing, we devised an additional screen prompt. This prompt urges customers to settle their past due balance promptly to avoid service interruption, reinforcing the importance of AutoPay. Furthermore, customers who are past due are invited to make immediate payment, following a series of prior alerts that may have been overlooked. By emphasizing the benefits of AutoPay enrollment, we address both the customer's desire to maintain uninterrupted service and the company's imperative to ensure coverage for the services provided.

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Step 5.  Before vs After

Before implementing these enhancements, our customers were directed to Verizon.com for any account modifications or management of AutoPay and Paper-free billing. Introducing a chatbot experience simplifies this process, granting users the ability to effortlessly alter their payment methods, adjust payment schedules, and toggle AutoPay on and off as required. Previously, Mobile customers and Home services patrons encountered disparate experiences when altering settings and managing accounts. While the former permitted separate changes to payment methods and dates, the latter necessitated a sequential adjustment, prompting customers to first modify their payment method before proceeding to adjust the date.

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When a customer is enrolled in AutoPay and Paper-free billing the suggestions at the beginning of their experience are now offering to either  ‘Manage Auto Pay’ or ‘Manage Paper-free billing’ independently. If it’s a Joint account customer,  they can choose between their Home and Mobile services first, and then proceed with the flow as any other Standalone customer.

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We made sure the customers receiving a discount after enrolling in AutoPay and Paper-free billing are made aware of what would happen if they paused or turned off their Auto Pay and Paper-free billing features.

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Conclusion

This project has afforded me invaluable insights into the pivotal role that Auto Pay and Paper-free billing play within our company. Beyond merely facilitating payments, these features serve to enhance user experience, ensuring optimal convenience and satisfaction for all customers. However, our initial research underscored a critical disparity between our internal perceptions of ease and the end-user experience. Specifically, while customers found the enrollment process relatively straightforward, navigating back to make changes posed significant challenges.

In response, we prioritized addressing this discrepancy, implementing enhancements to streamline the user journey. Not only can customers now make changes before finalizing their AutoPay enrollment, but they can also seamlessly manage their account adjustments with ease and efficiency. This iterative approach underscores our commitment to continuously improving the user experience and ensuring that our services meet the evolving needs of our clientele.

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Accomplishments

After our new and improved AutoPay and Paper-free billing services were rolled out, we saw:

• a difference in satisfaction from customers by 13% - Web was 72% and Chat Bot was 85%
• a difference in containment of 20% - Web was 69% and Chat Bot was 88%