F R A M E D DATA
How to Improve User Retention – A Better Approach

How Do I Improve User Retention?
How Do I Reduce Customer Churn?

Filtering out the noise.
There’s a lot that you can do to improve user
retention. Obvious as it is, the statement is
significant. Especially when there exists an
ocean of articles on retention.
Every resource has their own n-step guide to
improving user retention, with advice covering
everything from product focus to customer
onboarding. With so many good ideas floating
around, even we were feeling overwhelmed.
So we decided to take a different approach…

We want you to step back
and map out a high level
strategy to tackle
customer retention.
Instead of reading another shotgun
approach laundry list, today is all about
creating structure for measurable success.
If you’re strapped for time, make sure to
check out our full user retention mind
map at the end!

Customer
Support
Customer
Success
Engagement
Marketing
User
Retention
Basics
Product
To begin organizing our
thoughts, we’re big fans
of using mind maps*.
*Remember to check out our full mind
map at the end of the slideshow!

Strategy #1: Product

Making something people want is at
the heart of product development. It
also includes setting, managing, and
exceeding your customer’s
expectations.
Though we didn’t officially rank our
categories, solving customer pain
trumps all. A pain solving product does
allow for higher tolerance when other
portions of your business are lacking.
Make something people want
But be careful, you can only
push the patience of your
customers so long before
they leave for greener
pastures. As we know,
grumpy customers are less
likely to return once they’re
out the door.

Ask Yourself:
• Whose problems are we solving?
• Are we delivering on our promises? If not,
how can we improve?
• Do we have the right price point for our
product?
• Are we reaching the right customers?

Take Action Today:
Talk with your customers about their needs
through customer surveys, social media, or sending
personal emails with a Skype offer. Take that
feedback and direct it back into product
development.
Warning: Be cautious of latching onto every
piece of feedback from customers. As the
founders of 37Signals famously wrote in their
New York Times best selling book Rework, you
need to “Say No by Default”. Meaning, don’t let
your customer’s thoughts fall on deaf ears, but
be aware of having a bad product market fit.

Your product needs to work.
Once we’ve gotten past making sure we
have something customers want comes
the question of how well does it actually
work?
Making sure your product works well
includes technical programming, user
experience design (UI/UX), and a bit of
customer onboarding to make sure
customers know how to use your
product properly.

Ask Yourself:
• How well does my product work to
accomplish my customer’s goals?
• Technical problems: How fast does my app
load? Is it full of bugs?
• How’s our design? Is our app frustrating to
navigate?

Take Action Today:
Get feedback from your customers (notice a pattern here?) and
find out what is frustrating. Nothing beats getting face to face
with your customers. Your goal is to get yourself into the user’s
shoes and find out where they stall.
Suggestions: Contact three of your customers, ideally ones who
have contacted your customer support, and schedule a call +
screen share session. Have them walk through their process.
You’ll be surprised by how easy it can be for them to get
confused.
Use services like Usertesting.com which allow you to enlist
random users to visit your site and go through the user process.
Though you can target specific demographics of users, keep in
mind these users are accustomed to going through processes
like yours.

Strategy #2: Engagement

Debunking myths about
customer loyalty.
1. “Customers want to have
relationships with brands.”
The truth: 77 percent don’t.
2. “An increase in interactions is
always the answer.”
The truth: Your customers can
suffer from information
overload.
3. “Loyalty comes from regularly
engaging with a brand.”
The truth: Brand loyalty is built
on shared values.
Source: http://blogs.hbr.org/2012/05/three-myths-about-customer-eng/

Ask Yourself:
• Is our blog helpful? Or does it feel like
an extended sales page?
• What do our users care about?
• What topics are being discussed on
social media?
Though painful to hear, let’s be real. Your customers don’t
actually want to hear from or about you all the time. Unless
you’re Facebook or Twitter, your company is just another
name on a long list of services to remember. The best way to
avoid engagement fatigue is with strategic check-ins and a
focus on providing valuable knowledge or info.

