The Problem

More than 50% of users who signed up for MealPal have heard about the service from a friend, therefore referral is our #1 acquisition channel. We have promotional emails that the user can forward to a friend but do not have anything similar within the app. The only screen we have was a ‘Refer’ tab which rarely got used by the user. We need a better, more compelling way for the user to invite their friends.

Hypothesis

We believe that by presenting a fun modal, right after the user has a satisfied experience — which is reserving a meal, will entice the user to invite their friends.

(No) User Testing 

We did not run a user testing prior to implementing this because we need quantitative results/data to understand whether this feature is working or not. We also have technology for the modal in place already so this is a small lift from an engineer’s perspective. We did, though, run A/B testing regarding the design of the modal.

(Yes) A/B Testing 

We ran A/B testing on the design of the modal to see which one is more enticing for the user.

Version A: The design follows the style of the other modals within the app. We used 5 different icons to see which one the users resonated with.

Version B: The design follows the style of our marketing email.

Final Result

Our referral has gone up 25% and 18% has come from this new modal in the app.

As for the result of the A/B testing, interestingly, the results were very close:

• Version A (the app’s modal design): 52% 

• Version B (marketing email design): 48%

And the clear winner of the 5 different icons, at 46%, is the bank note which means that when it comes to a reward, the user is very much resonated with the money rather than food or a gift box.