Wonder

Research Outline

Prepared for Amy X. | Delivered October 29, 2020

Personal Financial Management App Customer Journey

Goals

Create a customer journey map for personal financial management apps, detailing each stage a customer goes through from initial consideration to regular usage. For each stage, identify what initiates the stage (triggers), barriers encountered during the stage, and motivators for each stage. 

Early Findings

Customer Journey StagesThe research team was able to identify multiple customer journey stages for personal finance apps: awareness, engagement/installation, on boarding/registration, relationship development/activation and retention. 
Awareness Awareness is when users become aware of a personal financial management app, prior to any download. 
One way Mint achieved large user awareness was through the top-notch content on their blog. 
InstallInstallation is the initial downloading of the app, but does not include signing up for an account. According to Leanplum, the average cost for a mobile finance app to acquire a new user, i.e. to get them to download the app, was $6.93 in 2018. 
It is easiest to get users to install finance apps in April, when the tax deadline has users already thinking primarily about finances. 
Register Registration means getting users to sign up for the app and complete any number of entry activities, such as checking a credit score or adding bank account information to the app. 
Only 26.9% of users make the jump from install to registration. On average, as of 2018, the cost of getting a new user to register was $25.73.  
 May, September and October are some of the best months for companies to motivate users to register, with high conversion rates and lower costs. 
Activate Activation means users have completed a high-value activity in the app, such as opening a banking account or completing a financial transaction. 
 January through April are the best months for user activation, with high install-to-activation rates and lower costs, as users have financial goals top-of-mind due to New Year's Resolutions and tax season. 
RetentionRetention is the continued engagement of customers with the app over time. 
 Delayed aggregation of financial data, i.e. a lag in the time it takes for transactions that appear on a users financial banking app/desktop version and the time it takes for the same transactions to appear on a money management app, can cause users to stop using the money management app, as they feel it is not providing accurate, timely data. 
Additionally, apps must keep users engaged by continually improving the value of the app, either by offering personalized recommendations and/or by continually adding new and improved features. 