As PayPal attempted to manage risk with a policy change that allowed them to place a 30 day hold on merchant funds over a certain cap, they looked to Speck to help them understand customer concerns and identify opportunities to make the change less burdensome for merchants.
Speck Design completed 13 interviews with mid-market merchants that accepted PayPal. The sample was drawn from across the nation and included a mix of ages, industries, and familiarity with PayPal. Research uncovered critical insights about how merchants felt toward these proposed changes. Namely, all had initial reactions of frustration, but once they understood the details of the policy, were more accepting of it. This highlighted a way to minimize frustration with the new policy. Effective communication would combat the initial reactions of confusion and skepticism around the policy change. Speck Design was able to provide recommendations for PayPal’s communication and presentation strategy for the new policy. These recommendations captured the essence needed to manage customer attitudes and provide a smooth transition for the policy. This essence was realized in PayPal’s messaging regarding the policy.
As part of their exploration into a new digital wallet platform that would provide partners with a wallet-as-a-service (Waas) solution, PayPal wanted to obtain reactions to the digital wallet concept and better understand their expectations, interest, and worries around a potential partnership with other companies. PayPal turned to Speck to help answer these questions. Speck Design conducted in-person interviews with active, inactive, and non-PayPal users. Interviews helped uncover a key concern among potential users: consolidating financial information into one wallet makes them extremely susceptible to data breaches. The insights team was able to probe this issue, and provide actionable recommendations for PayPal to address these concerns directly. The insights gathered help provide a context for PayPal to continue in their product development process and help define the digital wallet feature set. Recommendations for the digital wallet: Users clearly accepted the concept, citing huge value in the convenience it provides
It must adequately address concerns around security via added detail and guarantee liability policy
Clearly portray how the wallet will work and ease of setup and use
Emphasize key features around best-in-class fraud protections, ability to manage gift cards, and ability to track account balances in one place Recommendations for the partnerships: Partners should be trusted, valued and the partnerships should add convenience
Security, usage, and fee concerns must be allayed early on
Consider concentrating on bank and retail partnerships
As PayPal attempted to manage risk with a policy change that allowed them to place a 30 day hold on merchant funds over a certain cap, they looked to Speck to help them understand customer concerns and identify opportunities to make the change less burdensome for merchants.
