How to find out what makes successful users successful with my software?

Discussions
#1

Hi all,

I’ve been struggling with churn for a couple of months now and finally have some time to dedicate to talking to my customers. I am planning on talking to as many as possible of my most successful customers to try and understand what it is which keeps them coming back over and over again. The main reason people seem to cancel is that they stopped using the product (https://getcorrello.com). I’m hoping to start improving things by finding out what makes people keep using it then try to work out how to take others down that same path.

Any thoughts or resources for that very welcome. My main interest is to make sure I get the most out of conversations with these successful customers to understand what makes them keep using the software.

Robin

#2

Thoughts: just do it. Email the customers that have given you the most positive feedback already and see if they’ll spend 15 to 30 minutes on a call going through what they use the most in your service and what they dislike the most.

Somewhat related: have you taken a look at https://lesschurn.io/ yet? Might be useful to you, and they have a 5 day drip course it seems.

1 Like
#3

Take every opportunity to talk to customers or potential customers on the phone. Offer to do online demos. You will probably learn a lot more than surveys or email feedback.

#4

Agreed - surveys are a waste of time. Talk to people. You’ll be able to tell within 60 seconds what their friction was. But don’t just call them - reach out via email and schedule a time.

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#5

What is the real reason they left? This is what you need to discover and fix. Try asking the customers that left what was missing for them, what did we do wrong(ly) or not do? Make the question direct and more definitive than my multichoice example.

In my experience talking directly to customers, even if it is just Skype chat or email, as been the most valuable learning by orders of magnitude.

#6

In my experience, people who have stopped using your software are very difficult to engage with. They just aren’t interested - what’s in it for them? So you need to engage with them before that point.

2 Likes
#7

I’m lucky enough to sell a product that people use when streaming on Twitch. I learn a lot just by covertly watching a stream, and seeing where the custom struggles, and seeing how they use the software in a way I didn’t envisage.

#8

I actually had a fantastic conversation with someone who had stopped using the product yesterday. He is still keen to use it but had sort of drifted away. One of the benefits of having a lot of product owners/managers in my customer base is I think they appreciate how important the feedback is, and are great and putting it over in a useful way :).