Subscription Cancellation Redesign
How to strategically enhance the customer subscription cancellation process for ease of use while balancing customer retention, gaining loyalty, and building trust?
Project
Background
In Summer 2022, I had a chance to work as the Product Design Intern under QuickBooks mobile team, where I assisted the team in redesigning the customers' subscription cancellation experience.
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As a result, the design is implemented for A/B test and received a monthly 11K views. Please note, this internship project was publicly released more than two years after its initial completion.
ROLE
Product Designer
METHODS & TOOL
Context Research, Customer Research, Pain Point Identification, Workflow Prioritization, Feature Prioritization, Prototype Design, User Testing
DATE
May - July, 2022
PRACTICES
Product Design, Cross-Departmental Communication, Project Management
EVENT
Intuit Summer Experience
Project Context
Being unable to cancel their QB subscription, and feeling trapped into a financial commitment that isn't working for their business is the #1 VOC on Mobile at the moment. Currently, users who want to cancel QBO from their mobile device can fall into dead ends in the user flow.
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The goal of this project is to create cancellation experience for users to keep user trust, even as they leave the app
Process
Build something from nothing in 12 weeks
Given the time constraints, I created a tight schedule in an agile environment to conduct a comprehensive contextual inquiry across iOS and Android platforms, perform market research, analyze competitors, and review feedback from over 50 customers to design and deliver an end-to-end subscription cancellation experience​
Product Walkthrough & Heuristic Evaluation
I started off with a comprehensive context research to walk through the current state of the product. Since the testing account fails to accurately capture the cancellation workflow that our customers are experiencing, I decided to create my own account with subscriptions across both IOS, Android, and website platforms. The overall research includes screenshots of the current state, workflow diagram, pain points & improvement discovery, and the construction of the desired cancellation workflow.
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Flow 1) From Web Subscription to Mobile Cancellation
The current state exhibit complicated workflows across different platforms.
For customers who subscribed through mobile and wish to cancel through the same device, both iOS and Android present different challenges. iOS directs users to Apple’s subscription management page via the "Manage my subscription" tab, while Android only provides current subscription information and a small "offer details" button leading to a text-heavy page.
Flow 2) From Website subscription to Mobile Cancellation
For users who subscribed on the website but want to cancel on mobile, iOS users are only presented with subscription information, whereas Android users cannot even locate a subscription tag within the settings.
Flow 3) From Mobile subscription to Website Cancellation
Users who subscribed on a mobile platform and attempt to cancel on the website are met with a message stating, "Looks like you are on Apple or Google billing," without further instructions.
Customer Research
Affinity Diagram
We have gathered 50 mobile app store reviews and reached out to three customers to conduct a moderated interview. The customer research process also include an affinity diagram that identifyoccurring trends in cancellation process.
VOC Highlights
Some of the VOC that I discovered is a feeling of being “trapped,” not knowing “where and how to cancel,” being “frustrated,” and end up to “use a different program to do all of this,” which is something we don’t want to see.
Trapped. Can't seem to cancel. Made like cancelling is easy butcancellation is a bunch of hoops to jump through only to lead toanother hopp. CAN SOMEONE PLEASE HELP!!!
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(app review, lOS)
l am trying to cancel a subscription and it's giving me the hardest time to find out where and how to cancel. l am frustrated.
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(app review, Android)
I can't cancel l can't upgrade... l can't do anything! lt's not like l canjust put my business to a stop and send invoices, so now l'm using a different program to do all of this ... so now what l do.
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(Customer Interview, Android)
(More from the voice of the Customers)
Learn how Intuit Support approach the cancellation process.
With the help of Alex, our team was able to reach out to six Intuit Customer support to learn how they guide the customers to cancel their subscriptions.
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One key observation is the inconsistent interpretation of the phrase "cancel my account" by customer support teams. Some representatives understand this as a request to cancel subscriptions, while others interpret it as a request for account deletion, leading to significantly different actions being taken.
Additionally, many customer support representatives prefer guiding users to cancel their subscriptions via the website, as they are generally more familiar with this process. This preference is further influenced by their limited familiarity with QBM (Quality Business Management) across various mobile devices and the lack of updated simulation models for the cancellation process.
Pain Points
Based on the creation of the affinity diagram, my team and I came to observe four major trends in the subscription cancelation process:
1) Lack of instructions
The current cancellation process is difficult to execute, but the instructions are hard to locate and understand.
