Engagement & Retention project | CheQ

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Engagement & Retention project | CheQ

The Product : CheQ

From the founders themselves, the product is for Understand, Manage and Leverage Credit

cheq goals.jpeg

This was posted by the founder Aditya Soni, when the product was being launched.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/adityasoni_valentinesday-aslirewards-activity-7030153080805462016-2N9v?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Value Proposition:

The core value proposition of the product is to understand, manage and leverage credit.

It does this by doing the following:

Shows a personalised dashboard of every user showing the total bill amount of all the credit bills and the personalised credit score.
Pay together option on the app lets the user pay all the credit bills on dashboard together. Pay now lets the user pay only the certain bill.
App lets the user pay the rent and education bills through credit card.
Get loans using CheQ Kredit. - This is the newest addition in the last week
Refer and get extra CheQ coins to pay the credit bills again.

How do users experience core value proposition repeatedly?

User pays the credit bill -> Earns CheQ coins-> User pays another bill and uses the CheQ coins to get a discount on this bill -> User again earns coins -> cycle continues
User uses the rent button to pay rent bills and education bills.
User checks the credit score.
User gets a loan offered by cheq kredit.
Users refer others, earn CheQ coins and then redeem it using vouchers/paying more bills.

CORE E&R

Active user:

Any user using the app to make transactions once a month.
Checks the credit score every month

Natural Frequency:

The natural frequency of the product:

Casual: once a month
Core: 2-3 times a month
Power: 4-5 times a month

Sub products:

The sub product is to pay other bills. For this too the natural frequency can be around 2-3 days.

The other feature is to view credit score. It's natural frequency is around 1-2 times a month.

The other feature is of the rewards, it's frequency for redemption can be around 4-5 times a month.

The other feature is to refer users, it's frequency is around once a month.

Depth for CheQ:

The amount of money spent in transactions - The more the user spends on the app, the more CheQ coins they win , the more likely they are to transact again to redeem those coins.
Redeeming the vouchers - CheQ coins allows to redeem vouchers as well. Customers are likely to spend time on the app to find the right voucher to be redeemed.
Number of CC bills paid out of total CCs - How many credit cards does the user pay the bill for.

User Segmentation

Active/Casual/Core/Power segmentation:

	Depth	Frequency	Breadth
Active User	Transactions amount> 200 rs in a month. Pays 1 bill.	Once a month	pay CC bill, checking credit score, redeeming rewards
Casual Users	Transactions amount >1000 rs in a month. Pays more than 1 bill.	1-2 times a month	Uses for paying credit bills, checking credit score and redeeming rewards
Core Users	Transactions amount>10,000 in a month. Pays more than 2 bills.	2-3 times a month	paying credit bills, loan EMIs, credit score, redeeming rewards, rent/education bill(
Power Users	Transactions amount>60,000 in a month. Pays more than 3 bills.	4-5 times a month	Paying credit bills, loan EMIs, credit score, paying rent/education bills , redeeming rewards.

