Not many apps can claim more than 100 million downloads – in fact, the vast majority of smartphone apps see fewer than 1,000 downloads. For those that do reach these dizzy heights, ensuring the UX is up to scratch is paramount.
PayByPhone is a B2B2C car park operator that has amassed more than 125 million downloads across the Apple and Google app stores in 10 years. Naturally, as a payment app for car parks, it isn't a tool that is used every day by every user. It is, however, a high-frequency, daily utility and PayByPhone operates across 1,300 cities, with the app available in 11 languages.
This raises the stakes on ensuring a UX that is intuitive, effective, and seamlessly omnichannel for users from all walks of life – and delivering a customer service model to match.
"Operating globally, including many richly diverse large cities, means our userbase spans every imaginable demographic, from tech-savvy commuters to older and more vulnerable drivers," says chief operating officer (COO) Anthony Cashel.
"To deliver a universally high standard of service, our operations are built around inclusivity and urgency-based routing. We make ourselves available across every key channel, including chatbots, email, social media and voice calls, ensuring we are always accessible precisely how and when a driver needs us," Cashel adds.
While many app-based businesses are built to minimize the demand for human service, PayByPhone doesn't just work for drivers, but the cities, local authorities, and parking operators who own the infrastructure. As such, it is bound by stringent service level agreements (SLAs) designed to serve local communities and prevent digital exclusion. This means ensuring a human is always on hand to assist the customers who need it.
In this interview with CX Network, Cashel explains how the app experience is backed with a support model designed to blend speed with localized help. He also explains how automation is used to bridge human and self-service, and the five stages of crafting a simple and effective customer journey. You can hear more from Cashel during All Access: Future Contact Centers, taking place online, July 21-22.
The support model: Instant automation and localized support
The nature of PayByPhone's international business means careful consideration must be made to how the support model functions. Customer needs must be met as they arise, for example, failure to address ticket queries can result in fines, acutely impacting overall satisfaction – as well as those all important app store reviews.
In support, PayByPhone's omnichannel approach blends conversational AI for high-volume routine inquiries – the chatbot is called Parker – email and, of course, phone.
"We approach customer support by matching the channel to the driver's immediate situation," says Cashel. But there's a twist – as a B2B2C business, PayByPhone isn't just serving drivers, but the owners of the car parks it operates. As such, it has additional standards to meet.
"Our customer service framework is purposely engineered to meet rigorous SLA compliance standards and local language requirements. By blending instant automation with localized human support, we ensure our partners' regulatory commitments are fully met, and parking remains a frictionless experience for everyone," says Cashel.
The automation strategy focuses on eliminating friction for routine user journeys and realizing single queries cannot always be expected to be resolved on single channels. For example, Parker's ability to handle routine inquiries is paired with "an intuitive suite of how-to video guides", designed to visually walk users through standard transactional flows, and allowing drivers to self-resolve issues.
"Naturally, certain complex workflows still require human intervention. For instance, refund requests often demand manual processing because we must gather specific data or request formal approval from third-party parking operators," Cashel explains. "Financial transactions in the parking sector are highly nuanced; a driver might request a refund for a wide variety of unique reasons. Resolving these cases accurately often requires asking the customer for specific supporting information, alongside securing formal, case-by-case approval from the third-party parking operator or local municipality," he adds.
Multi-layered compliance and verification steps such as these, cannot be fully automated, but they are regularly audited to assess how "smart automation" can be added to the data-gathering and operator-approval workflows, "streamlining the process further for our users while maintaining strict financial integrity," Cashel explains.
Under this model, Cashel says full automation "may never be our end goal", in part because of the queries customers raise, and in part because of the SLAs which aim to prevent digital exclusion.
He explains: "In many of the cities and municipalities where we operate, our contracts legally require us to maintain 24/7 human support. We welcome this nuance because it aligns with our corporate values. Automation handles our high-volume, routine traffic, but our human teams remain the essential backbone of our compliance and inclusivity promises."
The 5-stage approach to a simple and effective customer journey
To ensure all service journeys are simple and effective, PayByPhone breaks them down into five distinct stages.
Stage 1: Pre-contact self-service focus
While humans will always remain available, Cashel says PayByPhone also allows those who wish, to address their own questions. Cashel says: "Build a robust, searchable help center that puts answers to common questions upfront, paired with intuitive self-service tools like automated chatbots and a dedicated receipts portal so users can find what they need instantly." As consumers lean more on their AI assistants to support their customer service journeys, such FAQs will become invaluable sources of truth for brands.
Stage 2: Speed and clarity at first contact
Paramount factors, Cashel says customer inquiries should be acknowledged "immediately" to set timeline expectations. Customers should be accurately routed to the right channel for their specific issue – chat for low touch, email for complex cases, voice for urgent queries – and basic details such as account details and transaction numbers passed across channels with the customer.
Stage 3: Minimized handoffs during resolution
At the critical resolution stage, Cashel says handoffs should be minimized. "Handoffs are where customer trust dies," he says. "We believe one agent should own a case end-to-end whenever possible." Furthermore, agents should speak in plain, helpful language rather than hiding behind policy-speak, and frontline staff "must be empowered to resolve common issues, like low-value refunds, on the spot without tedious escalations".
Stage 4: Resolution, follow-up and aftercare
Under the PayByPhone model, once a fix is in place, customers receive written acknowledgement that their issue has been resolved, giving customers a clear record as well as an easy way to re-open the ticket if later required . "Afterwards, keep feedback loops short with a simple one or two-question survey rather than an exhausting questionnaire," Cashel says.
Stage 5: Macro data analysis
Every interaction is an opportunity to learn, and Cashel says the final step should always be "for any operations team is to look past individual tickets and analyze macro data patterns". If a specific issue is recurring, this analysis will flag the core product or process fix required, rather than wasting resources repeating the same work.
In addition to the five stages, there is one overarching principle in this service model. "The single most powerful lever in customer service is reducing customer effort," Cashel says. "If you design your operations to minimize steps, repeats and waiting, and focus entirely on least friction to resolution rather than adding complex features, the journey almost designs itself," he adds.
Standardizing service while personalizing delivery
Operating across multiple international locations requires PayByPhone to simultaneously standardize and personalize service delivery.
"Universal standardization allows us to maximize efficiency and to resolve inquiries with the absolute minimum delay for the driver. However, we must balance this with reality," Cashel says. "Operating internationally means we encounter distinct cultural nuances, and serving a broad demographic means a single, rigid journey will not work for everyone." It is here where self-service options are designed to reduce support demand and ensure agents are free to address edge cases or queries for customers who are unable to self-serve.
To measure the success of its service suite, PayByPhone monitors satisfaction across both service and the app. "At the macro level, our ultimate health check is CSAT and our App Store reviews. Public feedback on app stores gives us a transparent, real-time look at user sentiment across millions of transactions," Cashel says.
Operations are measured by speed-related metrics, how quickly and cleanly friction is removed, or quickly queries are addressed. Core benchmarks include First Response Time and overall Resolution Time. "Because drivers are often on the move, wait times must be minimal," Cashel says.
However, speed means nothing without accuracy, which has led to a "heavy emphasis" on the 'one touch' resolution rate. This involves measuring the percentage of tickets solved in a single interaction. "By combining smart automation for instant answers with highly trained agents for complex cases, our goal is to fix the driver's problem correctly the very first time, keeping their journey moving without interruption," Cashel says.