

Email: the easiest way to improve retention - pkrein
https://segment.io/academy/email-is-the-easiest-way-to-improve-retention

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mech4bg
If you're going to do this (and a _lot_ of startups seem to do this now), then
it's critical to actually respond to people when they react to your email.

I've had a number of startups (OrderAhead, Instacart) email me shortly after
I've signed up with a 'personalized' message. I've had issues or questions so
I've followed up with them straight away - only to get no reply.

That, in a nutshell, is a perfect way to destroy retention. If you're going to
do stuff like this, it's critical to follow through. My opinion of a company
is strongly tied to how well and how quickly they respond to customer
feedback.

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foobar2k
James from Bugsnag here. We make sure to reply to people asap, we've set up
Help Scout (<https://www.helpscout.net>) to manage the replies to these
emails, so even if I'm out of the office, my co-founder can jump on and reply.

Our target is to reply within 10 minutes, unless we are asleep :)

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sudonim
James, you're doing much better than me! I've been slipping on my reply times
recently to up to 2 days which totally sucks.

One thing I started doing is taking an hour of zero-distraction time every
morning to fire off responses to emails that come in to support.

Unfortunately we don't have anyone handling customer responses full time, but
we're getting to where we should. Responses to emails are a blessing and a
curse, but I wouldn't trade em for the world.

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evan_
One popular startup has been emailing me every couple days since I signed up a
week or two ago, asking me if I'm having trouble getting started and
suggesting some simple ways to start using their service today. That's great,
but I have already started using it successfully.

Every time I get a new email I start to draft a "please don't bug me about
this any more" reply, but I decide not to send it because I don't want to get
on the radar of their sales staff. The only email I hate worse than spam is
email from salespeople.

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pkrein
mmm, yes this is the advantage of targeting users. if they're already set up,
then the startup you mention should be sending them the next level of helpful
email... or no email at all.

the cool thing is that the companies mentioned in the article all let you do
this kind of targeting really easily.

~~~
chexton
Chris from Vero here - totally agree.

That's one of the big benefits of Vero and the other guys: a typical
autoresponder (think Mailchimp) is hard to 'cancel' but it's easy to setup
different flows with Vero depending on where a customer is in your product's
lifecycle!

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ams6110
I guess I don't fit the template because I definitely find automated email,
_especially automated email that masquerades as a personal email,_ to be a big
turn-off as far as first impressions go. When I register for something I don't
mind an immediate confirmation email with an activation link, but just give me
the help/support email address and if I need it I'll use it. THEN you get your
chance to impress me with your responsiveness.

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edhallen
Having now spent a lot of time sending and analyzing email campaigns/triggered
emails (I'm one of the co-founders of Klaviyo), we keep seeing that email is
one of the best ways to turn analysis into action - not least because it gives
you a complete feedback loop.

For example, say an Ecommerce store realizes most people only make 1 purchase
and don't come back. With email, you can target exactly those people, but you
also can quickly see if it worked (because you know who you sent it to, you
can see if they actually made a purchase).

Retention is definitely really important, but I think what's at root here is
that email is an ideal way to interact with users in a more targeted and
personal way outside of when they proactively visit your website. The same
feedback loop idea should (and will) apply to push notifications, texts, in-
app messaging, etc as time goes on.

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orangethirty
Sometimes I think startups make an effort to re-invent everything. If you want
a successful email program then you have to go and _copy_ the mailings (as in
made of paper) you get from charities. Those are the best to study and follow.
Pay attention to the language, the composition of the offer, the colors each
page has (due to the purpose of each page), the layout, and how most include a
little gift to get you to open it.

Now, the other day I noticed a little detail in the emails I would get from
Firefly (Dan Shipper's startup). The _from_ line said "Team". I emailed Dan
and told him to change it to someone's name. He promptly did. But why? People
relate to other people. Little details like these are what nudge people
towards opening emails. Be very, very conscious about details. That's how you
get engagement. The details.

Oh, and answer the damn emails. I hate replying with a question, only to be
ignored because some idiot forgot to forward the mail to the general inbox.

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sps_jp
For a recent application I developed, I used a series of 3 automated emails
post sign-up. The first was sent right after signing up, with a "personalized"
welcome that came directly from my email address. The second came 5 days into
the trial period with suggested activities to try within the application,
again from my email address. The third was sent 15 days into the trial and
included links to the help and support site, along with links to tutorial
videos for advanced activities. The third email was sent from our support team
email address. Each message included the option to stop receiving general
inquiry emails.

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sudonim
Awesome! How did you pick those timings? And what were the responses like from
the people who received the emails?

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richardv
What do you guys all use for email management between a small 2 person team
(founder co-founder)? I've seen that one person has already mentioned
<https://www.helpscout.net/>

I've been using Assistly/Desk <http://www.desk.com> , but find that it's
actually a bit overpowering, and adds a lot of support meta-junk to each email
that just makes it looks like we're trying to be an enormous company, when in
fact, we don't get that many emails, but at the same time, we want to handle
each email efficiently and promptly.

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WA
I'd love to use something like Help Scout, but I absolutely never under no
circumstances would use a hosted solution for that.

Do you know an equivalent that I can self-host?

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ianstormtaylor
Why don't you want to use a hosted solution?

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ams6110
Users asking for help will send you all kinds of potentially sensitive stuff,
even if you don't ask for it. Screenshots, passwords, etc. You may not want
that in the hands of a third party.

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ianstormtaylor
Valid points. If it was for records, or being able to move off of it in the
future, Help Scout is fine for both of those.

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gingerlime
This is a really powerful tool, and we use it too with generally good results.
Getting feedback is hard, and it's a good way to accomplish this, whilst
making users feel good about the company and product.

That said, I do start wondering if this becomes the norm, people will see
through this. I already 'feel it' when those emails arrive from the founder,
or katie from <insert company here>. It's almost obvious now that these are
just automated emails, and it makes it feel much less genuine. A bit like when
you know how a magic trick works, it's no longer magic...

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chexton
Nice work on all the case studies Ian, Peter, Ilya and everyone at Segment.io
(who have I forgotten ?!)

Keep it up!

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ianstormtaylor
Calvin! But he's deep in Sublime right now so he probably won't notice :)

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vph
email is just a tool of communication. The keyword is moderation.

