Aella App Case Study – Temi Oyemade

AELLA APP

Improving the user experience of requesting loan documents.

Business overview

Aella is a fintech startup serving over 2 million users in Africa. This startup specialises in providing lending and other financial services to underbanked individuals and businesses through their mobile loan app, Aella app, which allows individuals to easily request quick loans. If eligible, funds are deposited into their account within minutes, supporting financial empowerment and growth in Africa.

BackgRound of The proBlem

In the initial months after I joined the company. We faced an unexpected rise in customer requests, which also increased the workload of our customer support reps leading to burnout, delayed response times, and decreased customer satisfaction. This prompted the stakeholders to explore effective ways to handle requests. The initial solution was to hire additional support agents to quickly address these requests. Since one of my team’s key performance indicators (KPIs) is to reduce customer support requests/queries to zero by resolving issues through UX design, we took prompt action to look into the issue and we came up with an effective solution.

Taking a deep dive into the problem

In a bid to uncover the cause for this surge in requests, the first thing we did was to check what customers have been requesting for. We looked into customer queries for the last 6 months. After analysing these queries, we found out that requests for stamped bank statements and letters of non-indebtedness are way more common than other types of requests the team have received over the months. In total , the support team have received over 7,000 requests of which 40% is for stamped bank statement and 30% for letter of non-indebtedness (N.I.L). We also looked into how the request for these documents has spiked over the last 6 months as well. We concluded that the demand for these documents will continue to rise and if necessary actions are not taken, it can increase operational costs as the business need to scale up the support team in order to meet customer requests.

What are these documents and why is the demand so high?

A letter of non-indebtedness is a document given to a customer who has paid off all previous debts to a financial institution. It serves as proof that the customer has cleared all recorded debts and is no longer obligated to the issuer. On the other hand, a stamped bank statement is a bank statement stamped by the issuing bank to confirm its authenticity.
In Nigeria, where Aella primarily operates, these documents have gained popularity and its demand is now on the rise. This is because of the absence of a centralised credit system- there is no reliable data to verify the creditworthiness of a loan recipient. Many banks and online lending platforms usually request either of these documents to evaluate a borrower’s existing indebtedness to other institutions before granting a loan. Customers often request these documents when they need to apply for loans and visas.

"How can we make it faster and easier for customers to get non-indebtedness letters and stamped bank statements while reducing delays and making customers happier?"

Understanding the current journey

Now that we’ve identified the reasons behind the surge, I looked into the journey from the moment customers make a request to when they receive it in their email. I did this because i want to understand the challenges they faced, their thoughts and their reactions. This step evolved into an experience map that illustrate their entire journey and captures the emotions associated with each touchpoint.

How we solved this problem

After several brainstorming sessions, we came up with a solution to automate the process of getting these documents which is to implement features within the app that lets customers request these documents, and get them in their email instantly or within a day, so they don’t have to contact our support. When a customer has paid all their debts, the N.I.L document is automatically added to their account, awaiting the user’s request. Once the document is requested and the processing fee is charged, it will be automatically approved and sent to the user’s email. As for the stamped bank statement, it can be generated just like the standard bank statement but on the company’s letterhead and sent to the user’s email as well.

Where within the app is the ideal location for this new feature?

Next, I determined the best places within app to implement the new features. Looking at how Aella app is organised, I selected locations users are familiar with to ensure ease of use and findability.

For the stamped bank statements, I added it to the Request bank statement page by introducing a “Select statement type” option.
For the letter of non-indebtedness, I proposed placing it under the “loans” section.

I presented the new information architecture to my team. They liked the idea. Then I proceeded to creating detailed designs.

DEsigning the Solution

I jumped on the Figma board, started designing screens for the new features to be added. I also made necessary adjustments to some of the existing designs to accommodate for the new feature.

Outcome

After presenting the designs to the team, I received feedback on the designs, iterated on the designs and handed it off to the engineers to implement. Within the first month of launch, we observed a 40% decrease in the number of requests for these documents. This decrease was attributed to customers been able to generate these documents seamlessly within the app without the need to contact the support team. The agents are now able to focus on other customer requests.

Next Steps

We observed customers are still contacting support to make requests for loan documents. This could be due to a lack of awareness of the newly introduced features in the app. To further minimize requests for these documents, we plan to increase awareness among our users who may not be familiar with this feature. This will be done through our in-app ads. In addition to this, we will add this information to our end-of-the-year newsletters to keep customers informed about our latest features.