Retention, Part 27: Think Ahead
By Sanya Weathers
It’s easy to fall into the trap of being reactive. See a problem, solve it. Hear a question, answer it. Being quick and responsive with problems and questions will certainly make a difference in your retention. But if you really want to see results, and have a customer base that doesn’t even think about leaving your product, you need to anticipate the customer’s needs.
– Think like a customer. Whenever you review a policy, an announcement, or any other customer-facing information, put the stuff that the customer cares about at the top. Whenever a customer reads your material, he wants to know “what’s in it for me?” Don’t make him dig for the data. Before you explain anything, tell him how the change is going to affect him. The explanation follows the information. If the thought of posting that way makes you cringe, because what you’re sharing sounds terrible without the explanation, change your message.
– Identify the worst case scenario. Taking your servers down for maintenance? The worst case scenario is that the servers don’t come up again. What will you do? How will you communicate? How will you apologize? How will you reach customers who don’t read your usual channels? Once you’ve got those answers locked in place, you’re ready to face anything that might come your way.
– If it’s bad for you, it’s bad for them. You should periodically clear your cookies/cache, and approach your product as a brand new user. Where are the trouble spots? Does any part of the registration process feel too long? What leaves you drumming your fingers and waiting? Is the loading screen making you wait for so long that you have time to get a snack? What stops you from moving forward? At what point do you get annoyed and want to log in as an admin? Make a note of all that stuff and fix it.
– Common problems need automatic solutions. If a player presses the Help button, offer him two choices: A) (most common problem) or B) Everything else. Save your support team for everything else, and get an automated solution in place for your most common issue – assuming you aren’t set up to just fix the problem in the first place.
– It’s the little stuff. We’re online, and we’re catering to people who see targeted ads, watch programming aimed at their demographic, and customize even their news feeds to see exactly what they want from the sources they want. Leaving aside whether or not this is healthy, this is what you’re competing with.
Fortunately, you have everything you need to rise to the challenge – you have the ability to track every single thing your customer did while interacting with your product. So when he comes back, leave him a note – “The last time you were here, you did X. Can we take you straight to that page/zone/activity?” Or even “You’ve been with us for 50 days. Thanks so much – here’s a code for (something the customer does or uses regularly).”
Think ahead – and reap the rewards in retention.