Challenge
The 'Ask an Expert' service, a feature that allows users to pose complex questions to subject matter experts, was identified as a non-retentive behavior according to a study. Primarily transactional, users typically did not engage beyond getting their questions answered. Despite the high quality of expert responses, the service faced significant competition from larger providers and lacked a unique aspect to differentiate it.
Solution
A progress tracker was the proposed solution to boost the 'Ask an Expert' service.
This new feature kept users informed about the status of their questions, from the moment they were routed based on the topic to Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), through the process of identifying the best SME for the question, until the final review of the answer. The versatile tracker was implemented at various points, such as the success confirmation page, pending state of the solution page, and home page, with a reduced state for the My Questions dashboard preview and a banner at the top of the page. A progress bar updated at each step, and a link to the dashboard was provided. Considerations for future enhancements included automatically generating an Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) for the answer based on past user behavior.
The progress tracker incorporates an Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) feature, which is automatically generated based on past user behavior.
The Outcome
The introduction of the progress tracker was expected to increase the number of Monthly Transacting Users (MTUs), improve user retention from day 7 to day 8, and enhance conversion from freemium to paid users.
Additional benefits included the potential reduction of Customer Service tickets related to time-related status.