Registration Survey Redesign

PxD operates the MoA-INFO platform in collaboration with Kenya’s Ministry of Agriculture to provide free agricultural recommendations to farmers via SMS messages. In February 2019, the MoA-INFO platform was undergoing various expansions that required a redesign of the registration survey. First, the content on the platform was increased from a single-crop maize service to include two additional crops. Second, the customization of content was improved by targeting message content and timing with the farmer’s location information. Third, Safaricom (a large Kenyan phone company) planned to deliver the third nationwide blast campaign, which was expected to more than double the number of platform users. In the redesign process, we considered ways to optimize the new registration survey.

The first consideration was whether to start the survey by asking the user’s first name. The potential benefit is that users who answer the question may feel trust in the platform when it subsequently refers to them by name. The potential downsides are that adding an extra message to the registration may decrease completion rates, and that the name question might make some users feel less inclined to complete the survey due to reservations about sharing personal information. The second consideration was whether to include questions asking if users farm potatoes and beans in addition to a question about maize. The potential benefit is that this information allows targeting of subsequent messages. The downside is that it adds two additional questions about potato and bean farming to the survey.

After experimentally testing these variations, we find that asking users their first names increased the rates of both response to the first question and survey completion. However, asking whether users grow potatoes and beans decreased the registration survey completion rate.