women & usability of mobile financial services in the philippines
DESCRIPTION
These studies aim to understand how mobile phone technology and its usability is impacting poor women’s ability to access and benefit from mobile financial services. Many players assume that if a poor person owns a mobile phone, they are able to use it. We have found that this is a faulty assumption, and believe that usability and “mobile phone literacy” are big issues that are preventing poor women in particular to benefit from mobile-enabled solutions.TRANSCRIPT
Research on Women & Usability of Mobile Financial Services in the Philippines
GRAMEENFOUNDATION.ORG
Research on
Women & Usability of Mobile Financial Services in the Philippines
Research on Women & Usability of Mobile Financial Services in the Philippines 2Grameen Foundation | February 2014
Contents
Introduction……………………...….…..3
Summary of Findings……….………..6
Key Factors..……………….....…..7
Recommendations…...………..…24
For an additional view of our study, please see our video of participant responses
Research on Women & Usability of Mobile Financial Services in the Philippines 3
The goal of this research is to understand how mobile phone
technology and its usability is impacting poor women’s ability to access
and benefit from mobile financial services. Many players assume that
if a poor person owns a mobile phone, they are able to use it. We
believe that this is a faulty assumption, and believe that usability and
“mobile phone literacy” are big issues that prevent poor women in
particular from benefitting from mobile-enabled solutions. This study
expands on the ‘Women, Mobile Phones and Savings’ case study
Grameen Foundation completed a year ago in India, which studied a
65-person sample size.
Our intention is to demonstrate the specific challenges and constraints
that women in particular face while using a mobile delivery channel for
financial services. These findings will be used to influence commercial
players (mobile money operators, banks, technology service providers,
agent network managers) as well as back-end technology and
hardware designers to address usability issues that are preventing poor
women from benefitting from mobile financial services.
Introduction
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Location
Introduction
In the Philippines, CKS conducted the research in rural areas around Nagcarlan municipality, one of the poorest municipalities in the Laguna province. CKS tested the services of BanKO and SMART Money.
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Methods
Facilitated Usability Sessions
We facilitated discovery and task-based usability sessions with 14 current and potential users on the interfaces including 10 women and 4 men.
Introduction
We conducted qualitative research using a variety of methods:
Contextual Interviews
We interviewed 16 people including current customers, potential customers and mobile financial services agents.
Observation
We observed 2 mobile service agent centers.
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1. Most of the women have easy access to mobile phones and
use them for calling and texting frequently. The study found no
gender differences in access or ability to use a mobile phone.
2. The primary barrier to mobile financial services usage is lack
of awareness. Promotions by service providers are not
reaching poor women, resulting in a lack of awareness of
available services.
3. Women have extreme trust in the agent. If provided with more
information, women could become independent users of
mobile financial services. One-time assistance is often
sufficient for women to conduct transactions independently.
4. Age of women in the Philippines is correlated with ability to
use the mobile phone. Older women needed more assistance
with content and language and navigation.
Summary of Findings
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2. Accessibility
Women’s access to mobile phones in the Philippines differs little from men’s access. All women surveyed have easy access to a mobile phone.
Key Factors
1. Awareness
Lack of awareness of independent usage options and services availability are barriers to the adoption of mobile financial services (MFS). Providers do not effectively promote their services where poor women live.
3. Comprehension, Comfort & Confidence
These 3C’s are major factors in women’s usage of mobile phones and MFS. Women are confident using the mobile phone, although challenged at times by MFS terminology and language. They put a high degree of trust into agents.
Our research uncovered the following observations and insights that impact poor,
rural women’s ability to access and benefit from mobile financial services:
4. Usage
Poor women are challenged by navigation and syntax while using both SMART Money and BanKO services, but most learn quickly after one-time assistance.
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Research on Women & Usability of Mobile Financial Services in the Philippines
1. Awareness
Lack of awareness of independent usage options and services
availability are barriers to the adoption of mobile financial services
(MFS). Providers do not effectively promote their services where
poor women live.
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Research on Women & Usability of Mobile Financial Services in the Philippines
1. Awareness
Service Awareness
Marketing and promotion by each service provider does not effectively reach target audiences.
BanKO: Women were not aware of BanKO’s service. The company does not promote its services in locations that are easily accessible by women in our study. Employees make caravans in the town center or nearby areas, but not where women frequently visit. Additionally, BanKO promotes through Bosing, a popular celebrity TV show. But poor women lack easy access to TV and don’t see these advertisements.
SMART Money: Our participants are more aware of SMART Money. The company has many outlets and the agent interviewed is located at the center of the bayad, which is visited by households of all income levels.
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1. Awareness
Feature Selection
Once women become aware of the available
features, they express willingness to send
money using their mobile phones. They are
interested in features such as balance check,
pay bills, cash withdrawal and buy load. (‘Buy
load’ means to purchase credit for talk time
and sending SMS.)
Most women express interest in using the buy
load feature because they can load their
prepaid accounts from their home.
All of the women say that they would also like
to use the balance check feature because they
can check their balance before sending and
receiving money or buying load independently.
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1. Awareness
Cost
The participants do not know that if they
transact more than 6 times a year, they can
save money by using services independently.
The agent does not inform them that if they
send money themselves, they only pay 5 pesos
(USD $0.12 ) to send 1,000 pesos (USD $23.23)
instead of paying 25 pesos (USD $0.58) to the
agent for sending or receiving the same
amount.
