TIAA RMD

Improved completion rates by over 40% to reduce support calls, saving over $1M in the first six months

During an organizational rebrand and website redesign, TIAA, a major financial retirement/investment services institution with more than 400 billion in assets, engaged me as a lead content strategist to address ongoing business and customer issues with the new site. 

While leading user-research through a content-informed lens, I discovered that despite customers’ comfort operating in a digital environment, they had a fear of managing their finances online, limited financial literacy, and reticence to share personal information that stopped them from completing transactions. 

As a result, TIAA was losing brand trust and experiencing financial loss due to the decrease in financial investments and the burden on the call center. 

To address this, I analyzed drop-off rates at each point in the transaction through a content and design lens. I saw how an improvement in content and a simplification in design could help guide customers through the process in a way that educated and reassured them along the way.

Obstacles/Limitations

• Product team resistance to plain language
• Assumption that customers had enough knowledge to complete the RMD process
• Unanticipated content and design components had to be developed and delivered for educational pieces
• Timing of rebrand launch created internal, conflicting pressures within teams

Shifts in Thinking

Worked with product to listen closely to their concerns, while at the same time educating them about the benefits to the customer of simplicity, consistency, and educational language.

Learned that we needed to partner with customers, holding their hands through complicated terrain while at the same time not underestimating them. I learned to walk that line.

Learnings

• Although TIAA has a long and successful history with customers, their understanding of customer needs in a digital environment was limited.
• Customers need reassurance through a multi-stage transactional process.
• Understanding what success meant to stakeholders, including product, engineering, UX, and senior leaders, and for customers, informed my own work and ability to work alongside those with differing views by helping the team keep the customer front and center
• As a result, I developed a course with the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute at Google called A Mindful Approach to Difficult Conversations.