Text2Calm:KUDOText

Simple trial of showing appreciation through textsBryan Cheng

Stanford University

Trial OutlineSend 1 thank you text every night

Reflect upon the entire day each night and show your appreciation to just one person that has done something nice to you

Duration – 1 whole week

Aim to think positively and not on stressful topics prior to sleeping

Trial Participants13 people signed up originally

10 participated to varying levelsSent to 3 email lists14 viewed general info doc23 viewed sign up doc

Reminders and details sent right away

1st IterationAsked only close friends to participate

Suggested sending any compliments

Specified time at the beginning of the day and wait for responses throughout the day

Sent 3 compliments every day

http://bit.ly/kudotext

1st Iteration ResultsHad good responses and feedback from small

number of participants

Participants enjoyed it, but sometimes felt awkward; recipients of the texts liked the texts, occasionally questioned the reasoning behind it

Insights – need to specify, compliments to general and sometimes do not seem truly genuine, limit to once a day

2nd IterationChanged compliments to thank you texts

Specified the time at night with the post-it notes

Linked to new info page dubbed v2

Sent out to more Stanford email lists

http://bit.ly/kudotextv2

2nd Iteration ResultsPoor results – high click through rate for info

page, very low click through rate for sign up page, 1 signed up

Insights – info intermediate page too much of a hassle, need hot trigger with embedded sign up form, post-its inconvenient for only participant, suggested to me to send daily text reminders

3rd IterationSent text reminders every night around midnight

instead of using the post-its

Linked directly to sign-up form and had info about the trial study in the email

http://bit.ly/kudotextv2signup

3rd Iteration ResultsReceived positive feedback across the board

Increased participation to about 70% by sending the daily reminder texts

Stopped sending the reminder texts and a few kept participating in the trial

Iterate – automate the reminder process, reach out to the people not responding through other means

Conclusion and SurprisesSending daily reminders works well to increase

participation in the beginning

Specifying the kudos to a person who helped you throughout the day makes the text more genuine and less awkward

Difficult to keep the participation rate high over the duration of the trial

Training these habits requires constant participation in the beginning

Everyone loves to be loved

Future?Although the trial seems great in theory, in

reality, it did not work out as expected

The participants did enjoy the trial and sending the texts was rather simple, but continuing the process proved challenging

Possibly integrate the kudos into meetings, classes, or even practices?

Contact MEBryan Cheng

bbch@stanford.edu

Stanford University ‘13

Electrical Engineering

Twitter: bryanbcheng#CalmingTech