I can't pay today. Can I pay next week?

Helping customers make payments on time every time, stress free.

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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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Make your payments on time every time.

In a landscape where tardy payments abound, studies reveal a concerning trend: 20% of Americans grapple with settling their bills up to six weeks late, with an additional 33% taking over a month to finalize payments. At Verizon, we recognize the critical importance of facilitating timely and hassle-free payment arrangements for our customers. Armed with our expertise in conversational design and a deep understanding of payment processing intricacies, we embarked on a comprehensive research endeavor. Our goal? To dissect customer responses to our existing payment arrangement function and pinpoint areas ripe for enhancement. With a clear focus on streamlining user journeys and amplifying clarity at every juncture, our aim was to forge a seamless and intuitive payment experience for all. As we delved into our research, our commitment to refining the payment journey became abundantly clear. Leveraging insights garnered from customer interactions and our platform's payment processing mechanisms, we meticulously crafted enhancements to our existing user journeys. Our efforts were laser-focused on demystifying the payment process and empowering customers with straightforward solutions at every turn. Through this iterative approach, we sought to not only alleviate the burden of late payments but also instill confidence and convenience in our customers, ultimately cementing Verizon as their trusted partner in financial management.

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Set up a payment for the future.

The Verizon Assistant chatbot has long facilitated a range of payment-related tasks for customers, including making payments, setting up Auto Pay, and scheduling future payments. Our initial adjustment involved rebranding future date payments as "payment arrangements," a decision aimed at simplifying terminology for customers and enhancing clarity. Initiating this project involved a meticulous examination of chatbot flows using various test accounts. By meticulously assessing these flows and juxtaposing them with customer feedback, we gained invaluable insights into areas requiring enhancement. This iterative process enabled us to identify and prioritize improvements geared toward facilitating the successful establishment of payment arrangements and the scheduling of future payments for our customers.

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Leveraging Generative AI

Generative AI  plays a crucial role in content strategy and design and the support we’re receiving working hand in hand with it, empowered us to focus on strategic aspects while leveraging AI for efficient and innovative content and design production even in the case of payment arrangements. Choosing the right verbiage and making it so it’s clear, not pushy, and focuses on the advantages and the benefits for the user was a fundamental aspect to take into consideration.

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The redesign process

While researching and collecting thoughts on how the past design can be improved, you can see tha there isn't much to the flow, being an old design. The goal for us was to bring in functionality that saw success on web, while improving it for the Chat Bot experience as well.My goal for this project was to successfully enhance the flow to help customers with their payment arrangement and scheduled payment process, but also to make it so that customers keep their current arrangements active and running smoothly. As you can see in the intro, many companies have a hard time on keeping customers paying each month. Instead, we wanted to reach the following goals:

• Make it easy for customers to create payment arrangements and scheduled payments.
• Make sure that past due customers have the help they need.
• Use the current flows with which customers are familiar while bringing in sub flows for further clarity and support.

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Key Takeaways

After talking with our project managers and developers, I learned that the back end has a lot of legacy functionality. This means while designing for each flow, I would need to make sure that I take into account what APIs the developers are using for each of the function and service. Here are the constraints we have to follow to create a successful experience:

1. Home and Mobile create different payment arrangements and scheduled payments.
2. Mobile customers adding a payment method equals to payment arrangement (which is secured); and no payment method equals to scheduled payment (which is not secured). This doesn’t happen when a user already has a payment arrangement and they remove a payment method later, which means they have a scheduled payment that acts like a payment arrangement.
3. Home customers can choose between a payment arrangement and a scheduled payment, because payment arrangements are similar to Mobile customers. Scheduled payments for Home customers has its own set of rules, instead.
4. Home customers can remove a payment method from their payment arrangement and it will become a scheduled payment. This is because a payment method attached to a payment arrangement equals to a payment arrangement with a scheduled payment attached.

These rules are important because of how defined they are in the back end. Our developers use the existing APIs where these rules come from. This does make the design a bit complicated but we like challenges, and this is what we are currently working on, to help customers make their payments without any confusion.

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Improvements

By looking at the past experiences you can see that the flow seems incomplete and doesn't provide the customers with the guidance they need to set up an arrangement or scheduled payment. Another problem that arose was the fact that customers:

1. Didn’t know if they were setting up a payment arrangement or not, because we only state scheduled payment throughout the experience  
2. To set up the scheduled payment you would need to select a date after your due date during the ‘Pay now’ flow, when noticing the disclaimer explaining the following steps.

With this in mind, we took our mapping of the experiences plus the backend constraints to make sure that

• We were guiding customers through the process of setting up either a scheduled payment or a payment arrangement when it mattered.
• Communicate important information to customers exactly when it was needed.
• Make sure that, even through this is a confusing experience due to our constraints, we didn’t overdue it when displaying information to customers.
• Most importantly, we made sure that we talked to the customer with easy terms and instructions.

All this was to make sure that when customers needed to set up a payment arrangement, they knew not only that these are different but also that they can set it up without having to contact one of our agents.

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The flow in details: entry points.

We started by changing the experience to ‘Payment arrangements’. Home customers, different than Mobile users are already familiar with the term because they have a different experience for future payments called ‘Scheduled payment’. The customer journey starts when they tap on ‘Pay later’ and ‘Payment options for {Home/Mobile} in the ‘Pay now’ joint and standalone flows, as well as ‘Set up payment arrangement’ at the end of a partial payment. Some other intents include:

• “I need help paying my bill...”
• “I can’t pay my bill now...”
• “How can I catch up on my bill...”
• “Help with my bill...”

