Demystify how merchants get paid
Ecosystem design | Clover
Background
At Clover, the closeout process—where merchants' credit and debit card transactions are reviewed for risk and fraud, then deposited into their bank accounts—was a significant pain point.
Closeout-related issues were the leading cause of customer support costs, with merchants struggling to understand the timing and method of their closeout process.
Existing resources were inadequate, leading to frustration and overwhelming support teams.
I joined the project as a Sr. Content Designer. I quickly shifted to the Project Lead and became recognized as the subject matter expert (SME) for all closeout-related work.
My task was to build a “Closeout settings” dashboard where merchants could view and adjust their closeout method and time without needing to contact customer support. This seemed straightforward at first but quickly became far more complex than expected.
What seemed like a simple self-service feature revealed an incredibly tangled and opaque process between Clover and Fiserv, requiring a deep dive into the operations and the creation of entirely new documentation and educational materials, for both internal and external use.
Outcome and impact
The impact of the project was significant:
The initial launch of a view-only settings page reduced closeout-related support calls by 30%.
The first phase of the self-service tool launched in early Q3 2024. By the end of the quarter, closeout-related support calls decreased by 43% (and counting). By January 2025, that number grew to 55.2%.
Arguably more importantly, my work strengthened the collaboration between the product, engineering, and support teams at Clover and Fiserv.
Discovery: Wait, what??
Not one person within Clover nor Fiserv understood the end-to-end closeout process. 😳 🤯 🫣
A deep dive into the closeout process
Upon starting the project, I quickly realized there was no single point of truth regarding the closeout process across Clover and Fiserv. The information from both organizations was inconsistent, and no one had a complete picture of the end-to-end process.
I reviewed existing closeout documentation and connected with colleagues from both companies. My research revealed critical discrepancies, such as a 50-minute difference between the closeout times in Clover and Fiserv’s systems. This misalignment meant merchants were being given incorrect closeout times, often leading to troublesome reconciliation issues, like missing transactions or tips from paper receipts.
The complexity of the closeout process, the different systems involved, and the lack of a unified understanding of the flow was a big challenge. To address this, I pulled together the experts-at-the-time to build a multi-team collaboration, including support teams, product teams, and engineers. My goal was to create clarity and agreement on the process.
Building the solution: Beyond the face palm 🤦♀️
My discovery work made it clear that the project needed to be approached in two phases:
First, a view-only dashboard for merchants to view their closeout settings.
Later, a self-service dashboard where they could edit those settings.
View-only closeout settings dashboard
The first phase focused on providing merchants with transparency. I worked with engineers and support teams to create a simple, yet clear, dashboard that displayed the merchant’s current closeout method and time, with distinct language depending on specific backend settings. A key challenge was presenting this information in a way that was digestible for merchants, many of whom were unfamiliar with the closeout process.
To address this, I avoided overwhelming the dashboard with excessive technical details. Instead, I linked to a new Help Center article that provided a clear, step-by-step explanation of how the closeout process worked.
This view-only dashboard led to a 30% reduction in support calls within the first two months of launch, as merchants could now easily verify their settings without needing customer support assistance.
Self-service edit dashboard
To say that the second phase was complex is an understatement. Merchants needed the ability to change their closeout settings, which required a detailed understanding of their business hours, the types of transactions each merchant accepted, and bank processing cutoff times.
I worked closely with my product design partner and engineers to develop the logic behind the self-service dashboard, ensuring it took into account the myriad scenarios that could affect closeout times. This involved mapping out numerous user journeys, and getting crystal clear on how several specific user settings affected their potential closeout options. The tool allowed merchants to adjust their settings based on their hours of operation, transaction types, and other relevant factors. (I’m glazing over a lot of hard work for the sake of a digestible portfolio case study. I am happy to dive deeper into this as needed.)
We streamlined the user experience by simplifying the decision-making process for merchants. Although the backend system was incredibly complex, the interface built was simple, with clear instructions and minimal decisions for merchants to make. A critical decision was to only show merchants the closeout times that were available to them, ensuring the system would function correctly.
Once built, it was almost laughable how simple the front-end user flow was, considering the countless hours over almost-two years (and a lot more grey hairs) that it took for us to feel comfortable launching the flow.
Support-related calls dropped by 43% within one month of launching merchants’ ability to edit their closeout time.
Educational content and training
As part of the solution, I also tackled the educational gap. Merchants had a limited understanding of the closeout process and often struggled with terminology. In addition, the internal Clover and Fiserv teams had the same challenges.
I collaborated with support teams to write new Help Center articles that clarified the various aspects of closeout, including terminology, the importance of closeout windows, and how to adjust settings to fit their business needs. The support team used my articles to build their support scripts, matching the language I defined. I also built internal documentation that illustrated the closeout flow, defined language, and defined dependencies.
The self-service settings page was designed to offer a brief explanation of the closeout process, with links to the full help article for those who needed more information. This balance between simplicity and detail was critical to avoid overwhelming merchants while still providing them with the knowledge they needed.
I also created the first end-to-end internal documentation, which provided a much-needed shared understanding of the closeout process across Clover and Fiserv.
What I’m most proud of
I’m proud of how this project evolved, and how the team came together to solve one of the more complex issues we’ll each tackle in our careers. What started as a straightforward ask became a rewarding journey of unraveling a complex, multi-company process. Through collaboration, research, and a focus on clarity, I simplified a convoluted system, improving both the merchant experience and customer support efficiency. I also take pride in creating the first end-to-end internal documentation, which provided a much-needed shared understanding of the closeout process across Clover and Fiserv.
This project taught me the value of digging deep into a problem, asking the tough questions, and being persistent until a solution is found. I’m also proud of how I stepped up from Sr. Content Designer to project lead and SME, taking ownership of the project and seeing it through to a successful conclusion.