How to 2x Performance of Fintech Product Onboarding

Six Simple Changes to Enhance the Onboarding Efficiency of a Fintech Product

In a decade of fintech product design, every team I’ve collaborated with has had the goal of improving the onboarding experience. Ignium service was no exception.

Ignium offers plug-and-play infrastructure for micro and small businesses, empowering them to raise funds from their customers through Web3 technologies (NFTs).

A critical component of the system is the onboarding process, covering registration and KYC procedures for both individuals and companies. One of the primary team goals was to simplify the onboarding experience by reducing onboarding time and increasing the conversion rate.

Guided by customer feedback and analytical insights, we made various adjustments over a few months, leading to significant progress. I will go into detail about the specific improvements we have made to achieve this goal.

Password policy instructions

Services usually have specific password requirements, and fintechs are particularly strict because of the way they handle their customers’ money. In this case, the requirements are even stricter.

In order to support users and inform them in advance, a brief tip has been placed below the password field.

However, through customer support requests, it was discovered that this tip was causing an issue, resulting in a significant drop in the conversion funnel. The tip was simply not noticeable enough, and it was unclear which requirements were being met.

As a result, the section on password requirements has been completely redesigned and turned into a checklist. It is now much easier for users to follow the rules, as the checklist clearly indicates which requirements have been met and which are still outstanding.

This change led to a noticeable increase in the number of users who successfully completed the first step and moved on to the next one.

KYC explanation

KYC (Know Your Customer) is an essential part of onboarding for fintech products. As a financial institution, Ignium must comply with certain legal regulations, which requires the collection of sensitive data from users that may differ from their typical digital experience.

To answer users’ questions about the purpose of these data queries, we have introduced a short and informative explanation, which is available via a link to our knowledge base. This minor change has significantly reduced the problem at minimal cost.

SSO (Sign up via Google and Facebook)

As part of the improvements, we hypothesized that the ability to log in with an existing account (which is an established industry standard) would improve registration conversion rates.

The new functionality did indeed increase conversion, but we encountered a new challenge: legal users who were registering companies were not noticing the Person-Company tab control. The support team received a surge of requests from legal users who had inadvertently registered as individuals.

To fix it, the UI was adjusted to make it visually on the same level with the entire design. This modification was successful, and the feature resumed its intended purpose of effectively boosting conversion rates.

Email address confirmation

User accounts must be verified before users can start using the system. To enable this, there is a separate step in which users confirm their email addresses.

Some users contacted customer service because they could not find their verification email. Upon investigation, we found that the emails used for registration were incorrect; users, like all of us, make mistakes.

The solution was simple: we displayed the registered email address in the verification step. This allows users to see the address and go back one step to make changes if necessary. This change had a positive impact on the conversion rate.

Less steps

Originally, the KYC process consisted of two steps: a few fields within the Ignium user interface and a short form with a third-party service.

We saw two areas for improvement. First, the individual steps were not extensive enough, so there was an opportunity to merge them, as fewer steps always lead to a better user experience.

Secondly, users had to navigate to a different user interface in the second step, which could affect their trust.

To address these concerns, we merged the steps. To minimize cognitive load on users, we logically grouped and separated the data fields.

Simplified KYC

At that time, the majority of customers came from Estonia. For these users, it was possible to introduce a simplified KYC procedure using the Estonian ID code.

By default, there is only one active field for selecting the country of residence, with placeholders for the other fields. This has been done to show users what they can expect. Once the Estonian residence is selected, the number of fields is significantly reduced, which even exceeds expectations and has a positive impact on user sentiment.

In this case, users only need to enter their ID code. The system automatically extracts the required information.

After providing their personal identification number, users can use the system with a limit of €1000, which is sufficient for most users. Optionally, users can extend the limit by providing further information.

Conclusion

The team continuously monitored the analytical data throughout the funnel and observed how each improvement demonstrated a positive impact on the process. As a result, the onboarding time for individuals has decreased by 2.3 times (from 7 to 3 minutes) and the conversion rate has increased by 2.2 times (from 9 to 20%).

These are proven measures that any fintech product can implement to improve their onboarding performance. However, always remember that there are certain considerations to take into account before implementation.