Intro incentives

The Revenue, Strategy, and Operations team at Compass was encountering some challenges with its agent introduction program. The program encouraged Compass agents to refer other agents for recruitment to Compass. But referral numbers were low, and agents didn’t seem to understand the role they were expected to play. The team wondered: could better content help?

At certain stages in transaction flows, agents were asked if they’d like to recommend an agent to Compass for recruiting. Here’s an example:

The existing content design wasn’t great:

• The CTA verb “recommend” was ambiguous and incomplete.

• The visual design of the small gray text implied “small print” and “legalese” — in other words “don’t read this.”

• Description of the process (“trigger a follow-up” that “does not guarantee participation”) was confusing.

• The UX of a checkbox was too passive for this context. We needed another component to elicit a definite “yes” or “no.”

• There was no way to learn more about the program.

• Vagueness about the incentives.

The rewrite

I facilitated a one-hour office hours discussion with the team’s designer and PM, and took the lead in drafting the copy doc with them in real time. Here’s where we landed:

• The CTA verb (“Introduce”) more clearly communicates the active role the referring agent is expected to play in the coming process.

• Text link ingresses to learn more about the program.

• Inclusion of branded name of the program for agent recognition.

• Use of radio buttons to require agents to actively consider whether they’ll be involved or not

• Language about process: first we’ll do research, then you’ll introduce us.

• Language about caveats: not all agents qualify for recruitment, not all successful recruits will earn you incentives.

• Text link highlighting incentives without making participation in the program all about that.

• Specific description of the kinds of incentives that user research shows is most motivating for agents.