Reducing customer churn by 15% through simplified pricing
Streamlining complex pricing structures through user-centered design and behavioural insights.
My role - benchmarking of competitors, user research, UI design, product strategy
Feature
Team
Product Manager
2 Developers
The features - price tags and pricing model redesign had a significant impact
15%
Reduction in customer churn rate in 8 months
KPIs
The feature has been pushed live only in Germany at the moment to observe user behaviour, post which it will be planned for rolling out in other EU countries.
Using Key performance indicators, the performance of the feature will be measured in these aspects to understand the patterns of user activity and revenue generation.
No. of clicks on cheap chargers to determine user behaviour.
No. of charging sessions initiated via the cheaper charger.
No. of charging sessions of a specific Charge Point Operator.
No. of customer complaints regarding pricing info.
Background & project goals
The company was in the middle of the break-even phase. This project was super crucial because it allows the company to negotiate with energy providers (our stakeholder) to provide better costs to users and in turn make revenue through B2C conversions.
The EV market is very new and price regulation is a challenge, as every CPO (Charge Point Operator) have their own pricing models that EMSPs have to adapt to. There are 100+ pricing models currently.
The team wanted to create an MVP that could solve the pricing issue to roll out immediately.
Problems
#1 Users perceive that charging stations on the ChargeNow app are extremely overpriced and struggle to find cheaper chargers.
Through existing user research obtained from appstore reviews, most of our users complained about pricing related issues.
#2 Users complain that they are unable to understand the cost breakdown of a charging session.
The EV market is very new and price regulation is a challenge, as every CPO have their own pricing models that EMSPs have to adapt to. There are 100+ pricing models currently.
Research insights
Approx. 35% of our users were expected to stop using the app due to pricing complaints.
This is data gathered from app store reviews, customers experience teams and interviews
Confusing price categories
Most users cannot comprehend the costing categories making them feel they are paying more than usual.
Unable to find cheaper chargers
Users struggle to find cheaper chargers and perceive the pricing on the app is very expensive compared to others.
Negative appstore reviews
Users leave negative reviews on app stores which affect the trust value for the company.
Too many support calls
Customer supports teams spend a lot of time resolving pricing issues which increases cost for the company.
One of the customer reviews on App store
Competitor analysis
Before jumping into design, I did a benchmarking of competitors regarding pricing display
I found from my research that
Competitors don't have distinguishers between cheap and expensive chargers on the map view.
Price breakdown was comprehensive to understand the different cost categories
Solution and features
Solution #1: Creating price tags on charging pins in the map view
By creating green price tags with "€" icon on pins indicate cheaper stations. The pins are visible when map is zoomed on street, station and regional levels.
Before
User cannot locate cheaper stations from a map view. They have to individually open each pin to scroll to pricing section.
After
Price tags give an overview of cheaper chargers and a pill in the pop-up shows for recall value.
Solution #2: I redesigned pricing categories that be used modularly for multiple categories
The design was created using modular components that can be reused to display different kinds of pricing models provided by the CPOs.
Improving the UX copy can provide more transparency to users. Here, the use of UI and colours makes scanning of info easy and comprehensible.
Semantic representation of a cost category card
Before
The price breakdown is incomprehensible.
The colours used for pricing are the same, making it difficult to scan and differentiate.
If prices were of "0" value, the back-end code hid it from users due to tech constraints.
Too much text creates a cognitive load for users.
After
Cost categories are renamed to distinguish.
UI colours for text are changed for easy scanning.
Free costs are shown upfront in green for transparency in prices.
Description text has been pushed to the bottom to reduce cognitive load.
Key learnings
Business goals directly impacts design
The company was in the break- even phase which prompted to make this project a priority to generate revenue by increasing transactions through the B2C app.
I learnt to apply critical and strategic thinking skills to create an MVP solution that would require very less development effort and costs to make a bigger impact that would align with business goals.
Devs helped with technical knowledge that made me design better
Modifying the pricing display was particularly challenging because the backend code was structured to calculate and present prices in a confusing way.
As a result, this project required me to thoroughly understand the backend code to effectively design and implement changes to the front-end interface.