Design process & learnings from designing recurring payment system

The subscription business model is becoming popular nowadays, and it’s not only because of the stable and fast cash flow but also due to the advantages that come with recurring payments, as it benefits both the business and the customer.

How does recurring payment work?

The typical steps that are followed by all the recurring payment processors are :

Why recurring payment in OneAssist?

Like all the other subscription-based products we encounter in our daily lives e.g. Broadband & utility bills, Netflix, Amazon, Gaana, Policy Bazaar, etc OneAssist is also into the subscription business.

OneAssist has monthly, quarterly, yearly subscription plans. The recurring payment was introduced to enhance the user experience and also, benefit the business by receiving the payment on time.

By introducing recurring payments, the customer doesn’t have to open the app or website and take action on the invoices at the end of every subscription cycle. The defined amount will be automatically deducted from the customer’s account at the end of every cycle which will save them from any payment penalties and will also reduce the customer’s effort of manually doing the repeated process.

Defining UX Metrics: Google’s HEART framework

To begin, we defined the UX Metrics.

UX Metrics are required to track and measure the user experience of a design, which is done with the help of some quantitative data points. With the help of these metrics, we can take user-centric design decisions and also, measure them later.

For this project, we have used Google’s HEART framework. The HEART framework contains 5 user-centered metrics:

• Happiness
• Engagement
• Adoption
• Retention
• Task Sucess

These metrics will help us to evaluate the efficiency and measure the impact of UX changes.

We defined the metrics as per the project goals and requirements.

Research Methodology

Competitive Analysis

Out of various research methods we chose competitive analysis to understand user expectations and habits while using a subscription model and to design an experience meeting the business goals as well as user needs.

We studied 8 products that have recurring payment system. Adding some insights we got from 2 of the products:

1. Netflix

More insights from Netflix :

• It is mandatory for the user to pay using the recurring payment
• No trial plans are available
• In case of transaction failure, clear communication is given that “any charges will be refunded”, so that the user does not panic
• Subscription plan summary missing during the payment process

2. Hotstar

More insights from Hotstar :

• Have no trial plan but a few movies and series are available to watch without purchasing the plan
• On logging in, the user is given suggestions of the phone number by which the user has logged in previously on the platform

UX Learnings

On the basis of the research done, we got the following learnings that should be taken care of while introducing a recurring payment flow, to create a positive customer experience.

1. Clear communication of the payment cycle and payment amount — It gives better visibility to the user and no unwanted transaction will happen
2. Flexibility to cancel recurring payment anytime — This will give a feeling of control and trust to the user
3. Flexibility to update payment mode
4. In case the recurring payment is mandatory, only the payment modes that support recurring payment system should be shown on the payment page — This will avoid information overload and confusion
5. In case the recurring payment is optional, the payment modes supporting the recurring payment system should be highlighted — it will help the user to make an informative decision in the first step.
6. Information related to recurring payment like billing cycle, billing duration, payment mode used recurring payment, etc should be visible to the user.

Implementing the Learnings

Keeping the above pointers in mind the recurring payment system was added to the payment flow along with some visual enhancements (mentioned in detail in the later section).

For phase 1, recurring payment was provided with credit/debit cards and UPI.

Also, we decided to launch two types of recurring payments on OneAssist.

1. Recurring payment is optional — Where the user can opt-out from recurring payment while purchasing a plan
2. Recurring payment is mandatory — Where the user can purchase a plan along with recurring payment only

Keeping the above pointers in mind the recurring payment was added to the payment page along with the few visual enhancements

Case 1: Recurring payment is optional

Case 2: Recurring payment is mandatory

Visual enhancements on the payment page

While exploring other platform payment flows, we came across a few pointers that would help us improve our payment page and hence give users a better and seamless experience.

The below insights helped us to provide users with better visibility of the information, create a sense of trust and security while purchasing a plan:

1. Payments details should include plan duration and validity
2. The amount to be paid can be shown on the CTA of the payment page
3. Elements to create trust and security should be added on the payment page
4. If plan purchase is a long process, then it should be broken into steps
5. Payment modes could be recommended to the users, for e.g. UPI as it has zero transaction fees, so it could be highlighted
6. To complete the UPI payment, in case of website users could be shown instructions to complete the payment through the respective PSP app, and in case of app users could be redirected to the respective PSP app
7. Discounts could be shown along with the respective payment modes (if any)

Outcome

In a quick span of around 15–20 days, we have achieved a healthy attachment rate of 17% with the recurring payment (where UPI attachment is 30% and cards attachment is 7%). We hope to see a jump of 2 times in cards attachment rate, as only Visa cards are currently live and MasterCard is yet to follow.

Conclusion

Recurring payment system is convenient for both the customers and the business as it reduces the friction of doing the whole payment process again after every set duration.

But it’s also important to give clear visibility to the users of the same else it may create distrust and panic amongst them.

When users know the current system status, they learn the outcome of their prior interactions and determine the next steps. Predictable interactions create trust in the product as well as the brand.

Also, users should always be given the feeling of control and freedom.

When it’s easy for people to back out of a process or undo an action, it fosters a sense of freedom and confidence. Exits allow users to remain in control of the system and avoid getting stuck and feeling frustrated.

Thank you for reading…