An understandable bill creates room for a more useful relationship.
I led Billing & Benefits across digital and frontline channels. We made the bill easier to explain, then used that trusted surface to help customers discover and activate their benefits.
Senior Manager, Customer Engagement Product ManagementShipped work
ONE SHARED EXPLANATION
Understand the billSee the valueUse the benefits
Web & appCare & retail
KELVIN ZEE
T-MOBILE · 2017 - 2022
01 · THE OUTCOME
02 · THE SIGNAL
03 · THE EVIDENCE
04 · ONE EXPLANATION
05 · THE BENEFIT STATEMENT
06 · WHAT CHANGED
ACCOUNTABLE FOR
↑Autopay enrollment
↓Cancellations at 30, 60, 90 days
Customers needed to understandwhat they owed and why.
COMPREHENSION PROXY
Repeat contact about the samecharge within a billing cycle
A signal that the explanation had failed
METHOD
Beliefs became testable claims.
Two contract data scientists checked those claims against the data. Some did not survive that review.
SCHEMATIC · CUSTOMER VOLUME AGAINST EACH PROBLEM
FOUR WORKSTREAMS, RUN TOGETHER
01
Simplify charging rules where possible
02
Correct charge timing
03
Redesign the digital bill
04
One explanation across channels
Finance and tax still needed much of the underlying complexity.
Frontline representatives could read the customer's own digital bill.
The speech IVR drew from the same explanation.
BUILT ON THE TRUSTED BILL
The order mattered.
PROGRAM RESULT · WHOLE BILLING & BENEFITS PROGRAM
43%
fewer billing-related care calls
+204%
YoY one-time payment completion
+76%
recurring payment setup
+23%
customer lifetime value in the first 12 months
BEST WIRELESS BILLING · MINTEL 2019
KELVIN ZEE · T-MOBILE
An understandable billcreates room for a moreuseful relationship.
Role reel, at your own pace
The outcome
I was accountable for increasing autopay enrollment and reducing cancellations at 30, 60, and 90 days. Customers needed to understand what they owed and why.
The signalCOMPREHENSION PROXY
Repeat contact about the same charge within a billing cycle served as a proxy for comprehension: a signal that the explanation had failed.
The evidenceMETHOD
We wrote down our beliefs about customer problems as testable claims. Two contract data scientists checked those claims against the data, and some did not survive that review.
One explanationFOUR WORKSTREAMS, RUN TOGETHER
Simplifying charging rules where possible, correcting charge timing, redesigning the digital bill, and making the explanation consistent across channels. Frontline representatives could read the customer's own digital bill, and the speech IVR drew from the same explanation. Finance and tax still needed much of the underlying complexity.
The benefit statementBUILT ON THE TRUSTED BILL
The order mattered. A bill customers trusted could then show the benefits they already had, whether they had activated them, and how much they had used. In the example, Netflix on Us had never been activated, and T-Mobile Tuesdays could show redemption activity.
What changedPROGRAM RESULT · WHOLE BILLING & BENEFITS PROGRAM
Across the broader Billing & Benefits program: 43% fewer billing-related care calls, 204% higher year-over-year one-time payment completion, 76% higher recurring payment setup, and 23% higher customer lifetime value in the first 12 months. Best Wireless Billing, Mintel, 2019.
The role in 27 seconds, using only facts published on this site.
43%fewer billing-related care calls
+204%YoY one-time payment completion
+23%customer lifetime value in the first 12 months
These are program outcomes. They cover the whole body of work described here, they cannot be assigned to a single screen or intervention, and payment completion is not a conversion-rate measure.
The work was accountable for increasing autopay enrollment and reducing cancellations at 30, 60, and 90 days. Customers needed to understand what they owed and why before we could expect either outcome to improve.
A technically accurate bill could still be difficult for a customer or representative to explain. Different channels could give different answers to the same question. Repeated contact about a charge was a signal that the explanation had failed.
Use evidence to choose the first fixes
We wrote down our beliefs about customer problems as testable claims. Two contract data scientists checked those claims against the data. Some did not survive that review.
The surviving findings informed customer segments and a heat map of customer volume against each problem. That gave the team a way to prioritize work against the customer and business outcomes. It constrained my preferences as much as anyone else's.
We measured repeat contact about the same charge within a billing cycle as a proxy for comprehension. Autopay enrollment was measured directly. Those measures served different purposes, so we kept their meanings distinct.
Make one explanation work across channels
The billing team ran four workstreams together: simplifying charging rules where possible, correcting charge timing, redesigning the digital bill, and making the explanation consistent across channels. Finance and tax still needed much of the underlying complexity.
Care, retail, accounting, and enterprise systems contributed engineers and analysts to the work. Frontline representatives could read the customer's own digital bill. The speech IVR drew from the same explanation.
I led the product team and secured partner adoption around shared priorities. Each contributing organization could use the shared scoreboard to explain its results to its own leadership. That helped the work remain useful to the teams supplying the people.
Build benefit discovery on the trusted bill
Once customers could trust the bill, we added a benefit statement. It showed the benefits they already had, whether they had activated them, and how much they had used.
For example, a customer could see that Netflix on Us had never been activated. T-Mobile Tuesdays could show redemption activity or explain how to install the app. Repeated visits to the digital bill became an opportunity to make membership value visible.
The order mattered. Benefit discovery followed the work to make the bill understandable.
What changed
Across the broader Billing & Benefits program, we measured 43% fewer billing-related care calls, 204% higher year-over-year one-time payment completion, 76% higher recurring payment setup, and 23% higher customer lifetime value in the first 12 months. No single screen or intervention owns those totals.
The lesson I carry forward is to make the customer's explanation a shared product responsibility. A new digital surface has limited value when the charging rules, timing, and frontline explanation still disagree.
FROM THE WORK / 2018
The explanation, in the bill.
The 2018 billing designs show the total, what changed, and why. They make the billing problem concrete alongside the product decisions described above.
Designs from the T-Mobile Billing & Benefits program. Figures inside the screens are example interface content. Program results reflect the broader work.