Take Action Today:
Suggestions:
• Review your Twitter stream and see if
you’re adhering to 5-3-2. Ideally,
you’ll want to share: 5 posts from
others, 3 posts from you, and 2 posts
about you.
• Respond to unanswered questions on
your blog.
• Base your next three blog posts on
topics found in your social media
stream.

Strategy #3: Customer Support

Customer support is also known as
customer service, customer happiness, and
to a certain extent customer success. We like
the idea of supporting our users, so we’ll run
with that.
In short, customer support is about being
available to address customers’ questions,
comments, and concerns about your
product or service.
The customer is always right.

Ask Yourself:
• How fast are we returning customer
inquiries?
• Do we have established guidelines on
how to interact with customers?
Warning: On speed, be careful your customer support
responses aren’t so quick that they seem impersonal.
On the other hand, are your customers going through
“15 Minutes of Hell” each time they call?

Take Action Today:
Suggestions:
• Review your customer service inquiries and update your
FAQ. If your customers are confused, your documentation is
probably lacking.
• Work directly with customer support staff to set guidelines.
Are they smiling on the phone? (It helps, trust us).
• Even as the CEO, make it a point to answer customer
inquiries each week.

Strategy #4: Customer Success

This relatively new term has been pioneered by the experts in the
space, Gainsight, If you’re interested in learning more, they even
host their own conference called Pulse which specifically teaches
businesses how to build customer success teams.
If Customer Support is “reactive”,
Customer Success is “proactive”.
Customer Support focuses on
servicing your customers’
inquiries in a timely and
helpful manner once they’ve
reached out.
Customer Success is about
working alongside your
customers to ensure they are
accomplishing their goals.

Ask Yourself:
• How good is our onboarding process?
• Are we getting a lot of customer
inquiries about our product and how to
use it?
• Alternatively, are we getting no
inquiries? (Silence can be just as
dangerous).
The goal with customer success is to ensure users get the most
from your product by being equipped with the proper
knowledge and tools to meet their needs. This could include
webinars, onboarding docs and modules, tutorial videos, and
live support.

Take Action Today:
Suggestions:
• Make a screen cap video to walk
your customers through your
onboarding process.
• If your product requires many
steps, plan out what your 5-10
tutorial videos will cover.
• Write a blog post on a feature
that not many people know
about.
Once your customers have found
success, make it a point to contact
them and take notes. With their
permission, turn this info into a
case study to guide future
customers. An added benefit of
having a solid customer success
plan is the opportunity to
transform your customers into
advocates.

Strategy #5: Marketing

Marketing Is About Providing Value,
Not Selling Product.
Engagement emails should focus on
informing and educating. Want to announce a
new feature? Make sure your customers know
how the new feature can solve their problems.
Ultimately, good marketing ensures your
customers get what they want through the
rest of your customer retention resources.
“Marketing” includes tasteful email campaigns, well-timed push notifications and
emails (with services like Mailgun, Mandrill, and Customer.io), inbound marketing
(blog posts, content), and more.

Ask Yourself:
• When’s the last time we sent an
engagement email?
• How sales-y is our ad copy and social
stream?
• Are we targeting the right customers to
begin with?
• Or are we trying too hard to sell the
wrong market?

Take Action Today:
Suggestions:
• Plan out next month’s weekly
email drip campaign. Don’t just
talk about product.
• Write a blog post about
happenings in your industry.
Challenge: make zero reference
to your company. No sales.
Bad marketing will get you tuned out

Putting it all together
As you can see, there are A LOT of things you can
do to move the needle on improving customer
retention. While it’s important to be aware of the
independent nature of these five Core Strategies,
these aspects also operate as an interconnected
ecosystem.

For Example:
Customer feedback from marketing surveys,
customer support inquiries, and one-on-one
customer success sessions will make their
way back into product development.
Engaging with your users through social
media will give insights into what’s
important to them and provide inspiration
for new marketing material: Informational
blog posts, a new email drip series, etc.

If This Feels Daunting, Don’t
Worry
Rome wasn’t built in a day. Step back,
review your resources, and see what
strategies play to your current
strengths.

User Retention Mind Map

H I @ F R A M E D DATA . C O MFramed Data