How to retain users? Please give them a reason to stay!

Early WeChat users started using WeChat because of the Shake function, Nearby People, and Drift Bottle function, as well as for hooking up or out of curiosity. Social interaction started with desire. So WeChat’s early nickname was “the hookup tool”, so later I lost interest in WeChat.

What is "How do users come"

Each product is stacked with many functions, such as WeChat’s IM, official accounts, Moments, Shake, etc., so the reasons why each person uses the product are different.

Now recall the path you take when using WeChat:

Phase One: Because of my curiosity about Shake and Nearby People, my friends were using these two features to add people of the same age from the same school or community, which opened a new door to social interaction. However, after a few months of use, I lost interest and rarely opened it. At this stage, my main social software is still QQ, but I haven’t deleted WeChat yet because it doesn’t get in the way.

The second stage: In 2012, I entered university, and the main APP I used was still QQ. Later, because I changed to a slightly worse mobile phone, I downloaded many new APPs. Later, due to insufficient memory, I deleted WeChat and posted a message by the way, saying that I didn’t need WeChat, and if I had anything, I could QQ me.

Stage 3: One day, a girl I had a crush on told me that she sent me a message, but I didn’t reply. I was actually very confused, but later I found out that she sent it via WeChat. Since then, I installed WeChat and have been using it ever since.

As of today, I have disabled Shake, People Nearby, and Moments, but I cannot delete WeChat (I’m afraid if I delete it I’ll miss a girl’s love confession!), because it has occupied a part of my life. I only have 100 phone numbers in my address book, but more than 200 WeChat friends.

I used WeChat twice, for two different reasons. The first time was out of curiosity, and the second time was to shift my social circle.

So the first element of a product is to give users a reason to use it.

Why do users go

I used to work in an e-commerce company. Our products have many functions, including group buying, flash sales, and second sales, etc. Here we propose group buying for analysis.

When group buying was first launched, the number of users was less than 5,000, and the daily order volume was over 100. Based on the number of people in a group being 3, 100*3=300 people. In half a year, the number of orders per day dropped to less than 10, the product experience remained basically unchanged, the number of users fluctuated by less than 20%, and the number of orders dropped by 90%. Just because one thing has changed, we no longer subsidize goods. Because we have lost our price competitiveness compared to Beibei, Pinduoduo and others, users no longer use our group buying function.

The failure of a product is not only due to user experience, but also to many other factors. In recent days, our group buying volume has increased, and it was only because we launched a one-yuan group buying campaign.

Why do users leave? Because they found a better product than yours.

How to retain users?

Among the products I have worked on, one of them had a daily active user base that remained between 1,200 and 1,500 when I was there, with a fluctuation of no more than 20%. No matter how I improved the product and enhanced the user experience, there was not much change.

Later I looked at the data carefully and found some clues. Among the users who place orders, more than 80% (conservatively estimated, it may be even higher) of them have historical order records, which means that the active users acquired by the platform have always been those same ones. There are two users whose information particularly interests me:

• First place: 24 orders were placed, 21 of which were red envelopes, and the main purchases were: weight loss and beauty products;
• Second place: placed 18 orders, with an average interval of more than 7 days between each order and the longest interval of more than 1 month. The main purchases were snacks and household items (snacks were all self-operated and generally sold at cost price).

After carefully reading their order information, I finally understood why users retain this product: low price.

It is now clear that the impression left on users by this product is that it is cheap. When you lose your price advantage, users will naturally flow elsewhere.

So how to retain users? You should let him stay the same way he came.

If your product cannot maintain a reason to retain users in the long term, what you need to do is to create new features to divert users' attention. Classic case: WeChat .

Give users a reason to stay

Although there is no data, but taking my own experience as an example, the early users of WeChat used WeChat because of the Shake function, Nearby People, and Drift Bottle, or to hook up or out of curiosity. Socialization started with desire. So WeChat’s early nickname was “the hookup tool”, so later I lost interest in WeChat.

Later, a series of WeChat features were launched: importing mobile phone contacts, QQ friends, Moments, official accounts, etc., and the reasons why users stayed on WeChat also changed.

• Import mobile phone contacts and QQ friends: create relationship chains.
• Circle of friends: voyeurism, showing off, sharing.
• Public account: information, news, gossip, and knowledge acquisition.
• Summary: Give users reasons to always use it!

Good products and operations are inseparable!