This would lead customers to a widget where they have the options to continue to ‘Pay Now’ or ‘Scheduled payment’ (Home customers) or even choose between ‘1 installment’ or ‘2 installment’ flows.

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Scheduled Payment for Home customers

For the customer journeys we are going to start with Home customers who are setting up a scheduled payment. This is because Home customers are the only customers who have a scheduled payment that is treated as another form of payment option. Scheduled payments can be made any time after the due date. There is no limit for Home scheduled payments, therefore you can set up as many scheduled payments as needed throughout the year.

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Returning Home customers

This interaction shows the experience between the customer and the chatbot when the customer is coming back before their scheduled payment date. Keep in mind the customer does not have to fulfill the balance scheduled at this point.

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Managing scheduled payment

The final experience for scheduled payment customers included the management flows. These flows are for the users that use the chatbot to manage their scheduled payments. This means they can change the amount, date and payment method and even cancel their scheduled payment all in one place. Many customers have stated that they would like to manage their scheduled payments in a way that is easy to understand and to follow. We took what we learned from the enrollment and payment flows, and made it so it was familiar for our customers too, so they can understand each step that is needed to manage their flows.

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Canceling a scheduled payment

Home customers can cancel their scheduled payment in 2 ways; they can either tap on the ‘cancel scheduled payment’ button at the bottom of the manage widget or they can remove a payment method attached to the scheduled payment. A scheduled payment requires a payment method, specifically a bank account or a Visa card, to be scheduled. By removing the payment method a scheduled payments gets erased too. However, customers will still have a payment arrangement due to how Verizon structures the backend for future payments. Briefly, they are setting up a payment with a payment method that, when removed, becomes a payment arrangement. This  does not require a payment method to be set up making things much easier for our clients.

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Non-eligible customers

There’s also the case of customers that cannot set up a scheduled payment due to restrictions to their accounts. This circumstance can happen, for example, to customers that were past due for a prolonged period of time, or have committed regular delinquencies on their accounts. This also applies to customers who are not eligible for a payment arrangement for other reasons.

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Payment Arrangement for Mobile customers

With a comprehensive grasp of scheduled payments for Home customers, let's delve into how Mobile customers can leverage payment arrangements to streamline their payment processes. Given the historical complexity associated with Mobile customers on the backend, we drew inspiration from the Home experience, prioritizing simplicity to mitigate potential complications. Recognizing Mobile payment arrangements as a focal point for Verizon, our objective is to ensure heightened satisfaction among customers by refining and optimizing their experience. Here is a closer look to our flow dedicated to a payment arrangement based on one installment.

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Payment arrangement (Mobile) 2 installments

In this case our goal is to make sure that the customers have the chance to pay the full amount they owe. Many customers choose a 2-installment payment arrangement to pay a past due balance and catch up on their current balance. One main difference is the payment method selection. Customer can choose to add the same method to both installments or have separate methods for each installment. One last key point is that the 2nd installment can only be set after an Auto Pay date (if they have one set up) or after a bill due date to avoid overcharging our customers.

The basic functionality of this flow can be seen in the flow displayed above for 1 installment.This section will show the differences that a 2-installment payment arrangement has compared to the previous one.

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Payment Arrangement for Home customers

Home customers only need to choose how much they want to pay for their 1-installment payment arrangement. Similar to Scheduled payments and Mobile payment arrangements, customers can choose between paying in full or choosing another amount. For past due customers, they can choose between total, past due and other amount.

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Payment arrangement (Home) 2 installments

In this context, our primary objective is to ensure that customers have the opportunity to settle their outstanding balance in full. Many customers opt for a 2-installment payment arrangement to address both their past due balance and current balance. A notable distinction lies in the selection of payment methods: customers may elect to apply the same method to both installments or opt for separate methods for each installment. Furthermore, it's crucial to note that the scheduling of the second installment is contingent upon either an Auto Pay date (if configured) or a bill due date, ensuring customers are not overcharged. One major feature for Home customers 2 installment payment arrangements is that it can only be made if the customer is past due.

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Conclusion

In delving into the realm of payment arrangements, I gained invaluable insights that profoundly shaped my design approach. By placing myself in the shoes of our customers, I was able to craft a solution that resonates with Verizon's core values: fostering a sense of comfort, security, and unwavering support, even amidst financial challenges or unforeseen circumstances. Our role as designers extends beyond merely providing information and guidance for payments; it encompasses equipping our customers with the tools they need to navigate their financial obligations confidently while retaining their Verizon service without undue stress or uncertainty. Offering payment flexibility, whether through single or multiple installments, or scheduling payments for later in the month, lies at the heart of ensuring our customers' satisfaction. Moreover, recognizing and accommodating varying payment methods underscores the genuine effort of our clients to manage their expenses responsibly. In facilitating a solution that caters to both the company's interests and the well-being of our clients, we establish a win-win scenario that fosters mutual success. Ultimately, our aim is not just to facilitate transactions but to empower our clients to thrive. By setting them up for success, we reinforce our commitment to their welfare and strengthen the enduring bond between Verizon and its valued customers.

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Accomplishments

After our new and improved Payment arrangement service was tested we noticed that:

• a difference in satisfaction from customers by 8% - Web was 88% and Chat Bot was 96%
• a difference in containment of 18% - Web was 77% and Chat Bot was 95%
• customer securing their payments went from 12-20% to over 60%