Ethical Referrals
Context
Building a bank the planet needs
From the very start, we wanted Kroo to have a conscience; a bank built to change banking.
But we had a problem: download and sign up metrics were very low. We were finding that once customers were onboarded, and found value in the product, retention was relatively high. However, the product just wasn’t reaching enough people.
We decided to experiment with a referral programme to encourage friend referrals and new customers to join the Kroo movement.
My contribution
Product Design, Research, User Testing, Ui Design
1x Product Manager
1x Product Designer
2x Engineers
The team
Tools
Figma, Usertesting platforms, Principle
How might we encourage customer acquisition in a way that benefits both Kroo, and the planet?
The problem
Low number of sign ups
To tackle the issue of low sign ups, I first reached out to our current user base to understand what would encourage them to invite their friends. I also interviewed potential new customers to explore what may motivate them to download and sign up to a new bank.
Along with a number of features they felt were missing in their current bank, rewards were high on all customers’ lists. Monetary, but also ‘rewards for good’.
73% of current users asked were likely or highly likely to invite friends based on ethical rewards.
Potential new customers talked about both monetary but also being able to donate easier, track carbon footprint, and plant trees.
A desire to track their rewards and see their progress within the app.
A strong desire to know ‘where their money was going’ or ‘the impact they were having’.
The approach
Surfacing customers’ impact
We created hypotheses and tested different types of ethical rewards to increase customer referrals and acquisition, such as carbon offsetting, tree planting, and charity donations. Based on the results, we decided to proceed with planting trees as the MVP of our referral scheme.
One Tree Planted was selected as our tree planting partner as it allowed full visibility of where users’ trees were being planted. It also allowed the user to select one of their planting projects from around the world, giving them full control to make an impact where they wanted, which was something that had come through stronger in user feedback.
With this feedback in mind, I designed the user experience and UI to be very clear about the impact our customers were having, surfacing how many trees they had planted, and their friend’s trees, making their collective forest and increasing impact together. This was accompanied with some ‘delight’ functionality, such as animations when a new friend joined, and visuals customers could share on social media to showcase the number of trees they had planted. This shareability proved to be very effective in encouraging more referrals.
Our planting partner
The outcome
Increased referrals, acquisition, and activation of new customers
A 5000% increase in referral shares within 1 month
The customer reaction to the launch of the referral scheme was incredibly successful. We went from around 50 referral shares a month to 2350 in one month from launch. And this continued to grow. The plan from here is to continue to gain feedback on what rewards our customers care about and continue to experiment with them.
Rise in acquired and activated customers through friend-to-friend referrals
An increase from 16% to 39% for a friend referring a new customer who downloads and signs up to Kroo.
Targeting 1 million trees planted by 2024
This was a goal set at the start and we’re now well on the way to achieving this.
