No matter what you sell, fruits, cars or software solutions, all customers love free trials or samples. For them, it’s a chance to determine if your product suits their needs; for you – to show you have a top-notch option on the market. The goal of a free trial is to create customers, so it’s essential to make the best first impression. However, it doesn’t happen every time. Poorly optimized trial experience can result in unsatisfied users and lost conversions. Listed below are a few key strategies to optimize the product trial experience, and drive conversions and customer satisfaction, using the example of the “Issue History for Jira” app by SaaSJet.
Track Key Metrics to Prevent Cancels
How do you know the customer trial experience is successful? It’s essential for every business to monitor how trial users interact with the product: how many of them buy, how many of them cancel, specific features utilized, and how much money you lose. The most wonderful thing about tracking metrics is that you can forecast whether a customer will cancel a trial or purchase. Consider the following indicators:
- Free trial to paid conversion rate: the percentage of users who purchased to all users who started a trial.
- Customer Engagement Score: define and sum up all significant events, for instance, the number of resolved tickets, time spent within the app, etc.
- The number of cancellations during the trial and first-day cancellations.
Our SaaSJet team always try to identify which accounts require more attention and plan actions to prevent losing a client. For example, how many tickets were submitted for support, and how successfully they were resolved.
Design a User-Friendly Trial Interface
The basis for consumer happiness and conversions is a smooth and appealing trial experience. Businesses can increase customer confidence and trust in their products by providing users with a risk-free environment to study a product’s features and advantages. It’s a kind of art to make the app’s interface flawless and intuitive. It starts with a design that holds empathy for clients in the first place. You should always ask: How easy is it for users? How can I help them?
Let’s take a look at the “Issue History for Jira” app. The onboarding process starts with a visual help board displaying the intro of the most important features and links to the documentation. The next helpful option is a product tour. It guides users through all the elements of the add-on and shows how to start the work.
Some ideas to consider:
- Less is more: create a visual layout that presents all the main options of the product, but doesn’t overload it.
- Add interactive elements to guide users through the app: a product tour, notifications, release notes, hints, etc.
“Be helpful” is the main rule when creating a trial interface which provides a seamless user experience.
Implement Personalization and Customization
Push notifications, custom in-app suggestions, and special offers (including discounts for popular products, loyalty programmes, and more) are just a few of the many ways that apps can be personalised. Customization means a product is highly-flexible and provides a unique experience depending on users’ needs. For example, “Issue History for Jira” is alike the Lego-constructor app. With a bunch of filters and editable columns, users can build the report tailored to their specific needs. Also, there is an option to switch on the black theme. This level of customization empowers users to explore the product in a way that aligns with their personal preferences or project requirements, ensuring a more engaging and relevant trial experience.
Educate and Assist Users throughout the Trial
Offering any form of support during a free product trial is always a great idea to increase conversion. Show your clients are not alone with their issues. One of the most effective ways is a demo with product experts. Live communication can significantly increase customers’ loyalty and trust, especially if you show the most effective way to solve their case. “Issue History for Jira” offers thorough instruction and support to make the trial as productive as possible. Users who join are sent a series of onboarding emails that include video training to walk them through the main features and functionalities. In order to provide consumers with the knowledge they need to explore the potential of the product fully, the trial interface also contains interactive tooltips and contextual guidance.
Leverage Customer Feedback for Ongoing Improvement
How do you know whether your app works as intended or needs improvement? The best way to find out is to ask your users. Actively seeking customer feedback helps to improve the trial experience continuously. A great way to do so is by organizing in-app surveys, for instance, a Net promoter score (NPS) survey to obtain detailed customer feedback regarding the product or the user experience. With Issue History for Jira, users can provide suggestions and report any problems they run into. There are special options in the menu to suggest a feature, report a bug, or contact the support team. The SaaSJet development team takes this feedback carefully and regularly updates and improves the trial experience based on user feedback to match user expectations.
Prioritize the Security of the Product Trial
No one wants to “play” in an unsecured environment, even for a short period of time. Ensuring customers that you provide data protection and confidentiality is one more chance to build trust and a positive reputation. Users won’t surely continue to use your app for very long once their personal data has been hacked or exposed. And, on the contrary, if security proved to be a preference, you are more likely to get new subscribers. It’s great if you can prove your product security by participating in external independent reviews. The SaaSJet team always care for their Cloud Apps experience to be exceptionally reliable and safe and participates in Marketplace Security Programs. Issue History for Jira is Cloud Fortified by Atlassian.
Streamline the Conversion Process
Find and eliminate any needless obstacles in the user experience for the free trial. Excessive friction like intrusive popups might ruin the user experience and unnecessarily extend the time to value. If you see the value gap is pretty high, try to interview users who don’t convert. Most businesses assume what their customers want without ever asking them. One more example of Issue History for Jira. The trial app version showed release notes and a demo offer for new users after a few minutes of their first session. It created much confusion and distraction, so we moved the first option to the next session.
Takeaway
Making a product trial the number 1 tool on the list for optimization will help to increase the conversion rate. Free trials show users your confidence and make it more likely that they will trust you. In the case of “Issue History for Jira” by SaaSJet, optimizing the product trial experience has been a priority. SaaSJet has created a trial experience that drives conversions and customer satisfaction. By applying these strategies to own products, businesses can enhance their trial experiences, leading to increased conversions and long-term customer loyalty.