According to a study by Northwestern Mutual, 44 percent of Americans say that the dominant source of stress in their life is, you guessed it, money.
OneMain Financial, a consumer lending company, is on a mission to make money less intimidating. With more than 1,500 branches across the U.S., the company prides itself on being integral to the fabric of their local communities. Friendly touches and thoughtful customer service make in-person loan approvals attractive and convenient for customers — and a key differentiator against competitors.
As the new vice president of user experience, Ryan Page wants users to get that same feeling of familiarity through their online experience. But can a screen offer the same support as a friendly face?
“UX can help to simplify processes that can feel daunting or overwhelming, and it can support and guide people toward healthy behaviors within their financial lives,” Page said.
Page’s team first evaluates what the customer wants and needs, then works backward to build that. During that process, OneMain’s digital innovators also find ways to create additional customer value through avenues such as financial wellness and rewards.
Coordinated streamlined UX design helps branch team members, too. During the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, “smart” tools like co-browsing, video connection and web-based chat helped team members and customers connect and close loans remotely.
Page is just getting his feet wet. Although he has been working at OneMain for less than six months, he is looking forward to accelerating omnichannel availability and making an impact with a growing team — in 2021 and beyond.
What attracted you to OneMain Financial?
The opportunity to help accelerate the momentum of a terrific organization by strengthening our customer focus and building backward from their needs — that was hugely appealing. As an organization, we care deeply about our customers and want to do the right thing by them. A strong moral compass within the company was a non-negotiable for me. Along with that, I’m energized to be a part of building a strong practice of human-centered design.
You’ve been at OneMain Financial for only a couple of months. What has onboarding been like while the company is remote?
This is my first time onboarding to a company remotely, and it’s worked well. All things considered, it was smooth sailing with equipment, software and access. I had great support from people around me to get up to speed. There’s been support and flexibility for new tools and approaches to support collaboration in a remote setting. Overall, it feels to me like we’ve adapted to remote work impressively — and pretty quickly.
Company Culture at OneMain Financial
Why is UX so important in the financial lending industry?
In financial lending, UX helps people understand the types of financial products they’re considering, both in the immediate moment of selection and over time. Finances, in general, can be an area of stress for many people, but UX can relieve that.
UX can help to simplify processes that can feel daunting or overwhelming, and it can support and guide people toward healthy behaviors within their financial lives. UX helps to surface customer needs, pain points and aspirations so that they are reflected in the products and experiences we deliver. Finally, from a competitive advantage standpoint, UX can help deliver and differentiate us with the dimensions of ease, speed and convenience that people expect from companies they work with.
What is OneMain Financial doing to differentiate itself from other lending companies in terms of UX?
We have an extensive network of branches that are well-integrated into local communities. An important goal for us is to create a great blended service experience that enables customers to move seamlessly between their preferred ways to interact. We focus on bringing together the best of the digital tools and human support for our customers.
We focus on bringing together the best of the digital tools and human support for our customers. ”
What does 2021 look like at OneMain Financial?
Overall, we’ll continue to accelerate toward omnichannel availability, essentially creating greater ease and choice for customers to interact with us however they deem fit. We’ll aim to scale our UX team and play an important role in working backward from our customers. As we do this, we’ll also help create additional value for people within their OneMain relationship through financial wellness, rewards and making sure we’re doing a great job on the core things people need from a financial lending partner.
Despite a turbulent economy, OneMain Financial has continued to grow in recent months. How does OneMain Financial stay innovative?
Fortunately, this year we were able to accelerate digital transformation efforts that were already underway. We’ve enabled many of our customers to apply for and close a loan with us entirely online. We’ve expanded the ability for our branch team members to help customers close loans remotely with smart tools like co-browsing, video connection and web-based chat. Along with creating personal experiences for our customers, we’re well instrumented to be able to measure impact and to pivot or scale the experiments that we launch. Thankfully, we have the appetite and ability to try things both large and small and innovate on behalf of our customers.
What traits does OneMain Financial look for as it grows its UX and design team?
First, we look for people who are deeply oriented toward putting the customer at the center of what we do, how we operate and what we build. We look for people who can command an end-to-end design process from the early stages of problem definition and framing to partnering with others to deliver a final product. We look for people who will be great partners and collaborators with a sense of shared purpose.