ICP based segmentation


	ICP1 (early professional)	ICP2 (mid professional)	ICP3(self employed)	ICP4(senior professional)
ICP Name	Amber	Rachel	Bhaman	Anant
Age	18-28	25-40	25-40	40-55
Gender	Any	Any	Male	Male
Location	Any Tier	TIer1/Tier2	Any	Tier1/Tier2
Marital Status	Single	Any	Any	Married
Occupation	Marketing, IT		Self employed
Companies	Startup, MNC		NA
Income levels	1L-10L	10-40 lpa	10-50lpa	>20 lpa
Monthly spends	10-30k	30k-1L	30-2L	50k-2L
Do you believe in maximising CC benefits	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Number of credit cards	2	4	3	4
Credit Score range	>500	>650	>600	>700
Primary reason for getting a card	For getting lounge access and cashbacks	Credit, build credit history, rewards points and cashbacks	Cashback	Credit, exclusive benefits like golf
Where do they spend money on?	Online shopping, gaming, movies, cafes	Shopping, rent, grcoeries, school fees, maintenance fees, rent,EMI, transport, house-help, vactions	Business transcations, household expenses, travel, fashion	Shopping, college fees of childred, maintenance fees, loan EMI, home related activities
Pain points		Missing credit card or loan payment	Managing multiple credit cards	Multiple bill payments from different platforms
Financial goals	Make family debt free and achieve about 40 LPA net worth to run family smoothly	Achieve financial freedom. Increase investment portfolio. Real Estate.	Streaming apps like Netflix & YouTube for entertainment, social media surfing on apps like Instagram, Investing and trading apps like Zerodha Kite, Money Control, TradingView	Achieve financial freedom and retire
How did they discover CheQ?	referral	Axis bank email/referral/reddit	Referral	Referral by family friends
Online interest	Linkedin, OTT - Prime, Jiocinema,	Linkedin, reddit, instagram, OTT - Netflix, Prime, Youtube, Audible	Watching podcasts, investment apps like zerodha, kite, moneycontrol, tradingview	Podcasts, Finance e and investement , songs - yotutube, OTT
Offline interest	Sports, Cafes, Movies, pubs	Reading, Sports, Fine Dining	Fitness: Gym and Yoga Fashion: Clothing Going for movies and outdoor activities	Fitness, yoga, walking, vaction, fine dining, golf
Why they use app	To see all bills and payment dates in a single app. To get free credit score	Pay multiple bills together, check credit score, pay rent/maintenance, pay loan emi	Ease of use and to keep track of credit bills.	Track all credit bills, pay different rent/maintenance fees/college fees
Why did you first install it? What outcome did yu expect?	Installed by a referral. Expected good cashback on paying bills	On the suggestion of a friend. Expected an app like CRED.	I installed it on a friend's recommendation . Outcome of Convenience, Timely Payments, Tracking	Referral. Expected to pay bill and get a b good discount while paying bill.
Pain points that app solves	Paying multiple bills together and from same app. Even if credit history not present, app lets me create account.	Never missing credit payment due to constant reminders	Convenient payment options Timely payment reminders	Paying all credit in a single platform
How they chose CC	Compared LTF credit card	Comparing between different rewards structures and cashbacks	Different for personal and different for business	Great reward points like Infinia, good cashback on groceries and petrol
No of CC’s/loans	2	4	2	3
Do you fear not paying credit bills	No. I check app multiple times a month.	Yes. I have multiple cards.	Yes	No

Engagement Frameworks:

Engagement Framework	Key Tracking Metric	Selected	Rationale
Frequency	No of transactions	Secondary	This shows customer can either be using for paying multiple bills or the same bill multiple times. If customer pays many bills using the app, they are more likely to come back. However, if for CC they use the pay together feature the number of transacations even though more than 1 will be counted as 1 ie user paid most CC bills in one go itself.
Depth	How many CC bills paid. The value of the transactions made.	Primary	A customer can have more than 1 CCs. Are all the bills being paid using the app? If yes, that means customer trusts the app and is willing to use it for all payments. If no, that means we still need to win the trust of the customer to trust with all CC payments.
Breadth	Transactions on credit bills and rent/education bills. Checking credit score and using rewards.	Tertiary	If a user is using the app for the credit bills and the rent/education bills, they are more likely to be back to pay the bills again.

I will use the Depth + Frequency Framework. Breadth can be used once the company makes the utility payments more rewarding. I have put suggestions for that too.

Depth because we want customers to trust us with all the CC bills and Frequency because we want customers to transact more on the app . It becomes a habit for them to just pay all the credit bills with CheQ without thinking.

The user should develop a habit of using CheQ as a primary source of managing and paying all credit bills from CheQ.

Out of habit:

Customer opens the app → Checks the credit score, bill due → Knows how much to pay later (before due date) and again opens later OR pays the bill.

If a customer has more than 1 CC, they are more likely to open the app every few days in a month to check the bills.

Product Recommendations

Here are my recommendations to make the product more enaging. These will work on Breadth, however they will also increase the frequency of transactions and the depth.

Right now the processing fee for the rent payment is 1.6% without any rewards being given. There are other vendors too who offer rent payment with lesser processing fee. User is not rewarded for paying bills through the CheQ app. It has to be optimized. The user can be given CheQ coins for paying the bills.
The introduction of a new feature - pay utility bills like mobile phone bill, electricity bill etc using CC.

