Product notifications & their abuse
Pinnng. You look at your phone to see who texted you but it’s the damn push notification from an app once again. This happens to me a lot.
Apps keep on sending notifications even when the I am not interested. We all know the story of golden goose if you kill the goose, you don’t get anymore eggs. By the constant badgering of notifications, the trust of users is damaged and they slowly churn.
Then why do apps constantly send notifications?
Because notifications work. You can see a direct correlation between the number of users getting notifications and conversions. If you sent notifications to 1 million users, you will get let’s say 10K conversions at one time.
Now, some will send notifications every day to all users who are not converting, this way reaching yearly OKRs is easy. Perfect!
But what happens when you send too many notifications?
What most of us don’t track are the counter metrics:
- How many users turned off the notification due to this constant badgering?
- How many users got irritated and deleted the app?
- How many users complained about the product to their peers or on social media?
- How many users started preferring other apps and completely churned out of the app?
Why won’t most track counter metrics?
For starters, it’s a blocker which stops you from reaching yearly converted users OKR. Secondly, it’s a lot of work, making your life difficult. The longevity of the business is kept in the passenger seat when reaching OKR is all you care about.
So, why are my notifications still on?
The problem is, how will I know:
- Is my cab booked or not?
- Is my food out for delivery or not?
- Will my groceries be delivered on time or not?
I have formed a habit and seen the same in my friends since they turned off their notifications now they have to manually open the app whenever they want an update. User behaviour is changing to push(opening their app) from what started as pull(app letting the user know) in terms of information updation.
Is there a healthy way to notify the user?
- When the click-through rate for notifications is above 10% that’s a good sign. 10% means 10 out of 100 users who see the notification click on it. This showcases that notification holds value since the user is clicking on them. If users are burned out with notifications, click thru rate will be less.
- I would go on to track negative metrics like app uninstalls, notification turns off, etc.
- Also, be super targeted with users who I know will convert due to their interaction with the app.
A cool fact
Out of all the apps I have, only Uber is one which doesn’t bombard me with notifications. They send me 1 push notification in a month and I am genuinely curious if they launched a new product so I click to read more about it.
Further reading:
- How Facebook's reduced notifications lead to better long-term retention and user satisfaction? Facebook discovered that the initial loss of visitation from fewer notifications gradually recovered over time, and after an extended period, it had fully recovered and even turned out to be a gain. In other words, long-term effects may be different from short-term effects, or even the opposite. It may take time for people to adapt to the change. Our results suggest people will eventually return and become even more engaged with Facebook if the change truly improves their experience. Link
