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Simplify, Simplify, Simplify

Guest blogger: Valerie Klein, Consumer Credit Services of the Delaware Valley (CCCSDV)

We wanted to find out why people were canceling at such a high rate and see what could be done.  But like most non-profits, we had constraints. We didn't have a lot of time or funding to put into an in-depth program overhaul. Over the summer and fall of 2009, we worked with a consultant funded through Annie E. Casey, to use behavioral economics concepts to find an effective change that we could implement easily.

The first thing we needed to do was to look at our current processes and ask what barriers and hassles we might be unintentionally forcing on clients. We looked at the appointment packet that we send to everyone who calls interested in debt counseling and realized that its tone and length might be intimidating and seem like a hassle to complete. Without realizing it, we had created unnecessary barriers for clients.  The tone was severe, stressed the fee charged, indicated that "cash payments must be exact change", told people they must arrive 15 minutes early, and was 8 pages long, including a blank budget and asset and liabilities forms we told people they must complete before their appointment. After speaking with our counselors, we learned clients commonly did not fill out these forms and the counselors were happy to help clients fill out the forms during the session.

Our old letter looked like this:

We set out to redesign the letter by taking out any barriers we might be creating--in terms of paperwork and intimidation by 1) removing all unnecessary information and forms to create a simple, straight-forward letter and 2) creating a tone that was friendly and affirming. We wanted the client to feel as though they had already done the hard work by calling and making the appointment; they had already invested in the process and had taken the first steps to gaining control of their financial future. We removed all the worksheet pages and slimmed down the packet dramatically.  

The redesigned letters look like this:

Click here for full size version of the new letter.

Results

Note: These are initial results based on a modest sample. We are doing more work to expand the study to include additional clients.

Our intentions were to increase the show rate, decrease the no-show rate, and increase the Cancelled rate. We felt it was useful to examine the 3 months prior to implementation as a comparison group. We can see that in the first three months of implementation, we saw that the Counseled Rate increased 5% and the No-Show Rate decreased 1%, while the Cancelled Rate decreased 4%. We were pleased with these initial results and have begun redesigning the narrative and format of our other appointment letters.

This project was made possible through the support of the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

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