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2) Complicated workflow
Customers who don't understand why they have to use a specific system to cancel are confused and, especially, frustrated when the system fails.​
​3) Support fails to meet the expectations
Current support system do not always direct users to the appropriate answer, leading to long hold times, being routed, or hung up.
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4) Continued charges on payment
Even when users believe they have cancelled, they are still being charged for the products
Stakeholder
Problem Statement
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I am an on the go small business owner who uses QuickBooks Mobile.
I am trying to cancel my QuickBooks Mobile subscription.
But l can't cancel successfully
because the process isn't clear
Which makes me feel so frustrated that l lose trust in QuickBooks.
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Prioritization
Given the limited time of the internship, I decided to concentrate on the development of “website -> IOS” workflow because:
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Largest User Base and Cancellation Volume: The "website → iOS" workflow has the highest number of mobile users and accounts for the largest volume of cancellations.
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Major Source of Negative Feedback: A significant portion of negative feedback from iOS users regarding the cancellation process comes from users who subscribed via the web and not through the Apple Store.
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Lack of Guidance: The current workflow lacks adequate documentation for guiding users through the cancellation process, presenting an opportunity for impactful improvements with minimal content changes.
Workflow Prioritization
The brainstormed features are laid out on the 2 X 2 matrix. The matrix is designed based on customer impact and technical feasibility.
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Based on the matrix, I have determined that our top priority is to have “ in-app cancellation” and “better content design.” I also think it is good to have an availability to resume subscriptions, modify support articles across the platform, and send out confirmation emails & surveys to customers upon cancellation.
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Design
Goals & Principles
Principles
Our design goal is to go from this complicated cancellation workflow to a seamless customer experience. From inconsistent support & help to better product content support. And, in the long run, from different experiences across platforms to a unified customer experience.
Prototypes
in Progress
Design 1: In-App Cancellation
Inspiration
Inspired by the Canva's subscription procedure, where it allows online users to cancel directly in the app with one click.
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Condition Highlight
Need approval from the Apple contact to make sure it is in compliant with the apple policy
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Feedback Highlight
1) One of the most intuitive, convenient workflow for customers
2) Would like a stronger cancellation confirmation message
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What customers are saying ...
Design 2: Navigate Users to cancel Subscriptions on Website
Inspiration
Inspired by Spotify, where it pushed all customers to manage their subscriptions on the website.​
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Feedback Highlight
Least likable workflow by the customer.​​
What customers are saying ...
Design 3: Leverage the use of One Intuit Account Manager (OIAM)
Inspiration
The current competitor Bonsai allows web-embedded within app cancellation process.
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Source
Discovered the current adoption of the OlAM and would love to increase its using cases by making it more obvious/accessible within the OBM.
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Feedback Highlight
One of the middle-ranked workflow for customers
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What customers are saying ...
User
Testing
Final
Design
Based on user testing results, the team and I have decided to proceed with a hybrid approach: the Design 1: in-app cancellation design and Design 3: OIMA Sign in . However, after thoughtful considerations, we decide to keep the OIAM feature accessible only via the email address or "Manage Your Intuit Account."
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Given the complexity of the cancellation workflow, we believe directing all customers to OIAM wouldn't align with desired customer behavior changes. The OIAM team has emphasized its significance for sign-in and security, which could be beneficial in the long term.
Additionally, since OIAM is already integrated on Android devices, it could facilitate standardizing the cancellation process across platforms.
Future Outlook
Design Challenges was painful but rewarding
Reflection
Working on this project is an amazing experience to me
This internship marks my first step into product design. Despite a demanding timeline, I engaged in customer identification, ideation, and prototyping. These stages significantly enhanced my understanding of the comprehensive feature development process within an agile environment. This experience has been instrumental in providing a realistic view of product development from concept to prototype.
The Intricate balance between customer retention rate and ease of subscription process
Enhancing the subscription process to be straightforward and user-friendly can significantly boost customer satisfaction and engagement, thereby increasing retention rates. However, simplifying this process must be carefully managed to maintain the quality of customer intake and ensure that it aligns with long-term business objectives. Striking the right balance is crtical for fostering loyalty and achieving sustainable growth.
In this project, while we make the cancellation process more straightforward to maintain the balance and reduce the churn rate, we also implemented a survey before cancellation. This approach allows us to better understand the reasons behind customer decisions, providing valuable insights that can inform future enhancements to both the subscription and cancellation processes. This
If I have more time...
I would love to uniform the cancellation process across the platform, implement the post-cancellation survey under the help of Team Mobile Core, and, instead of subscription cancellation, users can also upgrade their subscriptions in mobile.