Linktree is ALMOST perfect
Linktree
Linktree is a “link in bio” app founded in 2016. Linktree is a great product with a ton of happy customers and their cancellation flow is actually pretty good. However, there are a few things they can improve on to elevate their cancellation flow even further.
Quick Hits
- Linktree’s UX is really well done: Linktree utilizes almost all the tactics we talked about on this season of Churning Point. They use loss aversion tactics, they’re specific, they gather customer data and they use salvage offers.
- Be intentional with salvage offers: Linktree presents their customers with a salvage offer, however its the same discount regardless of what option we select. Make sure your salvage offers are targeted.
- Your friction needs to be good friction: Although typing the word “CANCEL” is probably used to ward off bots, it still feels like unnecessary friction at this point in the flow. They should also get more specific here with their copy.
Takeaways
Be intentional with salvage offers
Let’s start with the good news: Linktree actually has the best cancellation flow that we’ve seen all season. They have loss aversion, they’re specific with their copy, they have a well done survey and they even have a salvage offer. However, the discount that they present us with at the end of the flow could be improved.
Firstly, this is a blanket offer that doesn’t change based on the response the customer chooses. A discount makes sense if someone cancels your product for being too expensive, but it makes less sense for someone who finds your product difficult to use. You should be using the data you collect from your survey to inform a proper salvage offer.
Secondly, the salvage offer is using a percentage off rather than a dollar amount off or a month off. We’ve found that offering discounts in percentage off isn’t as effective. People tend to find percentages more confusing, doing math in their head to figure out what they’re getting. Customers tend to respond much better to $ off or months free.
These small changes could help improve Linktree’s retention significantly.
Your friction needs to be good fricition
Like we talked about in our very first episode, there is a difference between good and bad friction. Good friction gets a customer to reflect on their choice to cancel and implements loss aversion tactics. Bad friction is friction that exists just to frustrate a customer into closing out of their browser.
With Linktree, towards the end of the flow we need to type the word “CANCEL” in order to officially cancel the product. Although this may simply be to ward off bots, it still adds a bit of bad friction to what was such a smooth process. They could also get more specific in the copy here. They say we will lose our features “at the end of the billing period”. It would be more effective to get specific here and tell us when that end of the billing period actually is.
Make sure you email us at churningpoint@paddle.com or hit up Neel and Allissa to tell us who you want us to break down next.
Do us a favor?
Part of the way we measure success is by seeing if our content is shareable. If you got value from this episode and write up, we'd appreciate a share on Twitter or LinkedIn.
00:00:00:03 - 00:00:02:09
Neel
What happened?
00:00:02:11 - 00:00:27:13
Allissa
Another salvage offer for you? We have salvage offers for every single cancellation reason that we survived. However, it's the same one every single time.
00:00:27:15 - 00:00:33:20
Neel
Hello and welcome to Churning Point. This is a show where we sign up for products just to see what it's like to cancel them. I'm Neal, The site.
00:00:34:01 - 00:00:34:23
Allissa
I'm Allissa Chan.
00:00:35:00 - 00:00:49:19
Neel
And today we're breaking down Linktree. Linktree was founded in 2016 and is a and bio app that provides a one stop shop link to all social and other products that someone may have. Plans range from free to $24 a month.
00:00:49:21 - 00:01:08:01
Allissa
Now, this is actually one of the more effective cancellation flows that we saw. So a super excited dive into it today. We're going to get into some of the things that Linktree is doing well and some of the things that Linktree you could definitely use some work on when it comes to saving their customers before they reach their Churning point.
00:01:08:02 - 00:01:37:08
Neel
When a customer tries to cancel, you have 18 seconds to try and save them. Now, we're not suggesting you hold your customers hostage, but the tactics that we cover provides the right amount of friction to try and save these vital customers before they reach their Churning point. All right. So diving into the UK's Linktree actually does the fundamentals really, really well.
00:01:37:08 - 00:01:59:10
Neel
They take advantage of pretty much all of the fundamentals that we've talked about to date loss aversion, right? They point out the things that I'll lose if I cancel my linked subscription. They have a cancellation survey try to uncover exactly why I want to cancel my subscription. And third, the nostalgia effect. They specifically ask me how likely I am to return down the road, especially for a freemium product.
00:01:59:10 - 00:02:18:11
Neel
This is key, right? Where seasonality and users may frequently upgrade and downgrade between the free plan and the paid plan. However, one massive room for improvement here is the order in which they do the things right. One thing we've seen time and time again is that proactively offering plan switches or salvage offers may not be that effective. Right?
00:02:18:16 - 00:02:36:12
Neel
In this case, as soon as I go to cancel Linktree gives me the option to change plans or even downgrade to free. Now, again, downgrading to free is a really effective option for those users that may be on the fence and may convert down the road. It may make sense to first ask them why they're canceling and then depending on what reason they've picked.
00:02:36:17 - 00:02:41:06
Neel
Right. Selectively offering certain users the option to change plans or downgrade.
00:02:41:08 - 00:02:59:01
Allissa
So when we were going through this flow, we actually played around with selecting all the different possible cancellation reasons just to see if anything would happen. And guess what will happened? Another salvage offered to offer. Yeah, we have salvage offers for every single cancellation reason that we liked. However, it's the same one every single time.
00:02:59:03 - 00:03:19:16
Neel
What we've seen in the data is that customers have a really hard time quantifying the value of a discount when it's measured in terms of a percent off. Instead, we found conversion to be way higher when quantifying the discount in once free. So it's way more effective to say, Hey, you're going to get two months free than saying you're going to get 50% off for four months.
00:03:19:18 - 00:03:39:17
Allissa
Now, at the end of the cancellation, if I decide I truly, truly want to cancel, Linktree serves up this widget which prompts me to type in the word cancel in the box before I can finally submit my cancellation. Now, while this may be an effective strategy to to ward off bots, I feel like when you're this deep into the cancellation flow, this is just added unnecessary friction at this point, right?
00:03:39:21 - 00:03:55:12
Neel
Yeah. The one thing I do like about this widget though, is that they make it clear that you still have access to your literary subscription until the end of that billing cycle. Now, on one hand, this is really good because customers may have days or even weeks left on their billing plan where they can still get value from the product.
00:03:55:12 - 00:04:09:13
Neel
On the other hand, it probably wouldn't have been too much more work for Linktree to be more specific as to when that billing cycle actually ends, right? So you can quantify just how many days, weeks you have left until you reset the cancel.
00:04:09:15 - 00:04:37:18
Allissa
Okay. So before we wrap, I do want to point out that Linktree has pretty much all of the fundamentals there. Right. To have a really effective cancellation flow. They leverage loss aversion tactics. They have a survey. They use salvage offers to try and save their customers while they're leaving. But ultimately, if they want to further optimize this flow even more, they can consider doing some things like positioning their discount as a as a whole number versus a percentage so that it'll land a little better on their users and then also be a little bit more specific to throughout the flow.
00:04:37:20 - 00:04:48:18
Neel
If you're Linktree or any other company interested in optimizing or cancellation flow or just generally interested in a retention audit, reach out to us at churningpoint@paddle.com. What's up next week also.
00:04:48:20 - 00:04:58:10
Allissa
So next week we're diving into the world of visual collaboration with Miro. I'm super excited about this one. We use Miro, we love Miro, so definitely make sure you're tuning in to that episode. Thanks for watching.
