Building Trust in Home Construction Payment
Payments for high-value purchases can make or break trust. In construction, where home-owners commit large sums over long timelines, moments of confusion around payments significantly impact overall experience.
At Brick & Bolt, payment-related issues accounted for 10% of negative customer feedback, which reduced by 3% post the payments experience redesign.
Role: UX Design, Stakeholder Collaboration, Usability Testing, Launch
Timeline: 4 months
Team: 3 Engineers
Brick & Bolt is a Construction-Tech Marketplace
It helps homeowners build houses end-to-end. Similar to how Uber standardises rides while connecting riders and drivers, Brick & Bolt sits between homeowners and construction partners - owning pricing transparency, quality standards, and customer support.
How do Customer Payments at Brick&Bolt work?
Payments are collected stage-wise, aligned with construction milestones. Each stage can be split into flexible installments, and payments may happen via escrow or direct transfer (DT) depending on the context. Given the high transaction values involved, clarity and predictability are critical to maintaining trust.
Problems with the Current Flow
1. Lack of clarity on total amount paid
Stage-wise tracking showed only fully paid stages, making it difficult for customers to understand how much they had already paid.
2. Payments outside the app were not clearly guided or captured
Payments made via external channels or directly to contractors were not clearly guided or captured, leading to reduced visibility and increased manual follow-ups.
3. Weak information hierarchy in critical payment moments
Key payable amounts were visually de-prioritised, multiple “Pay now” CTAs competed for attention, and refund states were not clearly differentiated.
We made all customer payments visible via a Transaction page
Guided and captured payments made outside the app through structured flows
Restored hierarchy
Validation & Impact
Usability testing confirmed that customers clearly understood how much they had paid, what was pending, and how off-app payments would be reflected. Anecdotes from users about earlier struggles closely matched the initial problem signals, validating both the problem framing and the solution direction. Post-launch, payment-related negative feedback, earlier ~10%, reduced by ~3–4%, and subsequent customer conversations reflected increased confidence and trust in the payments experience.