The Devil in Discounts
There are very few words in the world that make your heart go sha la la la, and ‘Discount’ is one of them. Just a glimpse of it, and your oxytocin levels shoot up to the stars, your vision discards the T&C written in fly turd-size font, and your fingers long for the touch of the ‘Apply coupon’ button.
So, to figure out the power this word wields over our customers,
we (UX Research team) studied them.
We created the screen below(img.01) where the ‘Super Saver Plan’ (which is a discounted Comprehensive Policy with some important T&Cs) was transformed into a ‘Super Saver Discount’ (the green bit you see on the screen).
This screen was then tested with potential customers to check if they read the T&Cs associated with the discount. Studies revealed that our customers don’t read anything beyond ‘Super saver discount — Rs. 2000’ and we’ll have a tough time explaining the reasons behind the 5k charge during claims if they get their car repaired at a garage that’s not a part of our network (this is mentioned in the green box too).
Here’s what one of the customers who was a part of the study had to say
And while the addition of the word ‘discount’ pushed the customers ahead on the ‘buy’ journey, it brought down the satisfaction score, because the customer would have to pay 5k if they didn’t get their car repaired at an ACKO garage.
So, we concluded that we’ve evolved to be a species with the attention span of a gnat, and the word ‘discount’ doesn’t always work in our favour. This conclusion incited a change in the screen below(img.02).With this new design, we achieved 100% comprehension of the plan; also, the drop-offs fell considerably.
Key takeaways from all that text you just read
The word ‘Discount’ is powerful AF and you’ve got to
exercise caution while using it.
If you’re launching something new, as it’s best to test the designs with the target segment before ‘going live’. It will help you enhance the customer experience by fixing the appropriate problems and get over ‘if I were the user conclusions’ because more often than not — you’re biased and don’t mimic the brain of the end-user.
Written by- Srishti Jain(UX Researcher ) Illustrations by- Fahiz Mohammad(Sr. Visual Designer) at ACKO