It is important for customers to understand fee
structures so they know their options and can
make decisions accordingly. In some cases,
such as when transacting fewer than 6 times
per year, it may be cheaper to use the agent.
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1. Awareness
Ease of Signing Up
SMART Money does not require new customers
to fill out paperwork. SMART’s instruction
booklet was easy for our participants to
understand because it is in Tagalog and uses
graphic illustrations.
To use BanKO, women must fill out a form to
open an account. BanKO’s instruction booklet is
also in Tagalog and easy for the women to
understand.
In the study, most women try to read the
booklets on their own and only ask for
assistance when needed. The female literacy
rate in the Philippines is 96.1%*, and in our
sample literacy did not surface as a barrier.
* http
://census.gov.ph/content/literacy-men-and-women-philippines-results-2008-functional-literacy-education-and-mass-media
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2. Accessibility
Women’s access to mobile phones in the Philippines differs little
from men’s access. All women surveyed have easy access to a
mobile phone.
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2. Accessibility
Phone Ownership
All the women in our study have easy access to
mobile phones. Their husbands often leave their
phones at home when they go to work and the
women use the phones regularly to call and text.
These findings are not surprising given mobile
penetration rates in the Philippines. Mobile
penetration stood at 112% by the end of 2012.
Levels higher than 100% imply that some people
own more than one phone, rather than implying
that everyone owns a phone. Another related
factor is the widespread use of SMS messages: The
country generates the largest SMS volume in the
world.*
* http
://www.budde.com.au/Research/Philippines-Mobile-Communications-Forecasts-and-Broadcasting-Market.html
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Research on Women & Usability of Mobile Financial Services in the Philippines
3. Comprehension, Comfort & ConfidenceThese 3C’s are major factors in women’s usage of mobile phones
and MFS. Women are confident using the mobile phone, although
challenged at times by MFS terminology and language. They put a
high degree of trust into agents.
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Mobile Literacy
Our participants are all comfortable and
confident using mobile phones. Regardless of
age, they make very few mobile usage errors.
Most women say they are “fairly confident” to
“very confident” while using both SMART
Money and BanKO services and find them
easy to understand.
3. Comprehension, Comfort & Confidence
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Terminology
Even though our participants can read English, the
financial and mobile phone terminology was confusing to
them.
For example, using BanKO, the phrase “buy load type
amount between 10-150” was not clear to them. While
using the send money feature, the phrase “Type Outlet
Code” was not understandable to some participants.
With SMART Money, our participants were unfamiliar with
certain terminology. Almost all participants were
confused between “Reload Money” (cash deposit) and
“Load Airtime” (buy load) because the word “load” is
commonly used for mobile recharge.
Women made errors related to terminology irrespective
of their literacy levels.
3. Comprehension, Comfort & Confidence
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Using a Trusted Intermediary
From the observation of agent-customer
interactions, it is evident that most customers
of SMART Money have extreme faith in the
agent. Customers trust the agent to perform
transactions on their behalf.
Some frequent customers ask acquaintances to
send or receive money on their behalf through
the agent or just leave the money with the
agent without waiting for the money transfer to
be completed.
3. Comprehension, Comfort & Confidence
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Research on Women & Usability of Mobile Financial Services in the Philippines
4. Usage
Poor women are challenged by navigation and syntax while using
both SMART Money and BanKO services, but most learn quickly
after one-time assistance.
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Navigation
Women are able to navigate the menus and
screens with both providers, but are
challenged by some of the steps required.
When trying to use SMART Money, the service
terminates in 55 seconds. This causes users to
need multiple attempts, as they take time to
read and understand English.
While using BanKO, a few of our participants
make the mistake of pressing the soft key for
“Cancel” instead of “Reply.” Also, a few women
press the space key by mistake while entering
the PIN.
4. Usage
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4. Usage
Network Issues
Many women experienced a session timeout
issue in accessing SMART Money. The
service terminates in 55 seconds, requiring
users to start the process over if they don’t
complete it in time. On average it took our
participants three attempts to use the
service.
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Syntax
The use of hash (#) in place of
decimal while using the services
creates confusion for our
participants. Also, a few women find
the 16-digit outlet code (agent’s
code) for SMART Money long and
difficult to remember.
4. Usage
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Assisted Transactions
SMART Money:
Our participants are comfortable navigating
through the screens while using SMART
Money, as most of them are already customers
of SMART telecom and familiar with the
interface.
BanKO:
Some women, particularly those in the 36-44
years age cohort, need one-time assistance
when they start using the service. Younger
women are able to navigate through BanKO on
their own but they take some time to
understand the interface.
4. Usage
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Use Language I KnowLanguage for both instruction booklets, mobile directions and interface should be in Tagalog, as instructions in English are more challenging and time consuming.
Tell Me My OptionsAgents should inform customers that they can open an account on their own and make transactions independently.
Come To Where I AmAll mobile financial service providers need to better target their potential and existing customers if they want to ensure wider uptake of their services among poor women.
Recommendations
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Use Words I UnderstandUse mobile and financial terminologies that your users understand. Be careful of words used in transactions, such as ‘load’, which can already have a separate meaning to users.
Explain the CostsCustomers should be aware that there are multiple payment options. They can pay a one-time upfront fee for opening an account or additional fees each time they transact.
Research on Women & Usability of Mobile Financial Services in the Philippines
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Thank you.
Grameen FoundationWashington , DC
Center for Knowledge Societies
New Delhi, India