The new Farewill funeral service wasn’t attracting as many customers as we hoped. The majority of prospects were coming through the quote flow, but we noticed that emphasising the affordability was actually turning customers away as they associated low cost funerals with generic funerals of poor quality. They wanted to honour their loved one rather than cut costs.
I worked closely with a product manager, user research, content designer, and 5 engineers with the goal of increasing the number of funeral prospects by creating a new acquisition flow that better addressed the emotional needs of our users.
2 months
UX / UI
Information architecture
User research
Listening to sales calls taught me that our original approach, asking users to make logistical decisions like choosing a coffin, was too transactional. People sought emotional support and reassurance, wanting to know that Farewill could arrange a unique funeral that honoured their loved one.
To make the flow more human, I redesigned it to centre around funeral planning, rather than getting a quote. We shifted from cost-related queries to asking about the loved one and unique preferences, like location and type of funeral, believing that showcasing how Farewill could create a personalised experience would boost users' confidence to reach out.
Despite expecting more prospects, the A/B test had the opposite results. Teaming up with our researcher, I interviewed users and learned that although cost wasn't the primary factor, it still helped them understand if Farewill met their budget. However, digging into our performance analysis, we found that the personal approach still led to more customers navigating the flow, emphasising the need for a balanced design — highlighting affordability and a personal touch.
I noticed that the biggest drop-off point was on the landing page, before customers even used the acquisition flow, as they hesitated to commit to planning a funeral without a quote. To address this, I reverted to providing an estimated cost. I also added a section spotlighting three reasons to choose Farewill over competitors, drawing from common concerns I heard on customer calls to ease doubts.
Taking out the cost element raised customer anxiety and caused more drop-offs as customers felt uncertain about incurred costs. Collaborating with our content designer, I improved content transparency by explaining the purpose of questions and their cost implications. We also surfaced costs where possible, helping customers make more informed choices.
User testing showed the new results page lacked value as it offered little information on how Farewill could assist users and prompted them to wait for a callback. This caused frustration, fewer calls, and decreased pickups. I addressed this by featuring a cost estimate and images to help users visualise a personalised funeral with Farewill. A key change was introducing a cost breakdown to tackle user skepticism about upselling, enhancing transparency and trust. This tested well, boosting confidence in the cost estimate.
A major challenge was not having a cost estimate for burials due to the absence of a comprehensive cost database. Instead of showing an inaccurate estimate, we chose not to display one. Using the cost breakdown, we transparently communicated the costs still being worked out. Surprisingly, testing showed users were happy to wait for a more accurate estimate through a callback, purely because they could see we were working on it.
A new acquisition flow that explains the funeral options in clear, simple terms and is transparent about how their choices affect the final cost. It no longer overwhelms customers by asking them to make decisions they’re not ready for, and instead better addresses their need to find a funeral director that can help plan a local funeral that honours their loved one, and is within their budget.
The new flow led to a 23% increase in click through rates and 68% more customers completing the acquisition flow.