It’s on, y’all! As we announced two weeks ago, Prism — the free app that makes bill pay refreshingly easy — will soon be getting a refresh of its own. Loyal members of the Prism family responded to the news with excitement and thoughtful questions. To get answers, we went directly to two Prism team leaders with an inside track on the app’s redesign process and planned customer support initiatives. Braidee Leon, Prism’s Payment and Support Team Manager, and Senior Product Designer Matt Gordon took a quick breather to give us details on why the app is getting a facelift, and what that means for both existing and future Prism app users everywhere.
Why is Prism refreshing its award-winning app?
Braidee: The app wouldn’t be where it is today without our customers. We’ve learned a lot from them and how they deal with their finances. We constantly strive to be more relevant to how customers manage their lives, and we felt there was a real opportunity to modernize our experience. We hear our users when they say their time is valuable and their attention to bills is short. So, we’re taking the app they know and love to the next level. We’re enhancing the experience with quick, clear, and simple payment flows that have easy access to billers.
Matt: Yeah, the existing app definitely hits on what works for our customers in terms of providing the tools they need to better track and pay their bills. But lately we’ve felt that Prism could use a fresh coat of paint. And as we explored redesigning the look of Prism, we just couldn’t help ourselves — we realized that streamlining the features that make Prism great would make for a more intuitive, faster, and simpler experience for our customers. Like most people, we hate bills, and we believe our customers should spend the least amount of time possible thinking about them. The redesign aims to deliver that.
In our last blog post we introduced a sneak-peak of the new look and feel — and discussed the increased functionality — of the app post-refresh. You two have obviously seen the entire scope of the design. What are you most excited about?
Matt: I’m personally psyched about the streamlined payment flow customers will get with the refreshed app. The updated experience will let users pay multiple billers with custom amounts, different payment dates, and using different payment methods — all from the same screen! Not only will this allow our customers to zip through paying their monthly bills faster, it will also help them make incremental payments on the fly to billers. Got an extra $100 in the bank? Pay $25 to four of your loan accounts in seconds flat.
Braidee: Matt stole one of my top two favorites — the ability to pay multiple billers at once — so I’m going to go with the other, the fierce new biller logos that are coming. We’ve always tried to make each biller instantly recognizable with branded logos; it makes looking at your bills at a glance so easy! With the refresh, we’ve got a whole new set of logos. They’ll be bigger and even more visually pleasing, making it that much easier for customers to find or add billers and be on their merry way.
A lot of people fear change, especially when it comes to how they pay their bills. What will Prism customers need to do to successfully migrate between the old app and the refreshed one?
Matt: Okay, this is the beautiful part — absolutely nothing! A lot of apps go through a redesign and completely change up how they work. We think that’s terrible. So, we decided to keep the exact same features, functionality, and processes, just make them even more simple and intuitive. Everything our customers are used to will still be there, but better.
Braidee: Right?! When it comes to making sure your data is seamlessly migrated to the refreshed app, you won’t have to lift a finger (or swipe). Prism’s job is to make this easy for our users. When we refresh the app, they can expect to see the new experience upon logging in, with all their information right in front of them.
We know people will have questions along the way, and our support team is here to help! We’ll be offering FAQs and help tutorials on our website and in-app to better guide our customers through the new features, flows, and updates. For those who need more assistance, Prism Support is always one tap, text, or tweet away.
Will you be gathering feedback once the app is launched?
Braidee: Without a doubt! A big piece of inspiration for this redesign came from customer feedback, and we want to keep that momentum going.
Matt: Prior to launch, we’ll be rolling out a special beta version of the app that customers can try. We’ll then leverage their insights to tweak the new app before its final, wider release. We’re super excited about talking to users about Prism’s redesign. Stay tuned to our blog, app, and social media channels for more information about the beta testing program, coming soon!
Will the refresh also address any biller-linking issues?
Matt: While the app refresh and biller health initiatives are two separate projects, the bottom line is that the app is only as good as the connections to its billers. To that end, we’ve actually built out a special team to handle biller linking issues. They’re at it around the clock and are dedicated to delivering the smoothest possible biller connections.
Elephant in the room: Will the app still be free after the refresh?
Braidee: That’s a great question. At this time, we have no intention of moving to a paid app model. We believe everyone deserves access to a better way to pay bills, so the app will still be free when we refresh!
