They bought your product - now how do you get them to use it?

Your company has a product that is the best thing since sliced bread. Customers buy the product, but then they do not use it or only use part of it. Leading to increased churn. How do you engage your customers that have already paid for your product and continue to pay a subscription model for the platform that enhances the benefits of that product? 

Let’s take a timely product. Axon’s body camera for police officers and Axon Aware, a platform that allows base operations to live-stream footage, an audit trail of camera use, accurate GPS tracking, etc.. Police departments are buying Axon’s products in droves as their technology is cutting edge. But the customers are using the cameras without the base monitoring feature where all the data feeds and monitoring goes on. The benefits of the platform and the keys to retention are not being used. Hence, a higher churn rate over time.

So what is a company like Axon to do to engage its customers, increase their use of the product, and become more loyal customers? The keys are to get around the noise of day to day life of a customer (and in this instance a stressed filled police department) and educate them in a way that they are receptive to and creates value (in their terms). And for police departments, illustrating how Axon’s products will help them show their communities that they are saving lives while taking accountability seriously is in today’s world – very important.

Research shows that there are many police departments using Axon’s products and the Axon Aware system to its fullest. One approach to educate less engaged customers is to approach one or more of these stellar customers to be part of a video that showcases Axon’s products and their benefits. The customer can use a version of it for promotional purposes in their town (with their town selectman/government) to show that they are the “good guys” and getting the job done judiciously, empathetically, and to code. They will look like rock stars. And Axon can use a version of it to show other less engaged customers the benefits of using the full line of services that go along with its products.

Taking this one step further, VOC initiatives, like creating a facebook group for customers or chat room on Axon’s portal to share videos, stories and best practices, is a way for engaged customers to help others in a way that outsiders maybe don’t understand. They definitely have the credibility to get through to less engaged customers where as a salesperson or CS professional might seem self-serving.

Education is great and really moves the ball. Making that education fun has proven to be even more of a game-changer. And gamification is a way that makes education fun. One survey found that client engagement went up 47% after using gamification techniques. 14% scored higher in skill-based assessments. And 89% of respondents said that if a task is gamified then “they feel eager to complete it and are in a competitive mood”.  At Axon Academy, Axon’s education portal, they are using VR for training purposes. Creating games within that VR experience could show the benefits of Axon Aware and its LTE capabilities in a more fun and engaging manner.

And in the real world (outside of VR) gamification can also be a great tool.  A successful strategy is to create competitions within a customer’s divisional departments or even between customers (police departments) in a certain vicinity or state. Whoever utilizes their camera the most during a certain period wins a prize. The department that utilizes Axon Aware the most (prints reports, checks whereabouts of officers, …..) wins a prize.

And the key to prizes is that they should be what your customers value. I know as past EMT and firefighter within an all-volunteer department that there were many toys that we did not get our hands on because our department could not afford them. There was a catalog that had everything from thermal cameras to better-fitting Scott pack masks. We all salivated over it. There are comparable catalogs and websites in the police world that have all the bells and whistle products that Axon’s customers may not get their hands on – but would love to. Giving gifts or gift certificates to a catalog like this shows that a company cares about what their customers care about (as opposed to giving them a gift card to Starbucks).

Today, it is not enough to just have a useful product. Customers increasingly are subject to more distraction and bureaucracy in their work lives to the point that they can not see the forest for the trees. Getting around that noise is the key. How you do it takes creativity and empathy for what is truly important to a specific customer.