Experian BillFixer™
Overview
Bill negotiation (formally titled Experian Billfixer™) was a new feature promoted as a benefit of premium Experian accounts. Users can submit their bills (like internet, cable, cell service and more) to be negotiated by a specialized negotiation team at Experian to save time and money. Users can either connect their accounts to see their own eligible bills or enter the negotiation wizard and search from a list of all eligible bills. They have to upload a copy of their latest account statement and share a few account details to successfully submit their bill for negotiation.
As a new premium product, the business objective was to successfully convert users into premium accounts to benefit from this product.
The project
Design marketing and upsell pages that successfully explain the product to users, address most user questions and concerns, and convince them that this new feature is worth upgrading for.
My role
Content Strategist at Experian for all things Finance, working collaboratively with UX Design and Research, Developers, Product Owners, and Legal and Compliance representatives.
As the first touchpoint for a new product with an account conversion objective, the internal marketing page and upsell page had to educate users on the product while also making the case that it was valuable enough to justify an account upgrade. Since this product included the acquisition of an external organization, Bill Fixers, we focused on the Bill Fixers value props of money and time saved as well as “let us do it for you” ease.
When the initial page didn’t perform as well as expected, we tested it against an updated version.
Marketing page focuses on the process (“Here’s how it works”). Upsell page bullet points focus on BillFixer.
Control
Marketing page focuses on the value props (“Why use BillFixer?”). Upsell page bullet points focus on all the benefits of premium.
Test
User research
UXR performed a moderated usability test and discovered the following:
1
The improved onboarding page helped users understand the feature better
Some users in the control group misunderstood BillFixer as a bill pay/debt consolidation service from Experian.
2
In both versions of upsell page, users questioned the value of paying for BillFixer
The majority of users from both groups reported that they were unlikely to try the product.
Outcome
Based on the positive UXR feedback, we moved our A/B test to production, with 50% of users continuing to get the “Control” version of the experience, and 50% receiving the “Test.”
This change resulted in an 84% conversion lift!
Ultimately, we chose to pull the “Control” version out of production and give all users the “Test” experience based on its high efficacy.
Conclusions
Understandably, a product that saves you $263/yr isn’t, by itself, worth $300/yr. Marketing BillFixer as part of a larger premium package is the way to go, instead of focusing on that singular savings claim.
We’ve since launched a Subscription Cancellation service as part of the “BillFixer” suite of products. This grouping is doing well, has increased conversion significantly and seems to make sense to users.
Small pieces of clarification are helpful for building trust and understanding.
We clarified that average savings were calculated per year (“Save $263/yr on average”).
We moved from “rate” (which sounded like interest rate) to “price” (“Get your best price on bills”).
We were clear about what kinds of bills are negotiable (like cell and streaming services, cable and more). No medical bills or rent (if only).
Who’s doing the negotiating? Moving from “we’ll negotiate” to “our experts will negotiate” helped alleviate user concerns.
“How” and “Why” are equally important at different stages of the journey.
On the marketing page, users weren’t interested in “Here’s how it works” because they hadn’t bought into the product yet. Leading with the “Why” on the Test version of the marketing page created natural curiosity in the “How.”