Content Strategy
Conversion to new bill pay platform
Introduction
Digital bill pay services have become widely available to consumers through billers and financial institutions alike. For credit unions like WSECU, a modern, all-in-one bill pay solution is a necessity to maintain active member engagement and remain competitive among digital challengers.
For years, WSECU struggled with an outdated bill pay solution with an unintegrated, poorly designed user interface. The credit union received little support from the solution provider, and frequent service failures impacted members’ access to the platform. The system was a continual source of low member satisfaction scores. Furthermore, the legacy system did not support peer-to-peer (P2P) payment transactions, which are projected to see a 25.3% YoY increase in value in 2022, according to forecasts by Insider Intelligence.
Challenge
In 2022, WSECU decided to modernize its bill pay services. However, conversion to a new platform presented several unique communication challenges:
- Migrating users to the new system would result in a one-week blackout period in which all bill pay services would be unavailable — meaning users could not pay bills or adjust scheduled automatic payments during this time.
- No enrollments in electronic billing statements or automatic payments would transfer to the new platform. And users who wanted to keep past statements would have to download history files prior to the blackout period. They would also have to re-establish all electronic billing statements and automatic payment services in the new system.
- In the new environment, enrollment in electronic billing statements and automatic payment services would no longer be available for several popular payees with whom users had been enrolled previously.
- Past conversions of this scale had dramatically raised call volume to the credit union’s contact center. However, during this time, the contact center was struggling with staffing shortages and long call wait times due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The conversion was likely to exacerbate the situation, resulting in lower member satisfaction.
As the team’s Content Strategy Program Manager, I was responsible for overseeing communications for a small pilot program testing the new platform, external member communications ahead of the blackout period, member support documentation, UX content and branding in the new platform, and communications to raise member awareness of the new WSECU Bill Pay experience after its launch.
This required me to synthesize effective multichannel content strategies to support a wide range of communication needs for multiple distinct audiences as well as provide direction on tone and messaging. It also required close collaboration with a variety of product owners and reviewers to ensure accuracy and legal compliance.
Pilot program
WSECU’s pilot programs are typically composed of member volunteers recruited by the credit union’s Member Experience team. The program to test the new bill pay platform included a group of ~75 of these volunteers. However, communication was limited to email, a dedicated web landing page and alert messages in online banking.
My strategy for the pilot program involved a series of five post-recruitment emails, which communicated key information about the program with further details available through links to the program’s dedicated web page. But due to production time constraints, the web page would not be able to go live until after the pilot began and participants had access to the new platform. This meant the initial emails would have to do most of the heavy lifting to convey all of the information participants needed before the blackout period during which they would be migrated to the new platform.
To accomplish this, I drafted the initial emails in a longer format to outline key dates and actions required before and after the pilot blackout period for participants to avoid missing bill payments and meet incentive criteria. The emails also notified participants of updated terms and conditions, a legal obligation of the institution.
In collaboration with product owners, I drafted the web page to be a comprehensive resource for both the pilot program and the new platform. Visually, it was an overwhelming amount of information, so I also collaborated with the web designer on ways to break up the text and make it easier to consume through the use of topical subheadings and progressive disclosure elements. Some design ideas couldn’t be implemented within the timeframes given to build the web page, so we tucked these in our back pockets for the pages that would need to be built for the larger migration to come.
During and after the blackout period, I was able to leverage alert messages that would be visible whenever pilot users signed in to online banking. These reminded users of blackout dates and provided a convenient way to access the dedicated web page once it was live.
I was also able to shift tactics to emails that were more concise and streamlined. These were aimed at reminding participants of next steps to meet pilot incentive criteria and also linked them to the dedicated web page. The final email thanked users for their participation and explained when and how they would receive incentive payments, if eligible.
I leveraged questions and feedback from pilot users to identify and eliminate information gaps on the web page and enhance support documentation during the pilot program. The pilot also helped inform my strategy for the full-membership conversion that followed.
Full-membership conversion
The legacy bill pay system had seen low overall adoption (~16% of members), so the majority of WSECU’s ~225,000 members would not be impacted in any way when migration to the new platform occurred. In preparing for the full-membership conversion, this made my decision to limit pre-blackout communications to legacy platform users an easy one.
However, active users of the legacy platform needed to take action to ensure service continuity and avoid missed bill payments. These members could be subdivided into smaller groups based on which actions they would need to take.
My initial plan was to segment communications to each subgroup. This would minimize the volume and complexity of information each would receive. Unfortunately, the legacy service provider was unable to supply the user data necessary to execute this strategy. As a compromise, they agreed to help us identify the subset of members enrolled in electronic billing statements since these users would be the most impacted, requiring the most complex steps to prepare for conversion.
Because I could not segment communications to the other subgroups, I had to take a large amount of complex information and make it easily digestible for impacted members so they could understand how to prepare. I also needed to convey a sense of urgency that would motivate action, but at an appropriate level to avoid causing panic or frustration.
Tone and messaging
Despite the challenges inherent to the upgrade, the new WSECU Bill Pay represented a significant service improvement, so I made a conscious choice to create a tone of anticipation and delight by prioritizing benefits and improvements in our messaging. However, I didn’t want to downplay the need for members to take action since missing a bill payment could result in fees or other impacts.
To achieve this balance, communications needed to be completely transparent and unambiguous about the potential consequences of inaction. With this in mind, I advocated an approach to messaging that clearly outlined member responsibilities while simultaneously positioning the conversion as a time-saving service upgrade rather than an inconvenience.
