Negative Customer Experience & Retention

Found this late night thought in my Evernote from March this year.

1 of the low-hanging fruits for retention:
Customer complaints, negative reviews, and inquiries.

I'm more impressed by activation and retention metrics than acquisition.
Look at how many brands mentioning X number of account sign-ups and users, but no mention of active/paying users or revenue.

Activation doesn’t happen by itself, even if you’re using a product-led growth model.
The only validated demand is someone actually paying for your product/services.

Otherwise, anyone can create an account or sign-up with no commitments. You can't call that an indication of strong purchase intent... "sOmeTiMe iN thE fUtuRe".

(And free isn't actually free, because you're still asking for your audience's attention and efforts to try it out. I've met few people who understand this. Now you've cheapened your brand too, congratulations.)

But back to the low-hanging fruits...

Inquiries aside, these people have cared enough to complain or left a negative review. This can be a good thing.

The expectation is pretty low here - they just want you to fix the issue and make their frustration go away.

It might be just providing an update on where their delivery is at, for their reassurance. It could be a glitch in the app where they can’t access the info they want. Or something to do with the minimum order value.

There are always two ways we can look at the same thing (glass half full vs half empty).
It's an opportunity to build loyalty by exceeding their low expectations.

To educate them on the product, and do some audience research too (especially if you're in SaaS).

I learnt this 8 years ago doing social media for Retail Food Group (Pizza Capers/Donut King/Brumby's etc). It wasn’t fun, but it was a valuable experience. The customers' expectations were so low but the value of fixing their (often minor) issues was massive. More than once I’ve seen angry customers turning into advocates.

Have I worked for a business that values activation and retention?
None yet.

Because the majority of the industry currently cares more about acquisition and growth velocity (often for raising funds > publicity > exiting) than revenue & profitability (something they believe can “deal with it later” or “it won’t be my concern after I’ve exited”).