February - March 2024 • Infrastructure
All-new action center with granular, rule-based notification controls
Background
Arc's existing email-only notification system has become a massive bottleneck, limiting our ability to effectively serve our users as we expand our platform's features. This approach has led to growing frustration, particularly among our enterprise users, where admins are overwhelmed with emails for every team action. The flood of emails has led to important account-related information being missed, causing significant frustration for businesses that depend on Arc for their financial operations. This communication bottleneck not only impedes user engagement but also threatens to slow platform adoption and increase the risk of customer churn.
solution
We're introducing the Notification Center — a new feature to streamline communication, which serves as the central hub for all account activities within the app. The in-app notification center is also complemented by optional SMS alerts for even more urgent matters.
Additionally, we're bringing more granular controls to the users by introducing a new customizable, multi-channel approach to notification controls within Settings. Users can set personalized alert rules, such as receiving notifications only for high-value transactions from unfamiliar merchants, ensuring they stay informed about critical activities without being overwhelmed.
72%
Of all Arc customers have at least one rule applied
-45%
Down
In amount of transactional emails that admins receive over one quarter
How did we end up drowning in a sea of useless alerts?
In today's fast-paced financial landscape, notification systems have fallen behind, turning what should be a helpful tool into a source of frustration. The current approach not only overwhelms users with irrelevant information but also risks burying critical updates.
Critical Alerts Lost in the Noise
The sheer volume of email notifications has become unmanageable. Critical information often gets lost in the noise. Important account updates, urgent action items, and time-sensitive financial notifications frequently go unnoticed, leading to missed opportunities, and financial missteps.
One-Size-Fits-None Alerts
The current notification system lacks the flexibility for larger clients who are managing complex financial operations. Without options to customize notification preferences, users are forced to adapt to a rigid system that doesn't align with their specific workflows.
Email-only leads to severe bottlenecks
Our email-only notification approach is hampering the potential of new and upcoming features. As we develop advanced functionalities, this bottleneck not only hampers our ability to deliver cutting-edge features effectively but also puts us at a competitive disadvantage.
Don't reinvent the wheel, well…only a little
During the exploration stages, one key insight was the importance of clear options, ensuring users understand the outcome of their choices while maintaining full control. I didn't want to reinvent the wheel; notification settings have an established pattern, and users have certain expectations about how they work.
That said, I still wanted to explore opportunities to innovate. Notifications are rarely a product that moves the needle, which paradoxically creates an opportunity. Traditionally, companies don't allocate many resources to this domain, leaving room for differentiation. This landscape allows us to potentially implement features that our competitors haven't yet considered, setting our product apart in an often overlooked area.
Low-fidelity explorations of the different types of notifications to iterate quickly
All-New notifications center
Centralizing important updates and actions in one accessible location. The notification center is easily reached from the top navigation bar, allowing users to access notifications from anywhere in the app.
We've segmented notifications into three key categories: All, Payment-related, and Card-related, based on highest traffic volume. Users can now approve payments, receive critical messages like scheduled maintenance alerts, and manage other essential tasks directly from the Notification Center.
Rule-based granular controls
Empowering users with unprecedented customization of their alert preferences. Users can now set custom balance thresholds for each bank account, triggering email alerts when balances fall below specified levels. Users also have the ability to set transaction-specific notifications, alerting users when certain transaction types exceed preset amounts. Additionally, card-specific notifications keep users informed about pending reimbursements requiring receipts and new subscriptions charged to their cards.
SMS Notifications
On top of the in-app notification center, we're also adding SMS notifications, allowing users to receive instant alerts about critical account activities on their mobile devices. This feature goes beyond simple notifications - users can now approve payments, submit reimbursements, and perform other key actions directly via SMS.
outcomes
Launched in May 2024, Within months of release, an impressive 72% of our users have applied at least one rule, demonstrating strong adoption and engagement. This feature set has not only enhanced user experience but also significantly reduced transaction emails by 42%, streamlining communications. While this feature doesn't necessarily move the needle in terms of revenue for Arc, it has quickly become a cornerstone of user retention. Moreover, by introducing capabilities unmatched by our competitors, we've solidified Arc's position as an innovator in the market.
Awesome feature from the Arc team, such a huge quality of life improvement. The reason we'll always stick with Arc because they are always delivering aces.
Matt Lommi from Fetii
So glad to see this feature finally rolled out, it was such a pain before this. No more annoying and irrelevant emails to clutter our finance team's inbox.
Christine Kim from Ionic
Really awesome to see how responsive the Arc team is, we've been asking for this feature and within 2 months, the Arc team has delivered yet again.
James Vellos from Tenable
Credits
A massive shout-out to our incredible team who sprinted tirelessly for a month to ship this project and deliver it to our customers. Special recognition goes to my manager, Bobby, whose unwavering advocacy was crucial in persuading leadership to move forward with the "north star" version of the project.
Christopher Sim
Design Lead
Aiqi Liu
Product Lead
Kenzie Mcdonald
Engineering Lead