How We Got 13% More People To Complete Screeners Over Text
On June 4, 2018, mRelief launched a new version of our SNAP Screener in California over text messaging. In this improved version, we focused on optimizing our questions in order to achieve more accurate results from our clients.
1. Thinking About How We Ask Questions
Our biggest change was updating the question structure by removing all open-ended questions. Previously, we asked numerical questions such as, ‘How many people live with you?’ or ‘What was the combined income of everyone in your household in the past 30 days?’
Based on the answers to these questions, our code could determine if someone was below the income limit for their household size. However, due to the nature and length of the questions, some clients were entering incorrect values for their household size, which in some cases resulted in ineligibility. Additionally, we observed the greatest abandonment at the question of gross income received by the household in the past 30 days.
2. Above or Below the Income Cutoff?
We found that many clients were unsure of exactly how much income they had received in such a specific time range, and the question structure suggested that they needed to know the exact dollar amount. In an effort to make the income question easier to answer, we broke the concept of income received in the past 30 days into two separate yes/no questions. Now, we first ask if they have received income. If they have, we follow up by asking if the income received was below the cutoff for their household size.
Now, our clients only share whether they are above or below the income cutoff for their household size.
Even though we added questions to the screener, the completion increased because the questions were easier to digest and answer. These changes in question structure increased our screener completion rate to 85%.
