Why the numbers drop? 🤔
While reviewing the data on our dashboard, I came across a significant drop in conversion rates within our sign-up flow. This not only affected the product itself but also had an impact on our marketing and sales teams, as they depend on the flow to generate leads for potential buyers.
Project goal
Fix the data leaking problem.
Our sales strategy required users phone number, and the sign-up flow is one of the important resources.
What I did
Found the leaking point
Collaborated with PM and the owner of Snapask Korea
Delivery revamped UI and flow
Result
After we had simplify the term and policy page, and switch phone sign-up, Sign-up rate increased 38.3%.
Duration
Two weeks for each projects
Let's see the funnel
We can see two significant leaks in the user journey. The Terms and Conditions page experiences a drop-off rate of 50.2%, while the Email Verification page has a drop-off rate of 60.5%. This leaves us with a mere 8% conversion rate.
(Data has been modify)
Terms and Conditions
This page contained a checkbox that required user to checked, in order to tap the "Continue" button on the bottom. This page seems to be intuitive but it has a shocking 50.2% drop-off rate.
I had 10-days timeline for the project, I opted to observe onboarding designs of other apps through platforms like Mobbin. Additionally, I drew insights from my personal experiences using various apps. From this analysis, I identified three major patterns:
Beneath the "Sign Up" button, a line of text reads "Tapping Sign Up means you agree to our terms and policy." This approach eliminates the need for any additional user action.
02
Mandatory for users to check a checkbox to proceed with the sign-up.
03
Some product or service, financial product for instance, will required user to scroll through the terms and conditions in order to proceed the sign-up.
Question: Do we really need a standalone page?
At the time we went for the second approach, a standalone page with a checkbox that required user to check it to continue the flow, the reason this page existed was a requirement came from the manager of Snapask Korea, said the checkbox is mandatory according to the law.
But after some google search, I couldn't find any related information, but I learned there are two common methods to implement the terms and conditions page:
Clickwrap
Provide a checkbox or a button for user to accept the T&C, and clear description telling user by clicking the button means they consent to T&C.
Browsewrap
Consider user accept the T&C by continuously using the product. This method is violating the GDPR, does not recommend.
Possible Solutions
01 - Accept terms and condition by create account
Based on the findings so far, it appears that a standalone Terms and Conditions page is not obligatory, with a clear text message, tap on "Create Account" is also work as consent. And removing this page could streamline the the sign-up process and also legal. Considering our current limited engineering resources, this approach seems to be a favorable direction to pursue.
02 - Update the UI visual
Another assumption is the page lacks visual guiding, resulting in a high drop-out rate, we can try to adjust the visual, for example, changing the checkbox icon style from "Fill" to "Border", to emphasize the difference between states. Additionally, we can hide the button, allow users to focus on the checkbox first, then show the button once the checkbox is tick.
Confirm with Korea manager
As mentioned earlier, the standalone consent page was initially requested by the Snapask Korea manager, since the drop-off rate is high, and using Create Account button as consent seems like a better flow, I want to align with the Korea manager before we make any changes.
Me and PM shared the finding with the Korea manager, and we learned that it's a common pattern in Korea, like the NAVER app. Later I shared that it is actually not mandatory design, and I believe using Create Account button as consent can lead to higher conversion rate.
Finally she agreed with our proposal, we are going for the first solution.
Result
Sign-up CVR increased 8.24%
The updated version is now live, and we have successfully addressed most of the leakage issues on Terms and Condition page.
Conversion rate
Email Confirmation
The leaks on Terms and Condition page have been resolved, let's move on the next leaking part: Email Confirmation page.
My Assumptions
60.2% drop-out rate was abnormal, my assumptions are:
Users got distracted after they leave the app.
02
Sometimes, the confirmation email can take a bit more time to arrive.
Possible Solutions
01 - Switch to verification code
We can't control the delivery time at the moment, so I am thinking maybe can change something else, like instead asking user to leave the app to click a link in email, maybe sending a code, user can enter the code while stay in Snapask app.
02 - Switch to phone sign-up
At the moment, phone number was become more important than email to the company. The sales and marketing teams heavily rely on phone numbers for telemarketing.
Taking this into account, PM and I have discussed the idea of transitioning from email sign-ups to phone number sign-ups. This way, we can collect phone numbers and eliminate the data leakage page altogether.
Designing a flow that's as smooth as butter.
Finally we decided to switch to phone sign-up method.
Using SMS verification offers the advantage of the app automatically detecting the code from the message, completing the verification process without requiring the user to do anything manually. My assumption is that this can contribute to reducing user drop-offs.
Thanks to the engineering team, I gained insights into how both platforms detect the verification code:
iOS
The system will recognize the number behind the word "code" as the verification code, this works in every language.
Android
Required to add a string of identify code, at the end of the message. For example "This is your code "1234". REw25AL7iaR"
After we retrieve the code from the SMS, we automatically fill the code into the textfield, and started the verification, users doesn't need to lift a finger!
Result
Sign-up CVR increased 38.3%
After approximately a month of transitioning to phone sign-ups, the conversion rate has seen a notable increase 38.3%. There's no significant drop-off in the process anymore!
Conversion rate