0 usage accounts

Christie Anderson

Hi all!

I work in a high volume, low touch segment of CS. We're going to start sending quarterly usage reports to let customers know how many users have logged in and used, along with resources to increase usage/adoption. We have quite a few accounts with 0 users logged in. CSMs don't have the bandwidth to reach out to each of these accounts personally. We're thinking of doing a specific email to the accounts with 0 users. Have any of you tried something similar before? Any suggestions to soften the wording that 0 users have logged in? Would you even tell them 0 have or would you keep it more general with "we see that not all of your users are taking advantage of our product..."? 

Thanks in advance!

James Stuart

Hey @Christie Anderson

II have listed a couple of suggestions below you could adopt.

• You may want to re-send them their log in details just in case they don't have them for some reason
• Invite them to an Open office hour or free webinar session if you do them
• Let them know what they are missing i.e any new features. (I work in recruitment advertising so we could say some on the lines of we have seen % growth in candidates in your area)
• Any time-saving tips they could adopt

You may want to get Marketing involved to send a branded email or e-shot to entice customers further
Many thanks
James

Christie Anderson

Great ideas! Thanks, James!

Brian Nicholls

@Christie Anderson, very neat idea. A couple of thoughts:

1. I would not specicially call out the fact that an account has 0 users. My immediate thought if I am the account is "well if we have 0 users, do we need the solution?". This is especially true if I get 2-3 or more months of this email

2. Do you have information on a few standard reasons why there isn't usage? If so, could you add resources to give help/direct the customers so that they get past whatever is blocking them from using?
  -For example, the email could say "Hi Account, we have noticed that you have had low usage in the application recently. Typical reasons for this are A), , and C). We have included resources to help you solve for those issues. If it isn't one of those, please reach out to (insert where/who they should reach out to) if you need assistance in using our application.

Good luck, hopeful to hear if the email drives the outcomes you are looking for

Brian

Christie Anderson

Great points! I love the idea of giving them a few reasons why it could be! We were also going to provide them with an email copy that they can easily send to staff to get them using.

Stewart Stokes

If you haven't already I'd focus on spending time digging in on why you're seeing 0 usage.  I agree that you shouldn't call this out to those customers as it could increase churn.

What you might try is calling up a few customers that have recently churned AND had 0 usage in the preceding months before churning.   If you can talk to a few of those customers and better understand why they weren't using the solution it could give you some valuable qualitative insights.  These could help you understand where the problem lies (in the solution, in the marketing/sales process, etc).

Good luck!

Harsh Shah

Hi Christie,

I hope you're doing well and thanks for sharing this query!

In our organization, we have some products with a user-based model so I also faced a similar situation previously. I'm listing a couple of points that I personally follow and that worked for my customers.

1) I prepared the data of all those accounts in which there are 0 users or very less users compared to the user plan they have purchased. (As per your message, it seems you've already had the data with you so that's perfect!)

2) While the data is being prepared, I focused on the reasons or causes because of which their users are not using our product. Some of the possible reasons were:

- Not aware about the login details
- Facing difficulty with the user interface
- Haven't got time to try the module
- Proper details were not passed from the admin on how to use the module
- User specific issues

3) With all this information I prepared a general knowledge base that could be mailed to the owner to further share with their users and as Brian correctly said, I highlighted the the burning question of low usage and shared the helping material.

4) Most of the owners, passed on this feedback with their users and it increased the usage, and very few scheduled the meeting to understand some of the specific reasons in detail.

At the end of this campaign, about 85-90% usage was increased and most of the owners were thanked them for alerting them about this information.

As you know the owners might be occupied and sometimes unable to spend more time to make sure their users have started using a particular module or not. So, once we show the value and highlight what they are missing out they definitely show interest. Also, they do everything in their power to gain the full benefit of our module. And if we don't highlight this thing from our side then it might worsen the situation as they sometimes feel the module is not worthy for them and might even discontinue its use.

I hope this would be helpful, feel free to connect if you need any other information.

Have a splendid day ahead!

Christie Anderson

That's a great idea, Stewart! I like the idea of pulling the list for expired accounts to get some more insights! Thank you!!

Christie Anderson

Thank you for all of this and for sharing what has worked for you in the past, Harsh! I agree, in my industry, a lot of the people who are owning the implementation of the program are burnt out, so showing them the value and providing them something they can easily send to staff will help. I'm looking forward to comparing the before and after data on the accounts!