PROBLEM
We noticed a drop-off from end-business users that prevented them from completing the flow when connecting their financial data. In addition, Railz' customers wanted to fully customize Railz Connect™ to unify their experiences across their own platforms.
We needed to consider both use cases; Railz' direct customers, and the end-business users.
QUESTIONS
What is stopping end-business users from connecting their financial data and how can we best simplify the flow to allow them to feel secure and make informed decisions throughout the connectivity process?
How can we offer our Railz' customers the ability to customize their connection journey to cater towards their own customers (end-business users)? How can we offer a source of familiarity and trust when asking their business users to connect their financial data?
PREVIOUS RAILZ CONNECT™
The previous Railz Connect™ journey wasn't a linear journey per se. It had minimal foresight as to what was happening. It allowed end-business users to connect to their accounting, banking, and commerce service simultaneously through a tabular menu. End-users simply didn't know what was being asked of and they must click continue in order to proceed.
Though simple, this approach didn't offer a linear or directional journey for end-business users to connect to their service providers. Not only did this page provided minimal to no context as to what is being asked of, it also didn't allow them to skip or see what was next.
ASSUMPTIONS
There is already existing hesitation when it comes to sharing financial data; a sense of trust needs to be established when allowing sensitive information to be accessed.
There is confusion in the connection flow. All service connection options are given at the forefront of their experience through tabs, which prevents them from knowing the direction they need to go to – perhaps a decision paralysis.
End-business users are not provided any context at the beginning or end of their journey, leaving them confused as to what is being asked of, or what has been completed.
Customers want a customizable journey to maintain consistency across all their platforms, allowing a sense of familiarity, trust, and security.
RESEARCH & INSIGHTS
Research consisted of qualitative analysis by interviewing Railz' customers and evaluating the existing Railz Connect™ versus the newly proposed journey.
We asked questions for both the customization aspect and walkthrough journey.
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INSIGHTS
Based on the interviews some of the key insights were:
End-users are already hesitant to share financial information – having disparate styles and components could keep level of trust to a minimum.
Our direct customers want to fully customize these styles to allow
consistency in their brand.Users want quick thumbs up and down hassle-free actions when making decisions. In addition, adding more steps adds a level of comfort.
STORY MAPPING
Following the interviews, we evaluated the existing journey, we realized it was indeed a bit too simple – especially when financial information is involved.
Based on feedback, we started to add elements to the flow.
Questions we kept in mind: What do we currently have? How can we offer a step-by-step walk through approach for the end-business users? What should be customized or not? How can we best introduce what is happening without information overload or decision paralysis?
WHAT WE ADDED
Some of the following elements were added when we re-evaluated the user journey:
Progress bar: To help users understand where they are at in the process.
An overview and summary page: To provide context for users when starting or completing their connection to gain a level of trust.
Allow users to skip or go back: To account for cases where end-users didn't feel safe sharing certain information or they needed to go back a step.
Additional customization: Ability for Railz' direct customers to change services as optional or not.
USER FLOW
Upon story-mapping, we started building out the flow. An interesting aspect about Railz Connect™ was that all services (Accounting, Banking, and Commerce) offered different ways of connecting to an account. In addition, the service providers also differed. We had to take this into consideration when evaluating the flow.
Technical constraints were also discussed during this process. Whether they had to log in through a pop-up window, or through an embedded flow. How much customization they can technically have. How the progress bar will function, etc.
RESULTS
This linear journey allowed users to skip, go back and complete the journey without feeling lost in the process.
With the added progress bar with the new Railz Connect™, we saw an added utilization across our customers using the customization feature.
And as a result, we saw a 10-15% increase quarter by quarter of added business connections and increased adoption in our customers utilizing the customization options. To add, this product is also being embedded into the company that acquired Railz to support their business banking channels which is a huge win.