Google Pay — Better Luck Next Time

Google Pay (Tez) was launched in India as a UPI (United payment interface ) mid-September 2017.

For the topic of discussion, you can skip to Point number 4

Undeniably Google Pay offers the simplest app for bank transactions in India which supports

1. Payment through a phone number (Should have a Tez account)
2. Bank to bank transfer through Account Number and IFSC code
3. Payment through any UPI id or QR code

Why me as a user like Google Pay?

1. Easy mode for any bank transfers

• Once there was an issue with one on my bank accounts let’s call it ‘X’ bank and I was unable to access my account through the X bank app or the debit card, I used the account details and my phone number to create a UPI id on Google Pay and seamless transactions
• Google Pay made the app and banking services of ‘X’ bank irrelevant if you are using it only for transactions and neglecting the investing and other facilities the bank offers

2. My dad loves it

• Persona: Indian Farmer, early 50’s, using a smartphone for past 1 year, lives in a tier 2 city in India.
• He hasn’t used any internet till last year, from the moment he got his smartphone during May 2017 he is decent with using Whatsapp, Youtube and news apps.
• In banks, It’s common here to stay in Line for hours holding a paper with a token to make them listen to your request to withdraw to transfer money to other accounts. Though multiple attempts have been made to request for an online bank account details the bank was hesitant to do so, given it’s a 2 tier city even the bank employees were unaware of the process.
• The moment Tez is launched in India and he was taught how to do a bank transfer online he was amazed to see the convenience of it and has never gone to bank from that day on. Happy father - a happy family.

3. Referral Bonus of INR -51

• Tez gives a referral bonus after the first transaction if any of your referral installs it and then does the first transaction
• Many have done so and transferred INR-1 to each other and got 51 in return. Who doesn’t want free money?

4. Scratch cards (Our topic of discussion)

Google Pay provides you with a scratch card after a transaction with specific terms like transaction of ≥150, ≥500 transactions and others.

After receiving a scratch card you need to swipe it and see what’s your hidden reward and the thing is most of the time it says.

“Better luck Next time”

Now Google is using the eagerness of users after a transaction to see if they have got any hidden incentive for their action (Basic lottery system)

There are two outcomes for this

1. You jump for the free money you get and use Google Pay for more transactions — (Very rare)
2. You scratch the card and scratch your head for the bad(Better) luck! — (Very often)

Given that many users use Google Pay for the ease of transaction, they are happy if they see any free money added to their account but there is a catch, how often am I incentivized (rewarded) for my actions? here it’s very less.

Users feel more disincentivized here.

Given my count of transactions, my chances of receiving an incentive are less than 1% and the same with my dad’s account and I have never heard anyone say I have got money through the scratch card and I can’t wait to do more transactions for more scratch cards!— Missing word of mouth.

I have heard the opposite though — “Any idea how to disable the scratch card system on G pay?”

How did it change my behavior as a user?

Now, I don’t do any transactions early in the morning just to avoid the disappointment of seeing “Better luck next time” on my screen

I just do a transaction and stop looking at the scratch cards, will open them when I have too much time to spare and wanted to get disappointed

Though I love the ease of transaction I started using (Not entirely) different apps

When I looked at my dad’s account wondering what did he do with his scratch cards as he is not even aware of their use, no surprise, all the scratch cards are there and I scratched all of them to open my bundle of disappointment for the day.

Quantification

• We can look at the Scratch Gap = (Scratched time — Scratchcard sent time )

In this case, assuming the time is very little < 10 sec initially when the product is newly launched and the time gap increase gradually once the user has a series of disappointments (Better luck next time cards)

• The difference in usage of the users who received a cash back and who didn’t — if they are doing any transactions after or just abandoning the app for a longer time
• The number of unscratched cards for a day, week, month — This will tell us if the users don’t care about it anymore or don’t know it exists (My dad)
• Looking at the internet for user reactions

Suggestions

• Google can have a capping system of the reward by a certain amount per user and mention it upfront to the users like — you still have 500/- as reward waiting for you
• The reward system can be as per the number of transactions than random luck — 10 more transactions to go for a 100/- reward, same can be applied to the aggregate amount of all transactions
• Option to disable the scratch cards (For me please)

Though incentivizing users is good for a product marketing point of view it is always about the problem that product is solving and making my life easier.

Given Google pay, which does a fantastic job easing the bank transaction system could have just stopped at 51/- referral bonus incentivizing users for sharing the app and bringing more crowd on to the platform than losing its user base because of the scratch card system through providing a great product

— — — —

Got something for me? — Comment or DM.