Case Study: Reducing Application Drop-Offs with a Customer Journey Map

Helping Schwab International Identify Pain Points in the Client Onboarding Experience

Overview

Schwab International was experiencing high application drop-off rates—nearly 60% of international clients abandoned the onboarding process before completion. They knew the process had friction but weren’t sure where or how to improve it.

Through a fast-paced customer journey mapping exercise, I helped identify key pain points in the onboarding experience and delivered actionable recommendations that led to significant improvements.

Key Outcomes

  • Pinpointed top friction points across the onboarding journey
  • Delivered actionable to-dos, prioritized by impact and effort
  • Contributed to a major drop-off reduction after implementation
  • Helped client prioritize future UX improvements in the agile backlog
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The Challenge

Schwab’s international application process had critical problems:

  • High drop-off rate (~60%) from incomplete applications
  • Lack of clarity around where users were getting stuck
  • No centralized understanding of the end-to-end user experience
  • Multiple outdated touchpoints with inconsistent digital support

They needed a clear picture of the customer journey and a prioritized list of changes to address both immediate and long-term UX issues.

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My Role

As the lead facilitator and UX strategist, I was responsible for:

  • Planning and facilitating a collaborative workshop with stakeholders and customer reps
  • Creating the Mural board matrix to explore each stage of the journey
  • Synthesizing workshop input into two versions of a customer journey map
  • Delivering prioritized recommendations with supporting insights
  • Designing workshop outputs into shareable decks and visual deliverables
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The Process

We hosted a highly structured, time-boxed workshop with stakeholders and client reps who specialized in onboarding. Using a digital Mural board, we:

  • Mapped each step of the international application process
  • Documented client pain points, emotional responses, and operational blockers
  • Encouraged participants to vote on the most severe issues
  • Identified solutions and “low-hanging fruit” that could be implemented immediately

Follow-up conversations were needed to gather deeper context due to time constraints.

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Key Insights

The biggest friction point was file uploading:

  • Clients lacked printers and scanners
  • File format and size rules were unclear
  • Documentation requirements were ambiguous
  • No digital signature support created an unnecessary offline step

This single issue created frustration, inefficiency, and led many clients to abandon the process.

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The Solution

I delivered:

  • A detailed two-slide journey map documenting every step, issue, and emotional response
  • A simplified one-page version for quick reference and sharing
  • A presentation deck with prioritized fixes, broken down by effort and impact
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Impact & Results

  • Quick wins implemented immediately, improving clarity and reducing confusion
  • Digital signature support prioritized, leading to fewer application drop-offs
  • Client reps gained a centralized understanding of onboarding challenges
  • Drop-off rates dropped significantly after implementing changes

The journey map became a strategic artifact—used by teams beyond UX to align on what to fix, why, and when.

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Challenges & Lessons Learned

  • Too many participants diluted discussion—fewer voices would’ve allowed for deeper insight
  • Workshop time was limited, requiring post-session follow-up to fill in gaps
  • Internal buy-in was critical—presenting both a detailed and digestible journey map helped drive alignment

I’ve since refined this format to be more focused, with smaller participant groups and more prep beforehand.

Conclusion

This project showcased the power of a well-executed customer journey map. Even with limited time and budget, we uncovered critical friction points, aligned teams around shared priorities, and helped reduce costly drop-offs in a key business process.

Interested in mapping your own customer experience challenges? Let’s talk. [Insert contact CTA here]