Skim time: 3 minutes

H&R Block

2025

Product strategy

Growth design

UX/UI

Boosting H&R Block's customer retention with transparent pricing

H&R Block users felt deceived by hidden pricing, hurting satisfaction and potential retention. I designed a mid-flow personalized price estimate that increased conversions 34% and measurably improved both user satisfaction and intent to return to H&R Block.

Project goals

Give users a means of easing their anxiety around the cost of H&R Block services

Help H&R Block convert more new virtual filers by closing the gap between promised value and customers' perceived value when compared to the service cost

Impact in 2025

Submissions rate ⬆️ 34%

Expectations ratings ⬆️ 5 pts

Mentions of price as deterrent ⬇️

The problem

Users were seeing a $99 price on our home page and assuming that was the maximum cost, but were shocked when the price was 3-4x higher when checking out.

The origin of the problem

Legal constraints limited what H&R Block could advertise on its landing page

This is where the gap between value and cost begins, but the area I and my team have the least influence over.

The E-signature app is where it ends, and where the surprise happens - but if we couldn't fix the problem at the beginning of the flow, it wouldn't matter what we did at the end.

This is where the gap between value and cost begins, but the area I and my team have the least influence over.

The E-signature app is where it ends, and where the surprise happens - but if we couldn't fix the problem at the beginning of the flow, it wouldn't matter what we did at the end.

Discovery insights

3 findings highlighted the top of the funnel as the source of frustration for most customers

Feedback: High volume of complaints in survey responses

Feedback: High volume of complaints in survey responses

Performance: Low benchmark metrics

Performance: Low benchmark metrics

Growth: Poor customer retention

Growth: Poor customer retention

Mobile option: stations

Price estimate jobs to be done

Alleviate uncertainty

Informed customers feel in control, feel more confident, and are more likely to complete the entire filing process, even if the price changes.

Explain value-to-cost ratio

By showing customers prices at this point, they can better understand both how much work the tax pros have to complete as well as the additional services tax pros can offer them

Placing the price estimate in our flow

We have several ideas of where to put the estimate, but in the end only one location truly made sense.

❌ Not right: At the beginning of the flow

This addresses the issue of poorly set expectations, but it meant we didn't have quite enough info to form a truly accurate price estimate.

❌ Not right: At the beginning of the flow

This addresses the issue of poorly set expectations, but it meant we didn't have quite enough info to form a truly accurate price estimate.

✅ Just right: In the middle

✅ Just right: In the middle of the flow

Early enough the flow that the customers get a chance to evaluate the cost, while giving us enough information to get as accurate an estimate as possible.

❌ Not right: At the end of the flow

We'll have the most information at this point in the flow, but if the price is too high for our customers, the fall out could be massive.

✅ Just right: In the middle

Early enough the flow that the customers get a chance to evaluate the cost, while giving us enough information to get as accurate an estimate as possible.

Data visualization

I had realized during discovery that additional context was needed for customers to truly understand where they fell on the price spectrum, so I explored multiple options for showing them the data.

Single number vs. a range

Would a single number be okay if the data visualization gave it the right context, or would customers feel more comfortable with two reference points?

How much data do the customers need to see?

Another point of consideration was how much information would be helpful to the customer: as many data points as possible, or the gist of a range?

Common visual cues

There were numerous ways to show data points, and some would likely work better than others.

Details vs. a summary

This feature had to walk a fine line in terms of price transparency details. I showed my PM and engineering partners several options that ranged from almost no info, to spelling out cost per document.

30,000 ft view

Slightly more info than the landing page

5,000 ft view

Adds a line item for other fees but doesn't explicitly state what they are

Micro-view: details

Gives monetary value to the forms customers should have

Micro-macro view 🤷‍♀️

Sharing what influences price without assigning specific values to each piece of information

30,000 ft view

Slightly more info than the landing page

5,000 ft view

Adds a line item for other fees but doesn't explicitly state what they are

Micro-view: details

Gives monetary value to the forms customers should have

Micro-macro view 🤷‍♀️

Sharing what influences price without assigning specific values to each piece of information

Design + team consensus = simple visual and micro-macro overview

Why the simple visual: Gives just enough context to the range since there was limited data on other customers' prices to compare against for our first launch

Why the micro-macro overview: Franchisees can set their own prices, which means there's no consistency from office to office; better to arm the user with what info affects price than mislead with incorrectly labeled line items

Initial usability issues

Issue 1: Users tried to move the UI and change the range manually

⬇️

Issue 2: Users weren't connecting that their previous actions/answers was generating the estimate

Issue 3: Not enough transparency for users

Design pivot: We must find a UI that doesn’t imply the price estimate can be changed

We saw that 5 out of the 7 participants tried to move the triangle indicator and drag it to change the price estimate.

None of the participants acknowledged the “tax trait” tags, but when prompted understood where the tags had come from.

Testing revealed that 4 out of 7 participants didn’t like being unable to see what made up the "other" part of the price calculation.

Issue 2: Users weren't connecting that their previous actions/answers was generating the estimate

⬇️

Design pivot: We need to re-position the tags so they’re grouped with the correct content

⬇️

Design pivot: We must find a UI that doesn’t imply the price estimate can be changed

Design pivot: We need to re-position the tags so they’re grouped with the correct content

Design pivot: We need to be more explicit with our content around what influences the estimate

Issue 3: Not enough transparency for users

Testing revealed that 4 out of 7 participants didn’t like being unable to see what made up the "other" part of the price calculation.

⬇️

Shipped designs

Mobile prototype

Live experiment

Mitigating risk with a gradual roll-out

Given the high stakes—millions in potential revenue—we launched with a cautious 10/90 split test. Only 10% of customers saw the price estimate initially, limiting potential losses while validating the concept before full rollout.

Experiment results

Despite initial concerns, the feature performed exceptionally well. We rolled out to 100% of users by March 31st, hitting 87%+ submission rates and maintaining high-80s performance even during peak April traffic.

Important note: Because of where we placed the price estimate, not every customer will see it (aka those who drop off on the previous screen). The results reflect those who did see this screen in our flow.

Impact in 2025

Expertise rating

82.4

0.3

How knowledgeable or skilled customers think their tax pro is on a scale of 0 to 100 points

(Before March 21st, 2025: 82.1/100)

Expectation rating

84.6

0.4

How clearly H&R Block met a customer's expectations on a scale of 0 to 100 points

(Before March 21st, 2025: 84.2/100)

Overall satisfaction rating

82.1

1.3

How satisfied a customer is with H&R Blocks service on a scale of 0 to 100 points

(Before March 21st, 2025: 80.8/100)

Intent-to-return score

80.8

1.0

How likely a customer is to return the following tax sdason on a scale of 0 to 100 points

(Before March 21st, 2025: 79.8/100)

Future ideas

Cross-sell financial products earlier ➡️

Cross-sell financial products earlier

⬇️

Increases revenue per client and estimate accuracy

Automate estimates for tax professionals ➡️

Automate estimates for tax professionals

⬇️

Reduces manual errors and frees up advisors for client consultation

Add itemized cost breakdown ➡️

Add itemized cost breakdown

⬇️

Competitor analysis and user research showed strong demand for detailed pricing

Auto-apply available discounts ➡️

Auto-apply available discounts

⬇️

User testing revealed confusion about when/how to use coupons