Lastly, I designed the strategy so that the tone of communications would increase in urgency as the blackout deadline approached through messaging that was increasingly concise and direct.
Communication channels and tactics
All of the conversion emails contained links leading to a temporary landing page with detailed information about the conversion and extensive support FAQs. It also provided links to a second page intended to live on permanently as the primary support resource for WSECU Bill Pay features and services.
Support videos were written, produced and embedded on this page to provide users with visual guides for setting up basic services in the new platform. The page also included an extensive library of FAQs.
Note regarding web page screenshots below: While I was responsible for writing the initial drafts for these web pages, multiple stakeholders and product co-owners also contributed copy throughout. I feel it’s important to mention this both because I do not want to take credit for work that is not my own and because these pieces may stand out for their excessive verbosity or repetition.
With our audience in mind, my team and I strongly recommended the pages be edited for greater concision and clarity. Unfortunately, a combination of ambiguity around decision-making authority, time constraints, and challenges in achieving consensus among multiple stakeholders limited our ability to execute a more desirable final output. However, we came away with several key learnings which we could apply to future projects, such as:
- Prioritizing content feedback from product experts to ensure accuracy and minimize revisions
- Identifying and limiting the number of decision-makers throughout the process to avoid decision bottlenecks
- Aligning on the hierarchy of decision-making authority between cross-functional teams to resolve conflicts quickly and avoid ineffective compromises
We knew video content would play an important role in supporting members on the new bill pay platform. Initially, we planned to use generic scripts provided by the new vendor to speed production times. But using one of our test accounts to compare the scripts with the actual user experience, I identified numerous discrepancies.
This made clear our initial approach was not a viable option, so I quickly developed a script-writing process that would minimize impact to our timelines. I also wrote the first video script, so it could be used as a template for content writers to model the rest of the video scripts needed.
Even with high member engagement, achieving a 100% email open rate is highly unlikely, so it was necessary to communicate with members using every avenue available. I drafted a direct-mail postcard as a backstop for any users who didn’t see their email communications. It mirrored our email messaging and included a vanity URL that led to the same temporary landing page where recipients could get more information about the conversion.
The highly impacted subgroup of users identified as having electronic billing enrollments received all of the aforementioned communications as well as two additional emails and a direct-mail letter — all of which included messaging that specifically addressed the additional actions they would need to take.
Leading up to the final migration, I provided UX content support wherever needs were identified by our developers or member experience team. This included everything from naming buttons and tabs to revising user instructions within the interface. While we wanted to ensure the platform reflected the WSECU brand in content and design, we also had to balance that desire with the need to minimize customizations that might hinder our ability to update the platform when future versions were released.
In WSECU’s online and mobile banking platforms, I leveraged targeted popups and alert messages as yet another way to inform or remind users of the upcoming blackout dates. These were also linked to the temporary conversion information web page where users could get more information.
Finally, after the conversion was complete and all members had access to the new bill pay platform, we needed to raise awareness around the new feature. We also wanted to remind members who had undergone the conversion process to take necessary steps to set up their bill payments in the new system or else to ensure their bill payment information had been converted correctly.
With these two audiences in mind, I drafted two different versions of an awareness email: one was a simple announcement of the new feature and benefits, while the second included an additional reminder of next steps for users who had previously used the legacy platform.
To further raise awareness among members, I developed messaging to display on our website’s homepage hero as well as digital display banners and alert messages, which are visible to users when they sign in to online or mobile banking.
Outcome
In the end, the enormous effort that went into the conversion paid off, and the transition to the new platform was a success. In addition to achieving our metric goals, we received positive feedback from both colleagues and members on the efficacy of our communication strategy. Most notably, the outcome for call volume was likened to “predicting a hurricane and getting a drizzle.”
While we saw an expected drop off in the number of bill pay transactions in the initial days after the conversion, in less than five months, bill pay transactions had returned to their prior levels. 2023 was predicted to be a record-setting year for the number of bill pay transactions based on the trend toward higher platform usage seen at the end of 2022.
The average open rate of all conversion emails was 30% higher than average.
The average click-through rate (CTR) of all conversion emails was 5x higher than average.
The average time on page for the conversion information web page was 2.5x higher than average.
The conversion information page was the 6th highest trafficked on the organization’s website in the lead-up to the conversion.
The average time on page for the bill pay support web page was 3.5x higher than average.
Contact center call volume resulting from the bill pay platform conversion was 89% lower than forecasted.
Testimonials & feedback
From members
“My anxiety about a new system was significantly calmed by the considerable advanced notice of the change and multiple forms of information indicating how to prepare for the change and what to anticipate if anything went wrong. The new format is easy to use and not a lot different than the old version. Very happy with my decision to continue banking with WSECU!”
“The transition from old to new was much easier than I expected. Goes very smoothly now. Thanks.”
“I do like it and appreciate all the work that went into the transition to a new version. Thank you.”
“I’m mostly speaking about the transition from old to new at this time. Very impressed with the quality of the transition. The team clearly did a great risk management plan and did very thorough testing. Good job!”
“It has been an easy transition. Thank you! … I love bill pay service. Thank you!”
From leadership
“Congratulations, everyone! This is a huge step forward for us! We’re all really proud of the team and incredibly appreciative of your efforts here. It’s been a long journey!”
“Fantastic work! I’ve already done some P2P transfers and love the product! This is a huge gap closure that, once our members are through the change management time with this, will be a fabulous addition to our money movement options. Great job!”
“A big shout out for our excellent work informing members about the conversion. So far, so good — very few calls or questions. Congrats to our team!”