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0 pointsjdlshore12y ago0 comments

Thanks! Your experience is pretty common, actually. I email everyone who cancels and ask them for feedback, and the vast majority say they liked the show but didn't have time to watch any more. That's probably the main thing I'll try to figure out when I start looking at improving my churn rate.

(Although I have no idea where to begin. Any ideas?)

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4 comments · 3 top-level

silverlake12y ago· 1 in thread

> Although I have no idea where to begin. Any ideas?

No one has figured it out. Gamification, prizes, group work, classes w/ deadlines, charge by use rather than subscription. It's really a problem of commitment, whether it's learning or dieting or anything. We have 90% completion rates for courses for our corporate clients because employees are required to finish it. Without some external pressure it's hard to get people to do anything.

jdlshoreOP12y ago

Interestingly, a lot of those techniques are extrinsic motivators, which studies have found to actually reduce self-motivation.

(A classic book on the subject is Alfie Kohn's "Punished by Rewards."[1] Dan Pink's TED talk[2] is a entertaining overview of the same concepts.)

That's not to say that I have any answers. But when I tackle the problem, I'll probably focus on intrinsic motivators (love of the material, sense of challenge, joy of solving problems, sense of mastery, etc.) rather than extrinsic motivators (badges, prizes, employer threats).

[1] http://www.alfiekohn.org/books/pbr.htm

[2] http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html

LocalPCGuy12y ago

It may help to introduce a few different levels. Like offer your distilled videos (which are less frequent, I believe) for price X, and all videos for price Y. Experiment with offering to let people watch you record the videos live as well, that would be a fairly unique experience, although no idea how well it would work in practice (no "I'll research this offline, brb", but you could reach out to those watching interactively as well).

Good luck, I got a ton of info on testing out of the KS series, and recommend your site whenever someone asks me about JS testing.

danaw12y ago

Allowing a user to suspend their subscription may cause them to not full on cancel. Then you can ping them in a few months to remind them you exist. Possibly offer a discount for a month or two as a reward for reactivating.

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