How do you get non upgrading trial users to give you feedback?
For all my trial users that do not upgrade after our 14 day free trial I try to send them a nice short email thanking them for trying our product and then asking them for some quick feedback on the product.
From this I get a very very low number of replies. I have tried many variations with no noticeable improvement in reply rate.
I really value any feedback these people can provide so that I can address their main reasons for not upgrading. I already track a few metrics to tell me how engaged they were and even very engaged trial users rarely reply.
Anyone been successful in getting feedback like this or have any advice on how to improve this?
Replying to an email is time-consuming. Users don't want to waste time to help someone who's product they are not even interested in (it's harsh, but it's true).
Solution? Make it easy for them to give feedback. Here's an email I've sent for users who did not upgrade after trial ended:
Subject: Goodbye from {{startup}}
Each answer was linked, obviously. I used Yesinsights for gathering the answers (I do not recommend them for many reasons, you should find a similar service). Once user clicked any of the answer he lands on a page asking for more feedback. And since they've already clicked the link, many people actually gave additional thoughts.
The result was really good, given that these are the people who don't care about the product. Almost 40% click rate. 20% of those gave additional feedback.
I hope that helps.
This is really nice. We did something like that preivously ; giving the possibility to give their opinion by a simple click is way more easier, and provides a foot on the door technique to receive more results, has you perfectly explained :)
One of the things we plan to try is offering $20 Amazon vouchers in return for a brief phone call.
This way, we hope to gather more qualitative information by talking with a sample 20-30 customers who did not in the end sign up.
I will let you know what our results are once we get the chance to implement this.
We send a series of 3 emails once the trial is over. From this, we get a ~30% response rate from non-conversions. 20% of the responses come from the first email.
First email, sent 1 day after end of trial
Second email, sent 3 days after end of trial and only if they didn't reply to the first
Third and final email, sent 4 days after end of trial and only if they didn't reply to the first two
Thanks Josh .. I might look at implementing something like this .. and at least try a second time.
Are you sending them manually or via an email automation system? I've found that the reply rates are much higher if you send a quick + personal email manually via gmail. Takes more time, but you'll actually get responses.
I am sending responses manually via gmail from my personal email address using a template in streak .. I choose the ones with the highest engagement and do not send an email to everyone.
The email footer contains my details and indicates I am the founder.
One template I have used is:
Hi .. {first_name} how did your trial of myPresences go?
I wanted to send you a quick note to let you know i would greatly value any feedback on your experience and where we could improve.
Or if you could answer one question .. what was the biggest reason you didn't upgrade?
Please be honest .. you won't hurt my feelings :-)
Cheers
Paul Gordon.
Founder - myPresences
I am getting really low response rates.
I personally don't love the tone of the email - imho it comes across as a bit unprofessional. I don't think I'd reply to it. (Also the uncapitalised "i" and the oddly-placed double periods put me off.)
Looks pretty good, just two suggestions:
If you're still having trouble after that, it might just be that your audience really doesn't like giving feedback. :)
It's all about how you compose the email. I love getting replies like "I can't believe a founder sent me an email. Is this really you? Or was I just emailed by another bot." ;)
The above however is not a good example.
I can't speak to the details of running a trial, but I got a shockingly high feedback rate with Hotjar surveys—a dozen responses from the first 50 people who ever saw it.
The main factors in its success were that viewers self-interest aligned with filling it out and it was literally simple enough to do in < 10 seconds. I recorded a video that goes over how I set it up.
People mention email here, but you should be able to catch the feedback right in your app/system.
Show a notification to a user that browses your app for more than 10 minutes with "How would you rate this app?" and show 5 stars that user can click depending on his opinion. If he clicks anything, collect the result and display another notification like "2/5 What would you improve in this app?" and so on. Do not redirect user, just use Ajax, non-invasive form.
I feel always annoyed by all the "friendly" emails I get from services I do not care for anymore, that are only interested to get valuable feedback for free. Our relationship have ended in the moment when I closed the window. Even if I just checked them and I will not use them as they have no value to me anymore, they keep wasting my time. Would they ask within the application for feedback - fine. I am using it, I am paying for it with my time. As soon as I close the window, I am not feeling obligated to spend my time helping them.
Sorry, it is harsh, but you better catch the feedback in the very short attention window short-lived user has given to you.
Not saying email wont work, but it surely leaves majority of past users untapped.
It's just that most people won't bother to leave feedback, especially if they don't get anything in return for it. You may be better off if you offered them a $1 for their feedback.