Reflection – Learning Launch

Paola Garcia

Challenge

In the financial services industry, the strategies developed to manage lending portfolios are developed  through data analysis of past performance.  In the collections environment, analytics and traditional  methods to contact customers (phone, letters and email) are the norm.  As the number of missed  payments on an account increases, the ability to reach customers decreases.   The result is higher  delinquency rates, increase expense and customer complaints.

A project was launched to determine how these measures could be improved.  A small team was formed  which included people from various departments including Analytics, Operations, Finance, Marketing to  name a few.   A recommendation was made to utilize design thinking.  Working with our Marketing  Research team several tools were utilized to understand our customer needs and develop some ideas to  test.  To address the needs of a specific persona, Customers who felt uncomfortable discussing their  situation and felt the people they spoke to on the phone lacked empathy, the idea of a collections  website was developed.

Selection

The team chose the learning launch to test a collections website.   The learning launch allows for a fast  and inexpensive way to run an experiment to learn.   This was facilitated by the ability to utilize an  outsourced model.  The website functionality was already developed by a vendor and provided the  minimum viable product which met the design criteria.     The learning launch provided the data needed  to determine whether the idea was good or bad.

Application

The team developed a detailed plan to launch the experiment including customer segments,  communication methods, measurements, and customer feedback surveys.  The website launched on  time and tested for 90 days.   The results provided significant data that the idea worked as well as new  insights to improve the website and other internal processes.

Insight

The learning launch enabled the team to develop and test quickly where there was not past data and  could potentially be a better approach that the traditional methods used.  In addition, it provided a lot  of customer feedback that changed the existing strategies (phone, letters, email) and enhancements to  the company website.  Ongoing use of the website has Increased  collection rates and decreased   expenses and complaints.

Approach

The learning launch was the best approach since we had the ability to launch quickly.  Had there not  been an existing vendor with the necessary tool, another approach would have been necessary as  prioritization of technology builds can often take significant time.

