mayurrathi 1.5.2 Retention Referral
This skill defines the frameworks for keeping customers longer and turning them into acquisition engines.
1. Churn Prevention (Voluntary)
Goal: Rescue customers at the moment of cancellation.
- Cancel Flow: Trigger → Exit Survey (Reason) → Dynamic Save Offer → Confirmation.
- Reason-Offer Mapping:
- Price → Discount or Downgrade.
- Low Usage → Pause subscription (1-3 months).
- Missing Feature → Roadmap preview or Support intro.
- Dark Patterns: Avoid them. Keep the "Cancel" option clear to maintain brand trust.
2. Dunning & Involuntary Churn
Goal: Recover failed payments automatically.
- Retry Logic: Use "Smart Retries" (e.g., Stripe) to attempt charges on success-prone days.
- Communication: 3-4 plain-text emails over 10 days escalating in urgency. Provide a "no-login" link to update payment info.
- In-App Alerts: Display a persistent banner for accounts with past-due payments.
3. Referral Program Design
Goal: Engineering viral loops within the product.
- The Loop: Trigger Moment (Aha moment) → Share Action → Convert Friend → Reward.
- Incentive Structure: Double-sided rewards (Referrer gets X, Friend gets Y) are the most effective.
- Milestones: Use tiered rewards (e.g., "Refer 5 friends for a t-shirt") to encourage repeat sharing.
4. Affiliate & Partner Programs
Goal: Scale reach through external advocates.
- Recruitment: Focus on creators whose audience matches your Target Persona (Skill 14).
- Commissions: Use recurring percentage-based commissions for SaaS to align long-term incentives.
- Enablement: Provide affiliates with pre-made banners, email swipes, and "Vs" pages (Skill 17).
5. User Health Scoring
- Metrics: Track login frequency, key feature usage, and support sentiment.
- Intervention: For users with dropping health scores, trigger proactive outreach or re-engagement drip sequences.