Engagement campaigns

User Segmentation	Casual	Casual	Core	Core	Power	Power	Casual, Core, Power
Goal	To make sure customer pays CC bill on CheQ	Increase number of transactions on the app	Remind the user the value of using the app	Make users pay bills on app as soon as generated	Users pay all their CC bills on CheQ app	To make rent and education payment rewarding. User comes directly to CheQ for utility payments using CC.	To create a habit of paying every single bill on CheQ
Pitch	Your due date is X days away, Pay bill now. Win CheQ coins.	Bonus 100 CheQ coins, pay your CC bill now	Limited vouchers exclusively for you! Only for today. Redeem now!	You can redeem 2000 coins for your next CC bill. Hurry! Limited period offer* (Terms and conditions applied that user should pay at least 2k amount in bill)	Congratulations, you have paid 3/5 CC bills on CheQ, pay all the bills this month and win 500 bonus CheQ coins	Assumption : CheQ makes it rewarding for everyone to pay bills and earn CheQ coins. I strongly recommend this POA. Pitch : Now you can earn even with rent payments, Pay now	You can now earn CheQ coins on paying your electricity bill. Check out now!
Channel	Email	Push Notification, WA	Push	Push notification	Push, Whatsapp	Whatsapp, Email	Email, Whatsapp, Push
Offer	This is just a reminder to pay bill. By default if customer pays >100 rs CC bill,they win coins.	Bonus 100 CheQ coins	Exclusive voucher	Use extra 1000 coins of user while paying bill ie get 100 rs extra discount while paying	Bonus 500 coins on paying all CC bills	Coins on payment of Rent	Introduction of a new feature of paying utility bills like electricty, phone bill
Frequency	2-3 times a month	once a quarter	once a quarter	Once in 6 months	Once a quarter	Every month till user has paid 2 rent bills	Every month till user has used this feature for 2-3 months
Timing	5,10,15 days after bill is generated	10 days after second CC bill is generated	when a new bill is generated	Same day as month’s first CC bill generation	When the bills are pending but user has not paid.	Start of the month	Start of the month, mid of the month
Metrics	Customer completing first CC bill payment of the month	number of transactions increasing	User claims the voucher. User checks the new bill.	days to pay CC bill after bill generated decreased	User paid all CC bills using CheQ	User pays rent bills using CheQ	User pays the utility bills.

Retention

Here are some stats found from the founder’s LinkedIn, news articles, Twitter etc:

Beta Testing - 7 to 28 Jaunuary 2023

5000+ users

99% successful transactions

20k+ successful transactions ~ 4 transcations per user

55% of all bills identitfied paid

32 lak + chip coins redeemed

92% users transacted more than once -

30 crore + transaction value ~. 62k average amount per user

14 feb - 13 april 2023

3,00,000+ users

50% users via referrals

4,72,000+ loans and CCs added on CheQ

1.2 million transactions with a 99.7% success rate

3.2 Million app visits in 2 months

86% of Feb Users paid again in March - M1 - 86% or D30-45 - 86%

90 days:

$500 Mn of payments, 2.5 million transaction, 400K+ customers, ~1 million products secured - All in 90 days

6 months:

Achieved ~$1B topline, Crazy!!

Processed 7M+ transactions. 99.96% payout success rate.
600K+ customers: 70% Android, 30% iOS (< Rs. 25 CAC).
50M+ CheQ Chips Redeemed. Strong validation that ours remain one of the most tangible rewards program.
One of the fastest repayment platform, outpacing many other card bill payment platforms.
Pay Together adoption at 13%.
We move to becoming a fee charging platform: Close to ~400Mn topline and more than ~500K USD revenue generated in last 80 days.

1 year:

https://twitter.com/Inc42/status/1772495948796584031

@CheQ_One says it has enabled 5 Mn transactions worth $2 Bn and served more than 1 Mn customers in 12 months

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/3one4-capital_zero2one-zero2one-0to1-activity-7166370085241118720-nC25?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

In its first year, CheQ's intuitive platform serviced over 1 million users, processing ₹20,000 crore in bills paid and ₹100 million in rewards, making credit management convenient

https://inc42.com/features/1-mn-users-5-mn-transactions-1-5-mn-revenue-how-cheq-is-transforming-credit-management/

“ The fintech says it has enabled 5 Mn transactions worth $2 Bn and served more than 1 Mn customers in 12 months. According to Soni, it has a 70% customer retention rate and its annual recurring revenue (ARR) currently stands at INR 35 Cr. “

Fintech

The customer retention rate for fintech apps stands slightly below the average at 37%. On the other side of the same coin, 73% of new app users churn within the first seven days. Ouch!

