Designing the phone number transfer feature in-app, enabling new customers to start, track, and receive updates on their number transfer—all within the same device
Client
Role
Lead designer
Year
2024
Platform
Mobile app
Background
For new TELUS customers, porting in their existing phone number to the carrier is the most visited self-serve flow during onboarding. Currently, the app entry point redirects to the mobile web experience, which had poor usability for mobile phones.
As the lead designer, I worked on creating the user experience of the new app, making decisions from leveraging data from the existing web experience. Collaborating with developers, we utilized new technologies to create the first React Native app experience in-house.
Impact
Post-launch analytics showed that the redesigned experience improved both user engagement and business outcomes.
Conversion rate jumped from 4.5% to 24.3% (+440%)
Port-in completions rose from 174 to 1,027 (+490%)
Customer pain points
The existing mobile web flow suffered from slow performance, unclear information needs and instructions (eg. providing old account number or old IMEI number), and confusing next steps to confirm the transfer. The existing experience's drop-off rate was ~23%.
Design goals
By leveraging these user insights, we identified our main goals for the redesign with the intention of improving user confidence to self-serve.
1
Encourage more users to start the process of a transfer
2
Increase the completion rate of submissions, and improve the success rate of 2FA SMS authentication
3
Provide detailed error states to help users troubleshoot in-app to reduce frustration and drop-off
Mapping the user flow
To improve the end-to-end experience, we evaluated the existing user flow and drop-off rates. The amount of taps and wait time was reduced in the entry points, while the updated phone number transfer flow allowed the user more autonomy and freedom of action to choose what type of information they had on hand. Lastly, we surfaced the phone number status more clearly on the Overview screen to reduce the number of call-ins to support agents.
Final launched designs
Reduce load time and friction to start
By creating a native in-app flow, the load time to enter the experience decreased from 15 seconds to ~2 seconds, while the number of taps to enter the flow was reduced from 3 taps to 1 tap. On the first step, users are able to preview what kind of information they need, giving them context earlier of what to expect.
Re-order the flow to check number eligibility upfront
Previously, customers chose their old account input as the first step. By moving the phone number checker to the first step, we can surface their eligibility on step 1 and upon any errors, can provide detailed error handling earlier in the experience.
Simplify the necessary inputs
We revised the content to help customers find their old service details by referencing their old service bills from their previous provider. Customers have the choice to provide between different old service details, allowing them to adapt with the information they have on hand.
Leveraging analytics, we used old account number as the default selection, due to the higher selection and success rate.
Explicit 2FA SMS acknowledgement
A new step was added where users must acknowledge the upcoming 2FA SMS through a checkbox before submitting their transfer. Previously, this instruction was given in the Confirmation screen, causing many users to miss the SMS and time out of the transfer period. By ensuring customers read and check the box, we increased the rate of successful transfer.
Dynamic status updates
Users previously had to view their status by selecting into the Transfer flow again. As new customers await their service transfer, we decided to surface these messages on the main app tab. This prevented re-entries into the flow, as well as call-ins for service agents.
Takeaway
The project marked a significant upgrade in the customer experience, but also with aligning the flow with the new TELUS design system. It also modernized the underlying tech framework to ensure the content dynamically reflects current marketing initiatives. As we move forward, we’re focused on making backend-driven content more intuitive and customer-centric, starting from the Marketing teams creating the content entries.
For a more detailed presentation on the design strategy and process for this project, please reach out.