Introducing Paynow QR payment method
into My StarHub App
STARHUB
Background
Accept different payment method on one platform is StarHub payment system long term goal. In the end of 2020, Starhub business decided to include PayNow QR as part of the billing payment method in the app.
What is PayNow QR?
PayNow QR is a one-time bill payment. How PayNow QR function in StarHub bill? A unique dynamic PayNow QR code is embedded with SH billing account number (eg: 1.12345678S), payment amount (eg: $327.74) for that particular bill month. Under current SG PayNow QR framework, one PayNow QR only for one transaction request to prevent wrong payment or money transfer.
My role and responsibilities
• UX design for end to end passenger redesign
• Iterative prototype and validate it.
Discover the reason for having PayNow
Before going further, I deep dived into current billing payment method data (as reported on 21 Oct 2020) to find out WHY and WHERE we need the PayNow method in the billing payment system. This cost additional operating cost for billing section.
Finance transaction data as reported on 21 Oct 2020
Cash
64%
Recurring Credit Card
24%
Recurring GIRO
12%
During the investigation, I ran an interview with the Finance’s co-worker. From the interview, I learned that credit card processing fees would typically cost a business in general more than 2% of each transaction’s total. For a sale of $100, you could pay anywhere from $2.00 in credit card processing fees. This will cost additional operation fees for the business.
"PayNow QR shall be a cost-saving project"
– Business stakeholder A
"We spent a significant amount of effort in chasing StarHub's bill from customers"
– Business stakeholder B
Define
From the findings insights, PayNow QR shall target converting high-cost one-time bill payment customers (e.g., one-time 3DS credit card, cash, NETS) to use PayNow QR to pay their StarHub bill.
Develop ideas
I’ve run heuristic research within the internal team to investigate the best approach. From the finding, I found out that:
• PayNow payment method isn’t the TOP preferred one-off payment method for all types of users.
• For the long term goal of resolving customers’ bill debt, we should encourage the customer to sign up for recurring payment method.
• Consumers need some hints or guidance on uploading the QR to the bank app.
Deliver
How do we measure the metrics?
Since the enabling of dynamic PayNow QR on MSA, the Finance transaction has shown a spike in PayNow QR transaction volume since 15 April 2022. The daily PayNow QR transaction volume has increased 62%, from daily 303 transaction counts per Day to 490 transactions per Day.
This is a good start for encouraging more ad-hoc paying MSA customers to pay the bill via PayNow QR instead of Credit Card, an initiative for cost-saving collection and better customer experience.