

Ask HN: 1000 signups a week, but how to gain long term engagement?  - fieldforceapp

Hi, HN frequent reader, infrequent poster looking for advice.<p>After an embarrassing first release, and an awesome UX/UI redesign of our cloud-based iPhone app, we're pleased to be getting a steady 1000 signups a week on our free app. But we're stumped on how to turn this initial interest into long term engagement for our group productivity app.<p>The engagement funnel looks like this: we don't advertise much (ad words isn't working for us, banners perform better and in-app ads are ok but not for our target audience: professionals) so through self-driven discovery these new users are coming to us based on App Store searches: Group Messaging, Productivity, Real-time Messaging, Shared Contacts, Shared To-Do's seem to be what's drawing people in. Users have described it as a "peer-to-peer CRM," or an "Evernote for Contacts," or a "Basecamp/Highrise for those who don't know what Basecamp is!"<p>Next, after installing the app, the sign-up process is easy but we require an email + password based authentication because we support invitations and only want to send out trusted invites. We also give users the options to choose an avatar, and activate location &#38; push notifications. The point is, it's time consuming. Which means the initial engagement, the expectation anyway, is high. About 75% of users are uploading custom avatars. About 80% of users confirm their email address (two-step process).<p>Last, we offer users an option to invite teammates from either their LinkedIn or Twitter social graph. Again, we're focused on professional users so we avoided Facebook integration. You can also invite teammates later, by email. Perhaps this is our first indication that something's wrong because very few people are using LinkedIn or Twitter invitations.<p>Finally, users enter the main features of the app. We measure engagement here and find roughly 60% of users create some form of content (Contacts, Status Update, To-Do Item, etc.) so they take the first step.<p>And then we lose them.<p>We have about a 35% retention rate the first week, higher in Asia, and then dropping from there. Very few respond to follow-on email prompts or push notifications. They just fade away. Leaving behind a ghost record of their effort &#38; aspirations. Clearly, they were looking for something else. But they signed up, and shared very private info in the hopes of what?<p>And for those of  you who've read this far, I'm hoping that you've had similar experiences yourselves and overcome them. Whether for a web or mobile app, how have you driven engagement?<p>Thanks,
--ff<p>PS: I don't think the discussion above is specific to an app, but for reference here's ours:
http://fieldforceapp.com<p>PPS: Holding back on using real names 'cause I obviously can't quit my day job with these numbers!
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tnorthcutt
_Perhaps this is our first indication that something's wrong because very few
people are using LinkedIn or Twitter invitations._

Are you saying that choosing and avatar (or not) and inviting people from LI &
Twitter (or not) has to be done to sign up? If so, remove those steps. Signup
should be as fast and easy as possible. Get people using the meat of the app
ASAP, and worry about silly stuff like avatars later.

I'd ditch the LI/Twitter invite stuff, too, if it's supposed to be for "team
members". Team members use email to communicate, not LI/Twitter/FB/Social
Media.

EDIT: From your website, I can't tell what your app actually does, and why I
should use it. I suspect people who install it don't know those things either,
and that's why they abandon it.

~~~
fieldforceapp
Thanks for the comment. The avatar is optional, as are LI/Twitter invites. The
signup process is two screens, but I mention the Avatars because people are
engaging to this degree at least. And it's 1000's of users doing this, so I'm
pretty comfortable that the signup process is OK, but you're right: get people
to us the meat quicker. Maybe some guided first steps, for example.

>Team members use email to communicate, not LI/Twitter/FB/Social Media. We
agree, everything else is optional.

> From your website, I can't tell what your app actually does Good feedback,
> thanks. I should say that the discovery is primarily from the App Store so
> the landing page is more focused on describing features in detail, but I
> agree with your point: get the primary use case front & prominent.

The problem I have is that there isn't just one use case. At a high-level we
combine Twitter (or GroupMe?) with CRM-lite productivity tools. We're selling
the tight integration as our primary use case. And so your point would be to
tight integration more obvious, and get people using that feature ASAP.

------
maxdemarzi
Are you calling your ex-customers and asking them why they left? What they
were expecting and what they felt they got?

Looking at the app, you need everyone on the team on it or it doesn't really
work? Or are there enough features that someone could use this Solo/with a
partial set of team members?

~~~
fieldforceapp
Thanks for the comment. It's a good idea, try to do a sweep of users who've
decided not to engage but the problem is getting them to respond. We send an
automated email reminder 1 week after registering to prod people, and have
offered online surveys but the response rate is terrible. Still, since we do
have email addresses (and their avatars, names, geo location, etc.) we could
do a better job of tailoring this query.

>you need everyone on the team on it or it doesn't really work? We tried to
strike a balance, the app does work standalone but you're right: the
experience is better with a team. I think several apps (Kik, What's App) have
set the expectation that it's ok to automatically scan their phone book and
identify which users already have the app installed. So far, we've decided not
to do this. Feels slimey, but so easy to do.

But your second suggestion is to make it easier to invite others, easier to
build a social graph? Yup, we should rethink the UX in that regard.

------
baconface
You could ask people what they hope to get out of your app before they quit
using it. Maybe after their first return or a few page clicks?

~~~
fieldforceapp
Thanks for the feedback. We've tried blasting out email surveys, but the
response rate has been terrible. I like your idea of in-app guided educational
walk thru's.

There's a good UI design pattern website, here: <http://mobile-
patterns.com/edu>

