Posted on: DEC 23, 2020
When discussing UX or Product design, it is easy to get lost in the technicalities of the design and forget that ultimately, the goal of the company is to acquire and keep customers. In fact, many UX or UI designers might not even know what customer acquisition and retention is and how important it is to their company and business. To put it bluntly, customer acquisition and retention are the oxygen of the company. So, how can UX/UI designers leverage those concepts to build the ultimate product?
Let’s start by explaining what customer acquisition and retention are. Customer acquisition is the process through which companies obtain new customers; Customer retention is the process through which companies keep their customers. For example, this year, thanks to the pandemic and many people being stuck at home, entertainment companies like Hulu have been running ads and promotions about their new partnership with Disney+. Typically, new customers are acquired through their free trial offer, then they are retained through other incentives like a discount on the monthly cost of the service and an additional bonus. We all have experienced being “acquired and retained” before, but how do UX/UI designers utilize both concepts to optimize their product and grow the company?
To optimize a product for customer acquisition, you have to answer 4 questions: what your potential users are expecting, whether your product is ready to acquire users, whether the purpose of your product is clear, and what the experience of the first-time user is. It’s like trying to woo a potential partner and date them. Marketers have already painted a picture of the product, so the UX/UI designer should try to understand what that image is and match it. The goal is to make the product that catches the eye of customers, invites them to try it, and delivers great results at the first use.
To retain customers, UX/UI designers have to answer 3 other questions: what relationship they want to build with the customers, whether they are speaking the user’s language and what actions they are taking to impress the users. The goal of customer retention is to be in a long-term committed relationship, possibly marriage with the customers. UX/UI designers must deliver a product that almost begs the customers to use it. The product design also has to continue working as intended and even get better, keeping the customers looking forward to the future the same way that Apple, Inc. has its customers waiting for the next upgrade or phone. For a more comprehensive look at what goes into each step, you can read the full article from Avani for free.