From this data, it is clear that onboarding is the key to boosting retention rates. What’s more, updates based on feedback from power users can significantly help the product scale and drive user loyalty without spending a dime.”

https://surveysparrow.com/blog/heres-something-didnt-know-average-customer-retention-rate-industry/

Retention in CheQ:

From above data we can see following points:

M1 retention 86%
M3 retention 83%
There was a drop in retention in between after around 6 months due to the enablement of processing fee. It was removed after a few months and many users went back. May 2023- Dec 2023. Dec 2023 this was removed. Assuming only 40-50% of customers were still using app in this period.
Yearly retention 70% - M12

Usual retention in Fintech is 37%.

CheQ retention (1).jpg

ICPs which drive the best retention:

Core and Power users : These users since they had the transaction value more than casual users and found usage in simple UI/UX of the app. They retained despite the many users churning in between due to applying the processing fee.
ICP4(senior professional), ICP3(self employed) and ICP2(mid professional) : They did not churn since their transcations were gaining more value from CheQ coins than the processing fee. Also, Simple UI is appreciated.

Acquisition channels that drive the best retention:

Email by Axis : users still use this to get 5x coins.
Referrals : about 50% of users according in months of Feb-March 2023 were through referrals.

Reasons for churn:

Voluntary	Involuntary
Price Sensitivity - Introduction of processing fee. This was the major reason of churn	Found a better rewarding system for payment.
Devaluing the CheQ coins	Already another app for managing credit
Card not identified in the app
Vouchers not good enough

Negative actions:

Removing Cards/Hovering over it: If a customer is removing cards or hovering over removing card, this is a negative action.
Bad product review: CheQ saw many users give 1 star reviews when the processing fee was introduced.
Uninstalling the app: There could be many reasons for uninstalling ranging from not wanting to use the app anymore or low memory issues. However, even if app is installed due to low memory, it’s not important enough for user to keep the app.
Redeeming all CheQ coins at once: This could either be when there is a multiplier which is good. However, if no multiplier present, this could mean user just wants an exit out of the app.
Increase in number of support requests: This definitely can show customer is not happy or cannot figure out how app works. Both are BAD!

Ressurection Campaigns:

Segmentation	Churned - customer uninstalled the app	Churned - removed cards	Casual → Active	Casual → Active	Power→Core	Core→ Casual
Goal	To make sure customer comes back to CheQ	To get users add their cards back on the app.	User continues to pay bill regularly on the app	User pays his bill on time and visits the app to make the transaction.	Making user use the app again	User makes more than 1 transaction on the app
Pitch	We miss you! Here are 500 bonus coins from us for your next CC payment. Pay now Once paid: Congratulations on paying the bill. You now have X coins. Redeem now.	X Mn users trust CheQ with their credit payments. Add card now and win 100 coins per card* (if all cards removed) *coins will be given after 15 days	Your due date is Y days away, pay bill now and win 2x coins.	Late fee charges are such a nightmare. Pay <bank> bill now to avoid late fees. Click here if already paid.	You have X coins in your CheQ coins balance. You can buy <Famous brand and user has bought such coupons before (data driven)> Redeem now.	WHAT??? 1 CheQ = 10 Coins. CRAZYYYY!!! Get your voucher now.
Channel	Whatsapp, Email	Whatsapp, Email	Push, whatsapp	Push, whatsapp	Whatsapp	Push, Email, Whatsapp
Offer	500 bonus coins to resurrect user to install the app and make the payment. Once payment is done, show them coins earned and say congratulations you avoided late fee. You have X number of CheQ coins for redeeming.	100 coins will be given per card added after 15 days of usage. This will make sure customer keeps the card added for 15 days and might realize the value of the app because of other campaigns.	Reminder to pay bill	Reminding users to avoid paying late fees.	Offer is to nudge user to use their coins. When the user is nugded to use coins they can come back to the app, see their total due, credit score and	1 cheq coin has value of 10 rs for a voucher
Frequency	Once. 15 days after customer uninstalls.	2 times per week	once a month	Once/Twice a month	once in a month	once in a months
Timing	15 days after customer uninstalls.	10 days after cards removed.	When bill is generated	3 days left to pay bill	if customer hasn’t transacted in 25 days,	New bill generated for a CC.
Success Metrics	Customer completing the CC transaction > 2000 rs.	Cards added and kept for more than a month	User pays the bill.	Customer pays bill on time.	customer uses coins to redeem voucher	User redeems the voucher (finds value in app) and checks the bill generated.

