Direct Debit set up uplift at City West Water

The who

City West Water
A Government owned water utility provider in Melbourne, Victoria.

My role

UX/UI Designer

Tools

Figma, Mural

The problem

The Direct Debit (DD) set up process at City West Water (CWW) was outdated and time-consuming. For example:

1. Customers can ONLY set up DD with a Credit Card over the phone (the customer HAS to call).

2. Customers who don’t want to pay in full and choose a weekly, fortnightly or monthly DD can only do so over the phone (the customer HAS to call).

3. In the customer portal DD can only be set up using a bank account and only when “Pay in full”. Not every customer has access to the portal. Non-portal users have to download a PDF form and email or post it back.

The hunch

Surely customers must be frustrated that:

1. They are forced to spend time calling customer service to set up a DD with a credit card or a payment plan type.

2. If they don’t have portal access they have to download a PDF form and email or mail it back (this could mean their DD set up could take days if not weeks).

The overall DD journey could be modernised with a self-service offering, which is common amongst most utility companies.

The process

1. Persona

I created a persona for this task to help give clear direction on whom I was designing for.

2. Desktop research

Some brief desktop research (exploring other utility companies’ Direct Debit offerings) proved that my hunch was worth investigating further as most other utilities were offering some digital self-service Direct Debit set-up method, so, shouldn’t CWW customers receive the same service offering?

3. User Interviews

I interviewed six CWW customers in 20-30 minute Zoom calls.

4. Synthesising the findings

I captured the interview verbatim in Mural. Using affinity mapping I grouped common threads together eg “Preferred method to set up DD?” | “Preferred payment method?” | “Comfortable using Credit Cards online?” etc.

The interviews were invaluable with findings that support my initial hunch:

1. ALL interviewed customers don't like having to call for payment plan type or paying with Credit Card. They would rather not do it at all or chose another option to avoid calling. 

2. ALL interviewed customers are comfortable using credit cards online (and most would prefer even more modern and secure options, eg - PayPal, Google/Apple Pay).

3. ALL interviewed customers EXPECT to do all basic transactions online (quickly and easily). They all PREFER to set up their Direct Debit online (either through a portal or through an online form).

5. Recommendations

CWW should enable DD online self-service regardless of:

• Choice of the payment type (pay in full, or payment plan style).

• Choice of payment method.

• Access to the customer portal or not.

The easiest and fastest way to make this happen is to create an online form on the website that meets the requirements above.

6. Designs, testing and iterations

Concept flow designs were sketched up and tested with the Senior UX Designer, feedback was incorporated into the low-fidelity wires, eg “Switch payment type with payment method so that the user knows how much the payment will be to make an informed decision on which method is best to pay that amount.”

Low-fidelity wires were presented and feedback was received to then influence the mid-fidelity mockups, eg “Replace radio buttons with toggle buttons for better accessibility”.

Mid-fidelity mockups were created. During this last stage of refinements, I had the idea to make the summary page editable for last-minute changes, rather than making the user manually go back through the form to the original page and amend it, and then have to move towards the end again to submit.

Finished mid-fidelity mockups:

7. Prototype

A final prototype was created with the mockups and tested with the original interviewed customer to close the loop and show them what their interview time had contributed to.

The outcome

City West Water and Western Water integrated to form Greater Western Water. At first, this project was set to become an online form on the new consolidated website. However, it was announced that a new singular Billing & Collections system was slated for 20213 release and with that, a new customer-facing self-service portal. Direct Debit online would be captured as a requirement for this new single system.

Not all is lost though. A feature in this design was picked up and used in the new GWW website Pay-a-bill app.