Digital Adoption Surged 9x Using Behavioural Insights

Our client had a well-developed and long-standing customer portal that was stubbornly underused. Expensive campaigns encouraging registration and use had minimal conversion rates and customers continued to call instead of self-serve.

Insight: Communications centred around benefits of registration are often ineffective

Typical techniques for encouraging usage tend to focus on trying to tell customers about all the benefits of the portal. However, this often results in intention–action gaps where people may be motivated, but still do not switch. These communications tend to be:

• Impersonal, with no relevance to the individual
• Passive, giving no reason to act now
• Perceived as marketing, not giving the customer what they need to decide

The Solution: A redesigned digital adoption journey

We introduced a multi-touchpoint journey to maximise digital adoption from improved onboarding scripts to proactive campaigns to timely prompts.

• Personal framing: Making the request feel relevant and targeted
• Mental models: Giving customers appropriate and motivating expectations
• Feedback: Making tangible what the portal offers given their current situation

The Results

• All touchpoints significantly increased adoption compared to controls
• Outbound campaign performance increased 9x
• A carefully designed cost-free insert added into other communications performed 6x better than the status quo

Big Takeaway

The right approach, equipped with the right behavioural techniques, can even boost digital adoption in customers who have resisted use of digital tools for many years.