Pendo & Resource Center for Constant Contact
Customer Retention, Product Tours, In-app Messaging, A/B Test, UXR

1. The Problem

2. Research Pendo

I was asked by my manager to research how the Pendo tool can help address the problems our users are facing.

Here are some solutions Pendo can provide:
Why I advocated for Pendo
Pendo.io is a platform that provides in-depth analytics and insights into user behavior. it can identify what features are most important to our users, and where they might be experiencing frustration or confusion. Pendo offers a range of tools and features that help businesses understand how users are interacting with their web or mobile applications, and use that information to make data-driven decisions about product development and user engagement.

Here are some of the key features that could help solve our users problems:

3. Product Audit

Our UXR team conducted user testing on our apps (Sharpspring and Constant Contact) to identify pain points and areas for improvement for our top feature flows. We also identified the common questions that are being asked to support and documented them in the backlog to address the underlying UX issues. Based on the results of the test and data, we were able to begin auditing our apps. We collected screenshots of the flows and annotated areas that we believed were working well and areas that needed improvement.
Preview of Audit

4. Solutions

1. In app guidance
Sharpspring Tutorial: Import your contacts
Due to outdated tools in Sharpspring, some important features are not delivering an efficient user experience. While we work on updating these tools, I started developing Pendo guides to assist users who were getting stuck navigating through the flows and resorting to customer support.
Preview of first Pendo guide

Key Takeaway

Data indicated that users tend to avoid guides with too many steps, so I  minimized the number of steps as much as possible and focused solely on addressing the primary pain points where users have been experiencing difficulties.
Sharpspring Tutorial: Send a Test Email
Preview of second Pendo guide
Constant Contact Tutorial: SMS Lead Generation Page
This guide was important because users needed an SMS lead generation page (landing page) in order to gather consent from their existing customers and the process is long and can be confusing.

In this guide, I added a video to give the users an option to view what steps they would have to perform to create an SMS lead generation landing page.
Preview of Pendo guide

Key Takeaway

Data proved that users spent time watching the videos I embedded into the guides, and those guides performed better than those without videos.

2. Feature Awareness

Post Upgrade Awareness

I created a guide to inform our user of the features that they have unlocked by upgrading their subscription. Since many users were not aware of all the tools we offer, or were having difficulty locating them, I created a guide that showcases some important features of our product. This guide contains videos on how to use the tools and where they can find them. My goal was to educate users and increase their familiarity with the available tools, which I believed would ultimately improve their overall experience with our product or service.
Preview of Pendo guide

Goal Setting: Optimize campaigns vs. Grow a healthy email list

I created another guide to inform our user of the features by having them choose a goal: optimize there campaigns or grow a healthy email list. Each goal showcases some important features of our product depending on which goal they chose. Each step contains videos on how to use the tools and where they can find them. My goal was to educate users and increase their familiarity with the available tools, while also trying to learn which goal performed better.
Preview of Pendo guide

In app messaging: New Feature SMS

I created a guide to inform users about our new feature: SMS. The guide outlines all the key features and capabilities of our SMS tool, highlighting the unique benefits that our product offers. To test the effectiveness of our guide, I created two different versions of the guide, each focusing on different features of our SMS tool. My plan is to compare the results of the two guides to determine which guide performs best. By doing so, I hope to gain insights into what SMS features resonates best with our users, and to ultimately improve the effectiveness of our messaging and communication around this new feature.

In app messaging & other guides

I have utilized Pendo pop-up guides to keep our users informed about events, product updates, notifications, discounts, and other important information. These pop-up guides are targeted and segmented, allowing us to deliver customized messages to specific user groups.

In addition to pop-up guides, I also created a reviews guide to increase our reviews on Shopify and Appsumo. This guide not only encourages users to leave a review, but also helps us to understand how seamless the experience is when connecting an integration.

By gathering feedback from users who have left reviews, we can identify pain points and areas for improvement, ultimately enhancing the user experience and increasing the number of positive reviews we receive.
Preview of other guides

2. Resource Center

I noticed that many people were closing pop-ups for onboarding guides. To address this issue, I came up with the idea of creating a resource center where all the onboarding guides would be available for users. By doing this, users would not be forced to view the guide at that moment, and they could access it whenever they were ready or needed help.

My goal was to make the onboarding guides more accessible and less intrusive, which I believed would improve the overall user experience.
Preview of Resource Center

Conclusion

The adoption of our features were low because many users were unaware of all the tools available in Constant Contact. To address this, I created guides that would highlight various features in our app and demonstrate how to use them and where to find them.

Our data indicated that if users did not try out the tools within the first couple of months of their subscription, they were unlikely to ever use them. To improve user onboarding, we recognized that most users did not know where to begin, so I developed guides to encourage them where they should start and which tool they should use.  

Additionally, we discovered that many users upgraded their subscription for a particular feature without being aware of all the other features they had unlocked. I aimed to increase awareness of our tools and their benefits to help users get the most out of their subscription.

We also encountered issues with poor user experience leading to users getting stuck and having to call support. To address this, we collected users most frequent questions from support calls and developed guides to help users navigate the app without having to rely on support. We also noted these issues in our backlog to improve the overall user experience in the future.

Finally, to prevent customer attrition to our competitors, we needed to inform our users about the tools we have available and the ways they can benefit from using them. By educating our users on the full range of our offerings, we aimed to increase customer retention and loyalty.