MrCooper.com - Digital
Payment & Escrow Pages

About Project

The Payments & Escrow module is where million+ users interact to make instalments, additional payments and self-service options with the ability to download statements such as payment schedules, VOM statements, tax statements, and more.

 

What I did: Redfined the payments, escrow journey, look and feel with some newly designed system components.

 

Collaborated with: Product Manager, Design VP, Lead Engineer and SDE's

 

After the successful shipment of Mr. Cooper's Help & Support portal and the business impact it made in terms of reduction in operational expenses and Customer JD score, I had the opportunity to redefine the payments and escrow journey with which millions of users interact daily.

Problems solved

1. Payments - Help homeowners understand the payment cycle and payment breakdown.

2. Escrow - An insight into an escrow account and individual payment status.

3. Crafting a holistic look and feel.

4. Improved customer satisfaction rate.

Solved the problem of a massive drop in customer support tickets by introducing self-service sections to download statements / seasonal documents which we have seen a drop of around 20% in statements/documents related calls & also an increase in self-service portals every MoM.
 

Research

To get an overall understanding of the things we are going to build, we went through several exercises for the first couple of weeks by carrying out some preliminary research which includes:

• Remote interaction with stakeholders
• Collecting feedback from various teams inside the organisation (Salesdesk, Mortgage professionals, Voice Supports staffs)
• Listening to customer support calls & tickets
• Competitor Research (SWOT Analysis)

 

 

 

Payments Dashboard 

The initial version we had is super hard to understand about the payment breakdown which is being made. As a loan borrower, many of us thought that by paying monthly instalments that would reduce the substantial amount of principle is getting reduced every year, but which is not true in nature wherein earlier face of loan, a major chunk of instalment will go to interest. To convey this information to the homeowners we redesigned the payment dashboard from the customer perspective that too in a more consumable manner.

 

 

The page contains only the payment amount, due date & recent transactions which is not so humanized in nature.

 

Brainstorm and Analyze Ideas

The brainstorming started with a conflict of ideas I suggested showcasing the main payments breakdown & other addons such as the impact of extra payments. 

Then we decided to go with the data which we congregate from multiple reviews sources such as Nerdwallet, play store and app store. In that, we got lots of inputs for the payments page and other self-service ideas. That was super helpful to pitch our thoughts with the homeowner's quotes as well.

 

Here are some of the statements from as outcome of our user interview
 

"It's is so hard to use. The information is a joke and its sole focus is to push a home equity loan or refi. It’s not focused on the homeowner or what they need."


" It’s largely unusable. Very difficult to get a pay-off quote (can only receive through snail mail!!). Very difficult to see loan history unless you want to page through statements."

 

These kinds of information provided a treasure trove of information.

 

"It is easier to talk than to listen. Pay attention to your clients, your users, your readers, and your friends. Your design will get better as you listen to other people."

— ELLEN LUPTON

We ideated how to provide the desired information to the homeowners with a quick sight and we found out an interesting pattern of showing the data which is similar to an executive dashboard and transformed them into this page which is a mix of textual data & charts. That version solved the overall problems.

I used to ideate at the component level and validate it with our Goals & solutions. Similarly ideated other components as well & here is the final low fi version👇

 

Below that it shows payment history/dues which also provides the breakdown of the instalment amount - principal, interest and escrow breakdown.

 

Escrow Dashboard

So what exactly does an ESCROW mean?

Many know about re-payments, i.e. EMI. But Escrow is another component in the mortgage loan that is used to pay for property taxes and insurance premiums. Each county has its own rules and regulations for paying the taxes, and each insurance provider has different types of insurance.

 

The Escrow Dashboard

The current escrow page shows only numbers on how much escrow balance is available and the next escrow payment. There are no breakdowns or disbursements details on how the homeowner's money is being handled and paid to each department.

 

Backtracking and Surveys

We started backtracking the route on what they needed. We tracked the support queries and evaluated what questions homeowners were reaching out to the support team for escrow related items. Based on the data we surveyed some pilot users and we got some good insights on what a major chunk of people are looking for within the escrow dashboard.

 

 

Let me give the breakdown of each component and how it evolves based on the data and insight we got

 

Contextual Header

The header section gives the monthly escrow amount and a breakdown of how the money is disbursed into tax and insurance accounts. Below that, we provided contextual data that provides an escrow analysis document for FY. It will be used to provide information on seasonal data; during tax months it'll provide contextual data and self-service document downloads, and it will also provide a way to track the tax rate for the year.

 

 

The Escrow account is like a piggy bank where the monthly escrow amounts are added to the account. From there, the payment is paid to the insurer or county. There are some edge cases where people have failed to pay escrow amounts which leads to a shortage in an escrow account.

To avoid this shortage, we created a scoring mechanism that will be discussed in the upcoming section.

 

Escrow Health

This section shows the escrow account balance and its score. It shows the total escrow amount required for the payments and how much is paid and the balance amount in the account. Based on this data, scores are generated. If the score is lower, it'll show its consequences and persuade the user to add the amount.
 

 

Escrow Disbursements

This section was designed based on the support queries through calls and emails. We see many patterned questions regarding payment invoices during natural calamity seasons.

This leads to the creation of this section which provides all the taxes, insurance amounts, due dates and payment details. If paid it provides access to download the invoice.

 

 

Cross-Selling Ads

We also got some insightful insight from the survey, showing that homeowners are keen to make their insurance claim policies more seamless. Mr Cooper has already partnered with multiple insurance providers to make cashless settlements during hardships. So we used this opportunity to cross-sell our partnered insurance provider during renewal months for that particular user.

 

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Awards & Regocgiation - 2021 HW Tech100

A mortgage servicer with the goal of making the homeownership journey less worrisome and more rewarding. Mr. Cooper, a non-bank mortgage lender and servicer, is focused on delivering a variety of servicing and lending products, services and technologies across the U.S. To meet a nearly 40% increase in call volume as a result of the pandemic, Mr. Cooper quickly developed a digital solution that allowed affected homeowners to easily understand what financial options were available to them. The digital offering is unique in that it directs users to a tailored dashboard that enables customers to evaluate their needs and select the plan that’s right for them. Within 90 days of launch, Mr. Cooper released updates to provide a complete end-to-end solution for more than 300,000 homeowners have utilized the digital tool.

 

Link to prototype