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Thank you for reading!

Extra:

Product Hook:

CheQ StreaQ
This can be introduced for creating loyal customers and the product remains "top of the mind" for the users.

The idea is that one transaction per month>2k INR builds a StreaQ(Streak). The customers who transact every month build a StreaQ. There are different rewards that can be given for different streaqs. Example: When StreQ becomes 3, customer gets an exclusive voucher. When StreaQ becomes 7, customer gets merchandise. When StreaQ becomes 10, customer gets an exclusive reward.

CheQ Loyalty Program
To make sure customers only come to CheQ for payments a loyalty program can be started. This is like airline tiers. Like the ones you have for Vistara or Air India but for this app.
If customer maintains StreaQ and transcats>X value in Y months then they can be put into different tiers.
We can have some fancy names for the tiers: Basic, Intermediate, Loyal, VIP (These are not Fancy :p)
Basic customer only gets 1x CheQ coins.
Intermediate gets 2x.
Loyal gets 5x.
VIP gets 10x.
If customers break their streaQ they are devalued to a previous tier except in VIP. They are given another chance to keep their VIP status. If in previous Y months, transaction value != Amount for that Tier, customer is devalued to the tier they have transacted the value for.

Right now current alternative to this product can be CRED or postpe or HDFC Billpay. But having this product hook would ensure customers want to get into the VIP club and get great benefits for paying credit cards. They will only want to use this app then.
Engagement with Product Hook:

User Segmentation	Casual (CheQ loyalty)	Power/Core (CheQ loyalty)	Active/Casual
Goal	Increase the value of transactions	Increase the LTV and engage user	Maintain CheQ streaQ so that user transacts every month
Pitch	Hey <user>, You are X amount near to the <upper tier>.	Hey<user>, You are a <tier> customer. You can <rate of reward>x coins for your transaction. What are you waiting for? Hurry!	Your StreaQ is X. Most users have the streaq of X value. Complete your StreaQ for this month. You are closer to <streak where we win rewards> to win <the reward>.
Channel	Email, Whatsapp	Push, Whatsapp	Push, Whatsapp
Offer	Win extra coins with tier upgrade	Extra coins with each tier	Complete StreaQ and win rewards
Frequency	once a month	Once/Twice a month	Every 2 months
Timing	a week before month ends	Start of month and mid of month	Start of Month
Metrics	Customer transacting for bills and CC bills. LTV increases.	LTV increases. No of transactions increase. Coins redemption increases.	Increase in number of transcations.

Ressurection with Product Hook:

Segmentation	Casual→Active (CheQ StreaQ hook - Extra)	Power→Core (Loyalty tier hook - Extra)
Goal	Maintain StreaQs. If user maintains StreaQ then they will be casual user.	Nudge user to increase their tier and therby increasing the transcation/amount of transactions and increasing LTV of customer.
Pitch	Hey <name>, 3 days for paying your bill to maintain your StreaQ.	Hey, do you know<Upper Tier> users win more cheq chips just for paying their bills, here’s a chance to become <upper tier> by paying your bill. Pay now.
Channel	Push	Email, Whatsapp
Offer	Reminder to maintain StreaQs.	CTA for users who are becoming Casual.
Frequency	2 times a week	Whenever a bill is generated
Timing	7 days before due date/end of month	Whenever a bill is generated
Success Metrics	StreaQ maintained. Credit card bill paid.	customer maintains StreaQ and pays his bills on CheQ. Customer uses CheQ coins.