Ashwin Sekar, CTO at InCred Group, reveals key strategies for designing intuitive and compliant customer journeys:
Ravi Lalwani: For maximizing CX, what design elements are usually the most difficult or demanding? How are you tackling that challenge?
Ashwin Sekar: We make sure to explain financial products and important information to customers in an easy-to-understand way. To do this, we gather feedback during early testing to check if our content is easy to read. We also ensure that key information about the product is available in multiple languages so that our messages can be understood by our target audience.
We use intuitive iconography and some personalization for India. We aim to use familiar iconography and design elements that the majority of users are already familiar with, rather than introducing new design icons. However, this is challenging as we have multiple products catering to different target segments. We have also invested in an intuitive help experience, including personalized FAQs and explainer videos tailored to different stages of the customer journey. In addition, we provide real-time human assistance on-demand, allowing customers to securely screen share (with all personal data masked) and get tele-assistance if they have questions. We always comply with regulatory requirements and keep our processes simple and easy to understand.
Give some examples of how you have enhanced the CX impact by fine-tuning words, colors, sounds, tone, etc.
At InCred, our focus is on simple, clear, and concise messaging using plain language. Our communications and help sections are personalized based on the page from which the customer seeks help. We currently support 5 languages, with 3 more on the way shortly. We are working to expand the available options to include more Indian languages shortly.
In terms of design elements, we use a design system that ensures consistency across products and customer touchpoints. We also emphasize using elements that the Indian population is already familiar with through the various apps they use, to ensure usability, familiarity, and comfort. This helps customers intuitively navigate the journey with a minimal learning curve. We continually conduct user testing sessions to gather feedback on key design elements such as colors, sounds, and typography. We use this feedback to make informed adjustments. Finally, we acknowledge that it’s hard to foresee everything and hence focus on watching the data closely and combining it with customer outreach to ensure fast feedback loops. This ensures we can quickly improve designs and other CX elements if we detect problem points.
How extensively do you use A/B testing to improve CX? Is the use of A/B testing going up or down?
We use A/B testing extensively to enhance the customer experience (CX). It’s a critical part of our strategy. A/B testing is used across our infrastructure, underwriting, and policy, as well as in deciding the customer journey and steps they must go through.
A/B testing throughout the stack allows us to drive continuous improvement across the customer journey and empirically determine the best risk-adjusted pricing and conversion decisions for every customer segment. Furthermore, running all changes in A/B mode allows us to minimize impact in case of issues, react quickly, and fix bugs fast without impacting the entire user base. Finally, we are working to continually expand the extent to which we use A/B testing and to extend it across the lending value chain to maximize the rate of improvement in both business metrics and customer experience.
Personalization has emerged as a very powerful customer relationship approach. Give 2 or 3 examples of personalization that have been efficient and effective for the customer and the organization?
We have what we call ‘personalized app journeys,’ where the customer’s risk profile and our machine learning models determine how many checks and verifications (and therefore ‘steps’) the customer goes through. Customers with the lowest calculated risks have fewer steps, while those perceived to be at higher risk undergo more checks and verifications as part of their loan journey.
Our products are priced based on the risk calculated by our machine learning models, making them highly personalized. This approach enables us to deliver the best risk-adjusted returns and profitability by balancing the multiple, opposing constraints of pricing a loan application correctly. We manage the risk of default, maximize the likelihood of conversion, and ensure the best possible customer experience depending on the segment the customer belongs to.
Have there been differences of opinion between technology experts and business experts as to the roadmap for CX improvement? How were the differences resolved?
At InCred, we work backward from solving the needs of the customer and the business. We also believe in the common-sense philosophy that all segments we lend to must be profitable on a unit basis. The whole organization is continually aligned with this central tenet. Once aligned with the philosophy and tenet mentioned above, it’s easy to align on the roadmap. At InCred, our CX roadmap is designed based on identified business problems and customer needs. We strive to bring it to life through simple, intuitive, and functional journeys, all designed to address the business problems and customer needs.
Are you using design thinking to improve CX? If yes, give 1 or 2 examples.
We have used design thinking in several areas to improve CX. For every idea being evaluated, we seek to answer 5 simple questions: (a) Who is the customer? (b) What’s the problem statement? (c) What’s the most important customer benefit? (d) What data do we have to prove or disprove the assertions we are making? And (e) what would the customer experience look like?
It then becomes the simple (yet difficult) matter of iterating on paper and Figma prototypes until all stakeholders are satisfied and aligned on the approach. Only then do we start writing code to create the functionality for the product? Examples include our revamp of the internal sales tech support portal and our complete overhaul of the personal loan application process, including the introduction of a web-based journey in addition to the app journey.
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