Provide overdue payment to get drivers back on the road
Members were often surprised when balances blocked their bookings and transactions. Our goal was to make clearing those balances easier, improve transparency, and collect member debt.
Outcome
- Customer support contacts regarding balances dropped more than half, from 10% of total billing support contacts to 4%.
- Overdue payments in the first 30 days decreased by 40% from last year, indicating faster and easier payments flows.
Team
- Lead UX Designer (Myself)
- Product Manager
- UX Design Manager
- App and Web Engineering Teams
We needed better communication
Overdue balances can be frustrating and confusing, often caused by expired cards or failed payments. It became clear that we needed to improve transparency for our members.
"I had been receiving emails to update card details and showing a £6 overdue balance, which was wrong... I updated the card, but it still shows £6 as overdue... It's impossible to see other account information on the app, so I went to the website and logged in..."
"I hadn't logged into or used my Zipcar account for several years... When I needed to use it again, I found my account had been disabled. I reached out to support (it took several weeks for them to respond)... They informed me of an outstanding balance... Long story short, my account balance was cleared as it had not been adequately explained."
The root cause
Overdue balances were not clear in the app and members often realized only after contacting support. Although we send reminder emails, not everyone opens them. This setup causes the issues below.
Blocks members from using Zipcar and making any new transactions.
Causes confusion and increases member contacts.
Leads to larger overdue balance and bad debts, failed to collect payments.
Let’s get the member’s attention
To reduce surprises in the checkout flow, we needed to grab member’s attention before the next transaction.
How to communicate balances to all drivers
Only account owners can pay the balance. Driver-only members cannot. Overdue balances still block bookings and extensions for all drivers and must be communicated.
Provide context for blocked transactions
A blocked transaction might be the first time someone is alerted of their overdue balance. The member deserves to be met with a clear solution to alleviate their confusion and concern.
Surprises aren’t always fun
Balances often come as a surprise and the member might not know what caused the balance. For these reasons, the breakdown must be transparent with a clear solution to relieve member stress.
At first we considered linking to your trip
After iteration, we then built a new informative feature on the same page that expanded and collapsed. It was clearer and required less effort to access the same information.
Upgrade to add flexible checkout
Flexible checkout is important to integrate because card failures cause most member debt and account for 10% of billing inquiries. The goal is to improve payment success and reduce debt.
Overall impact
Our overdue balance banner and settlement flow have streamlined payments and enhanced transparency. As a result, support inquiries on this topic decreased by 50%, and overdue balances in their first 30 days dropped by 40%.
All metrics shared for this project have been approved by Product for use in my portfolio, with full permission and review from my employer to ensure no sensitive information is disclosed.
What I learned during this project
- Anticipate frustration with blocked actions or errors of insufficient funds.
- Use transparency and clear solutions to help alleviate these negative feelings.
