IE Seminar Series - Sıdıka Candoğan

The Role of Contextual Information in Customer Reviews: A Field Experiment on a Mental Health Platform

Sıdıka Tunç Candoğan
NUS Business School

Abstract: Online mental health platforms (e.g., BetterHelp, Safe Space, Hiwell) can increase the accessibility of mental health care. However, customers may find it difficult to choose a therapist best suited to their needs because therapists typically list multiple specializations that tend to overlap significantly. Motivated by this challenge and the diverse practices across platforms, we conducted a randomized field experiment in partnership with Singapore’s largest online mental health platform. In this experiment, we empirically investigate whether a simple intervention on the customer reviews—revealing contextual information about the review writers—can improve the platform’s ability to attract and retain customers. Our results show that the intervention increased the customer conversion rate by 17.6% and the number of sessions that each customer attended by 36.2%. Furthermore, treated customers attended 25.0% more sessions with their first chosen therapist. Overall, our results suggest that revealing contextual information about the review writers improves the informativeness of customer reviews on mental health platforms, and it is a simple and effective way to increase successful matches and foster long-term relationships between customers and the platform. Other platforms providing long-term relational services can similarly benefit from sharing relevant contextual information in customer reviews.

Bio: I am an assistant professor of Analytics and Operations at NUS Business School. My research focuses on understanding and improving operations on online platforms, such as crowdsourcing platforms (e.g., InnoCentive and Topcoder), crowdfunding platforms (e.g., Kickstarter and Indiegogo), mental health platforms (e.g., Safe Space and Betterhelp), food rescue platforms (e.g., Yindii and Too Good to Go), and multi-channel healthcare platforms (e.g., Speedoc). To this end, I use empirical methods and game-theoretical modeling. I hold a BS (2014) and an MS (2016) in Industrial Engineering from Middle East Technical University, Turkey; and an MRes (2017) and a PhD (2022) in Management Science and Operations from UCL School of Management, UK.