Self service refill management tools
Design a medication refill management experience that allows patients to fill prescriptions immediately – or reschedule future – deliveries, aiming to reduce unsustainable inbound refill-related calls and messages.
Key metric
Reduce inbound refill-related messages by 10% within 1 month of launch
The team
• Senior product manager
• Engineering manager
• Clinical lead
• CX lead
Understand the systems
Stakeholder interviews and process audit
Clinical team: Understand medication fill thresholds, prescription constraints, and safety requirements for hundreds of medications.
Pharmacy/Fulfillment team: Map delivery schedules and system limitations.
Customer Support Team: Identify common pain points in refill inquiries and messaging pattern
Nurx did not have any self service refill management tools because of the complexity of the requirements. Medication refills would need to work across multiple platforms, ingesting a multitude of data points across consumer, CX and clinical touchpoints, to ensure medication orders could be adjusted correctly and safely.
Customer Experience (CX) Inbound Analysis
Analyze inbound refill-related messages to understand:
Common questions and frustrations
Language and tone used by patients
Patterns that indicate confusion or system pain points
Use insights to guide language, flows, and features in the new system.
Insights
STRIPE DATA ANALYSIS
Stripe charge logic will charge the entire outstanding balance, one invoice at a time, and most delinquent renters have 2 failed invoices. The primary payment failure error returned is ‘insufficient funds’.
SUPPORT TICKET ANALYSIS
Retry payment/update payment is the the #1 support ticket, with renters calling in trying to use an existing card on file.
USER JOURNEY
Renters are asked to update their payment method each time they have a failed payment, an option patients don’t understand how to leverage for repayment.
SURVEY
Most delinquent renters are financially insecure. This means they need to allocate and load funds as bills are due, and typically only have one credit or debit card.
How might we help renters understand what they owe, and easily pay us back?
The design approach
It became clear that we needed to focus on two key areas. First, renters needed clarity on what they owed—particularly since invoices accumulated and most had two to three missed payments—so they could plan accordingly. Second, they needed a payment experience that aligned with their expectations and typical workflows.
Renters received an email about a failed payment, but it lacked clear next steps. The link sent them to an “update payment method” flow that didn’t match how they expected to pay their balance with an existing payment method. They also couldn’t tell how much they’d be charged—often spanning multiple invoices—leading to partial charges, insufficient funds, and repeated payment failures—even after updating payment.
BEFORE
We redesigned the payment communication system to guide renters toward paying their balance efficiently. A single, clear call to action, combined with a failed payment workflow aligned with user expectations – task-focused language, full visibility of itemized charges, and a default card option – turned fragmented touchpoints into a cohesive, predictable system, designed to scale.
WHAT CHANGED
We also introduced two new updates:
Action required section: Previously, renters had no in-account indicator or access to the pay-balance flow. We added a dedicated section showing required actions and a link to pay.
Partial charge confirmation: Stripe’s retry logic often resulted in partial payments, that could not be handled through standard in line validation. We added a confirmation screen to alert renters when a balance remained, with actions to resolve it.
BONUS CHANGES!
Impact
67%
Email click-thru (compared to 27%)
32%
Drop in delinquent renters
~70%
Drop in payment support tickets MoM
$405,763
Collected in 1 month post launch
What’s Next?
During discovery, we found that renters weren’t acting maliciously—they intended to pay but often lacked sufficient notice to prepare for charges. To address this, we implemented proactive communications sent before a payment failure, alerting renters to upcoming charges and shifting from reactive collections to a more preventive approach.