Simple, one of the first mobile-only banks in the U.S, is in the midst of rethinking its customer experience to keep pace with new expectations. 

To do this, it’s querying its customer base to understand pain points, an effort led by former Tesla executive Moin Moinuddin, who joined the company as vice president of engineering this month. 

“The goal here internally is how do we help customers feel confident with their money,” Moinuddin said. “We are moving more and more toward measuring everything so we can learn from our customers, and then we launch products and services to see how effective they are.” 

Though Simple continues to release new offerings, including a new feature that allows customers to automatically deposit a portion of their tax refunds into a savings account, the company is immersed in an effort to understand the driving forces for future innovation. 

Portland-based Simple was founded in 2009 as an early mover in personal finance management and digital banking, gaining 100,000 customers before being acquired by BBVA in 2014. Since then, many competitors have entered the mix, and the pressure is on for the company to differentiate. Moinuddin acknowledged it has room to improve in a competitive field of digital-only challengers. 

“I joined Simple because it was one of the first branchless personal financial services,” Moinuddin said “Somehow we lost our execution muscle and, as a result, we didn’t keep up with innovation.”  

Moinuddin led product and engineering at Tesla, helping to develop and integrate Tesla’s in-house leasing and insurance products. Prior to that, he spent more than three years as the head of global payments at Dropbox. Before Dropbox, he spent almost 11 years at Microsoft, where he developed that company’s commerce and payments platforms.  

Moinuddin emphasized that product development must be based on an understanding of customer behaviors and pain points. He said in-app surveys will play a role in helping Simple determine the next steps on product journey.  

While the surveys can be as short as one question asking customers how they feel about a function in the app, the company also uses email surveys and social media. Simple will also study how customers interact with the app, including which screens they interact with most, areas they avoid and the origins of abandoned transactions. 

Simple didn’t offer any specific plans about what it will do with the feedback it’s collecting, but Moinuddin said the company is also considering focus groups. He didn’t offer a specific time frame for Simple’s customer feedback research. 

See also: How the Innovation Team at BBVA Compass Focuses on Needs, Revenue

Since its acquisition by BBVA, Simple has worked to get its brand in front of consumers. In 2018, the company placed subway and billboard ads in various U.S. cities, including New York. 

Steph Reiley, director of product at Simple, recently said at Bank Innovation Ignite that the company always tries to emphasize its human element when designing its user experience. “I think that combination of tech and human beings is the magic formula for newer customers,” she said. Moinuddin said he will be working closely with Reiley in his new role. 

Although Simple was founded in 2009, the platform launched commercially in 2012. It currently offers a checking account, debit card and an online deposit certificates. Simple also offers personal finance management tools like savings envelopes, bill tracking and budgeting.  

The task of differentiating as a digital banking platform is becoming increasingly difficult in a crowded market. A comparison between Chime and Simple on the financial advice site SmartAsset, for example, said, “Between Chime’s speedy paycheck processing capabilities, superior savings ability, massive fee-free ATM network and low fees, Simple just cannot keep up.” Chime recently announced it has 8 million customers, and N26, Monzo and Revolut all have plans to grow in the U.S. market as well.  

Moinuddin, however, said Simple isn’t focusing on the competition, but staying focused on delivering an improved customer experience. 

“I don’t want to look at the competition at all because that just makes me biased,” Moinuddin said. “Our customers will define our journey.” 

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