Content design for the Payment Assistance Plan

Problem:

Customers with past-due or over-limit accounts had been struggling to repay their balances, often feeling overwhelmed and intimidated by the process, leading to missed payments and decreased customer trust. Customers would receive communication from the bank about missed payments, but that went over about as well as you'd expect.

​Solution:

Design an end-to-end user experience that would allow customers to pay the bank back incrementally, in a way that doesn't feel dehumanizing or judgmental. The process would also benefit customer service reps (CSRs), who'd normally complete this process over the phone.

​​Content strategy:

 First, via the Account Summary screen, we'd guide the user into a questionnaire flow. We chose a questionnaire so that we could tailor a personalized payment plan based on their unique situation. The user would then agree to a series of terms and conditions, which enrolls them in the program. From there, the user could schedule their monthly payment, choose a payment method, or contact a CSR for help. Once they finished scheduling their payments, they'd be taken to a confirmation screen to exit the flow.

​​For tone of voice, I felt that we needed to feel supportive but not judgey (or patronizing). We also needed to spell everything out clearly so that users wouldn't feel confused or even more frustrated and stressed out. I was careful to avoid using words like "delinquent" or "overdue," which can feel punitive, and instead used softer language. 

​Overview:

​User research (observing interviews with payment plan customers and CSRs) > Brainstorm/plan > Design & copy > Prototype > Legal review > Test > Release> Iterate > Release

​​My role:

Sole content designer. I defined the voice and tone, rewrote key touchpoints (questionnaire, terms, confirmation, etc.), partnered with Legal to ensure compliance, and used research insights to change messaging as needed.

 Coming in mid project proposed a series of challenges for me: I needed to quickly understand the project, scope, and current flow, and to also build on work that existed before my time. Fortunately, I was able to use the results from user testing, both before and after I joined, to inform the content that I designed. 

​Results:

 Our payment assistance plan flow helped recover around $500K in recovered funds for the bank while, more importantly, helping customers work their way out of credit card debt. Users (and CSRs) responded positively to the simplified payment assistance plan, with many nods to the clear instructions and logical design.

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Content strategy for disaster relief emails

Problem:

​Past-due or over-limit credit card customers in disaster-affected areas deal with massive financial strain and disruption. Outreach about their payment assistance plan would feel tone deaf and transactional, which would damage trust (at best). Still, Wells Fargo wanted to reach out to customers impacted by disaster and let them know that the company would provide temporary payment relief.

​​Solution:

 Develop a series of empathetic, sympathetic, and clearly written emails that communicate to customers that temporary payment relief would be available while avoiding eliciting a sense of urgency or pressure, and especially the feeling that we were nagging them to make payments.

Content strategy:

​​I conducted market analysis from banks' and utilities companies' messaging regarding disaster relief. I particularly liked  messaging that centered the user's feelings rather than the company's and were crafted to avoid high-pressure language with a clear call to action and what the outcome would be.

​To remain compliant with Legal, and to not sound soulless and money grabby, I had Legal provide a list of items we needed to touch on (or shouldn't touch on), and wrote my copy around those constraints.

​Overview:

​Brainstorm > Copy > Legal review > Release

​My role:

Sole content strategist. I defined the voice and tone for the payment assistance plan disaster communications, wrote all email variants, and partnered closely with Legal to ensure compliance.

​​Conclusion:

Having grown up in central Florida, where many such disasters take place, I knew that the thought of paying bills during a disaster felt overwhelming, if not totally at the back of mind. I avoided emotional, dramatic language and instead focused on calm, clear reassurance and actionable next steps to cultivate a mutual feeling of cooperation between the customer and the company. The emails were successfully deployed during active disaster periods and approved by Legal without requiring major revisions.

Content design for the PACE Employee Portal

Problem:

The internal platform CSRs were using to assist customers was inefficient and outdated, leading to longer call times, inconsistent customer support experiences, and frustration for both CSRs and customers.

​Unfortunately, my contract ended before I got to see this project deployed, but the work was interesting enough that I wanted to include it anyway.

​​Solution:

Design a new portal that would make search (a particular pain point for CSRs) more intuitive and accurate while also including gamification elements to improve CSR morale and reward performance.

​​Content strategy:

​​As sole content designer, I began developing a naming system for badges, ranks (like "Knowledge Navigator"), and team goals. I wanted the experience to feel competitive but supportive, as we noodled with the idea of departments (playfully) competing with each other for bragging rights. I also wanted it to feel on brand with company culture and established style guidelines so that it didn't feel too disjointed from other internal tools.

​​Due to timeline constraints, my work focused more on early-stage concepting and content strategy rather than full validation.

​​​Conclusion:

Although I didn't get to see the portal launch, it allowed me to work on internal tools for the first time and strengthened my ability to design content systems in gamified experiences, which was honestly just a lot of fun.