Part five · Running it · Chapter 14

THE CHOICE SCORECARD

One page, every month. Each default’s take-up next to what it costs downstream, so nobody can celebrate one without seeing the other.

Defaults survive because their gains are reported and their costs aren’t. The take rate is in the app; tickets, disputes and unsubscribes are in three other tools. The scorecard puts them on one page.

NumberDefined asWhat it catches
Subscription share, by toggleSubscriptions over orders on subscribable products, preselected or notHow much of your program the default is carrying
First-renewal outcome, by arrivalCanceled, refunded, disputed or renewed, by preselected versus choseSubscribers who didn’t mean to be subscribers
Cadence fitSkips and “too much product” cancels per 100 active subscribersA default interval faster than real use
Add-on take rate and ticketsTake rate, and tickets or refunds naming it, over default-only takersWhether the ticked box is paying (chapter 6)
List quality, by source30-day unsubscribes and complaints by sign-up source, email and SMSA sign-up box nobody chose
Easy-no usageSkips, pauses and “not yet” taps, against cancelsWhether customers can find the other doors
Dispute ratioDisputes over transactions, monthly, by causeSurprise, and distance from the card networks’ lines
Urgency honesty scoreFrom the scorer in chapter 12, re-run monthlyAn app update that switched a fake timer back on
Offer recurrenceDays until each “final” offer, or a better one, ran againDeadlines customers have learned to ignore

Put the take rate and its cost on the same line, or the take rate will win every argument.

Two rules for the page

First, every take-up number sits on the same row as its downstream number; a take rate without tickets is half a fact. Second, compare by arrival: the customers a default brought in against those who chose. The blended average hides exactly the people the default affects.

Reading it

Expect blanks in the “by arrival” rows at first; start tagging now (chapter 5) and they fill within a quarter. When a number moves, check that month’s app updates first, because defaults change without anyone deciding. And read the tickets behind the complaint counts: “I never signed up” and “I didn’t add this” are the clearest signal on the page.

Do this

This is one chapter of The Free Choice, which is free and readable in full on a single page with no form in front of it.