The QR Code Generator
My role
I was tasked to improve the conversion and increase the activation, through investigating problems and discovering and testing solutions.
The problem
Dark Patterns design:
• Bait and Switch
• Hidden costs
Trust pilot:
• 10% of reviews accusing QRCG of being a Bait and Switch platform, without ethical system.
Sitejabber:
• 84% of 1 star rating and accusing QRCG of being a scam product from a 227 total reviews
The challenge
Create solutions in order to:
Reduce the number of complains leading to more customer satisfaction
Reduce the total ticket volume for customer support
Increase activation in trial period (first 14 days)
"How might we increase discoverability, entice users, increase activation and reduce friction during and after the trial period?"
Research goals
To validate that users are not satisfied within and after the trial period we conducted a Net Promoter Score (NPS) Survey .
The NPS survey targeted:
Customers who are on Free Trial period
Shortly after an account upgrade to a paid plan (within 20 days)
- Starter Plan
- Advanced Plan
- Professional, Enterprise and Premium Plans
The NPS survey targeted:
Customers who are on Free Trial period
Shortly after an account upgrade to a paid plan (within 20 days)
- Starter Plan
- Advanced Plan
- Professional, Enterprise and Premium Plans
Results
Starter Plan subscribers have a negative sentiment towards our product
Advanced Plan subscribers: our biggest promoters
QRCG PRO is Easy to Use
Users on Free Trial: promoters with a lot of suggestions
The detractors responses were mostly pushed by three specific factors:
high prices to reactivate a low number of Dynamic QR Codes
lack of transparency about the 14-day Free Trial
only yearly option for payment
This negative sentiment may be associated with the fact that they were not anticipating to spend money when they first created their QR Codes. A subsequent negative sentiment happens when they subscribe to a plan without noticing the yearly payment.
Both events were described as false advertising, deceptive, and misleading. Quotes below demonstrate these feelings:
🗣️ "more plans for intermediate number of qr code ( maybe 10-15)”
🗣️ ”It is not clear that you have to constantly pay to keep it active”
🗣️ ”Advertise 1 free code but then expires after 14 days. Used on 2000 flyers that
will be passed out and viable for a long time with a code that no longer works
unless I subscribe. Had no choice but to pay my $119 dollars”
Emotional journey map
At this point I wanted to be able to demonstrate the emotional factors involved in making a decision to create a QR Code, especially that it involves what we call an admin user, and the customer user , Eg: the restaurant manager, and the restaurant customer.
A detailed mapping of the problem inspecting the emails we send, and a step by step user flow
Opportunity mapping
At this point I wanted to be able to demonstrate the emotional factors involved in making a decision to create a QR Code, especially that it involves what we call an admin user, and the customer user , Eg: the restaurant manager, and the restaurant customer.
The outcome
Early notifications in app
An Email on the 7th day
Overlay tutorial on the creation page
Investigate the free plan scenarios (check with the devs how to access the freeplan)
Design a free Plan flow
A/B test CTA changes (Change Terminology)
Testing Ads after trial
The prototype
• Expiration tag and modal overlay
Adding a clickable tag/label that shows the expiry status of the code.
The label opens a modal window that would open with a countdown of the trial time, and shows what are the features the user would loose when the trial is expired.
Adding a visible countdown on the fixed menu, with a CTA to upgrade the account.
Results after 2 weeks
The Trial cancelation went down after the time of the implementation.
Increase on the activation from day 1 (trail to paid)increased to almost 0.5% in 20 days that translates to an average of 11k/ day or around 300k/month
Dynamic vs Static QR Codes
Visually explaining the difference between dynamic and static codes
Unmoderated test sessions
A mockup was tested with no facilitator on Maze app with 25 users, the results showed
11 people (44%) direct success, completed the task through expected path
7 people (28%) finished with delays and struggles.
7 people bounced / gave up
Moderated test sessions
A mockup was tested with a facilitator on Maze app with 4 users, the results showed:
2 out of 4 suggested Keeping both types of codes opened
adding a tutorial overlay
Explaining the difference in the onboarding
A tutorial overlay was created on Figma using Intercom UI, to be tested on Maze app before implementation
To be validated
Ads after trial
Adding Ads after trial ends when user scans the QR Codes, with a waiting time before previewing the Code content
Free plan
To direct users into the free plan when they fit the criteria of that plan
Learnings
#1 Transparency
Customers appreciate transparency and willing to pay with clear disclaimers and notification system
#2 Customer support is happier
nuf said :)
#3 Change is inevitable
More research, as it‘s a complex and extensive topic with many factors , which means further iterations. The final saying is for the data.
