User Experience for Subscription Services

Stop treating your prospects like calculators. I learned this lesson painfully while leading the launch of a new solution for a healthcare transformation organization. The CEO and SVP of Product Innovation were well-intentioned, but they had biases that fueled their convictions. “Show them the science and ROI. Once they see the data, they’ll switch,” said the CEO. “They’ll switch?” I asked curiously. They rarely switched for the logic. They often resisted because we didn’t understand the emotion that tied them to maintaining the status quo. Most B2B marketers still build journeys on the idea that buyers only care about features, scientific studies, and ROI models. But real people buy with their hearts as much as their heads. LinkedIn's B2B Institute found that emotional factors significantly influence B2B buying decisions, accounting for 66%, while rational factors account for the remaining 34%. When you act like every decision is a math problem, you miss the emotional needs and biases that drive action. Fear of missing out. Desire for security. The endorsement of a trusted referral. Those feelings tip the scales long before spreadsheets ever come out. Three quick shifts to make your GTM more human: 💡 Map emotions, not just touchpoints. Ask: What’s the buyer afraid of at each stage? What small win can calm that fear? Use stories to build trust. 💡 Data is important. But a 2-minute customer story about real struggle and success sticks far longer. 💡 Frame decisions around loss-aversion. “Don’t lose your edge” often lands harder than “gain more efficiency.” When you blend hard facts with a genuine understanding of how people feel, you’ll see faster decisions and deeper loyalty. Takeaway: Your next user journey should start with these questions: ✔️ “How do we show up in our customers' struggles? ✔️ "Do they see us as relevant?” ✔️ Can they see their lives as being better because of our help? Build from there. #businessgrowth #GTM #buyerjourney #CMO

I didn’t win my first users with features. I won them with trust. Here’s how I built it. ✅ I don’t start with a pitch. I ask questions. “What’s your biggest struggle with content right now?” “What have you tried that didn’t work?” This helps me understand their world—before I even mention my product. ✅ I treat early users as collaborators, not just customers. Their feedback is gold. They tell me what’s confusing, what’s useful, and what’s missing. They help shape the product roadmap more than any spec sheet. ✅ I follow up personally. After someone uses the tool, I check in. “Was it smooth? Where did you get stuck? What would make it 10x easier?” These small touchpoints go a long way in building long-term trust. ✅ I’m transparent about what’s ready and what’s coming. I never overpromise. Instead, I say: “That feature isn’t ready yet, but we’re working on it—and I’d love your input.” In a world of automation, early-stage trust is still built one human at a time. If you’re building something new, don’t wait for perfection. Start conversations. You’ll build something better, and more importantly, you’ll build belief.

Booking.com reminded me what most brands still get wrong. I was booking a hotel recently and when looking at reviews, they let me filter by traveler type: couples, solo travelers, business travelers, families. Because they understand something fundamental: I don't care if a family with three kids loved it. If I’m traveling alone, my requirements are completely different. So instead of drowning me in generic 5-star reviews, they showed me reviews from people like me. That's when social proof actually matters. But social proof is only one layer. After years of building trust in fintech, healthcare, and insurance, I've realised there are actually five layers: 1.Trust by Social Proof (done right): Filter social proof by who's reading it — what they do, what they're trying to solve. Make it specific to their situation, not everyone's. 2. Trust by Trial: Let them use it free. No credit card. Easy exit. Because if you've actually solved a real problem, they'll stay. 3. Trust by Affiliation: Investors. Regulators. Experts. NHS approval. FCA regulation. Credibility by association. People will delegate their trust if you've earned the right affiliations. 4. Trust by Design: Airbnb nailed this. Their entire platform is built on trust prompts. "Tell your host why you're coming." Suddenly there's rapport. Suddenly the guest understands the implicit contract: this is a community built on trust. You're not asking for it — you're designing the path to it. 5. Trust by Greater Good (without greenwashing): Why do you actually exist? At Pharmacy2U, we weren't just dispensing prescriptions at scale — we were bringing remote healthcare to the patient's doorstep. Faster access, and a freed-up NHS able to focus on what matters most. Trust is the most important commodity in relationships. And it should be the same for brands. But most brands treat trust like something you add at the end. A testimonial section. A security badge. It should be built into every single touchpoint: Your design. Your messaging. Your experience. Your why. That's when social proof actually matters. Because it's not just saying "people like you." It's proving that people like you are winning with this. What layer of trust are you actually building into your product? ♻️ Found this helpful? Repost to share with your network.  ⚡ Curious about scaling and entrepreneurship? Hit follow Maya Moufarek.

Most companies try to scale by sprinting after new buyers and wonder why their churn spikes. I give them the Sustainable Growth Framework instead. Three focus areas. Total alignment. Real momentum. After helping subscription businesses grow and retain their members, I’ve learned this: scaling isn’t about speed. It’s about direction. Here’s the framework that keeps your growth steady and your subscribers loyal. 1. Relationships over transactions Don’t chase one-time buyers. Build long-term trust. When you focus on relationships, you create members who stay not because they have to, but because they want to. 💡 Example: If you’re a fitness app, build habits with your members. Send progress updates, celebrate milestones, and personalize recommendations. Growth happens when people feel seen, not sold to. 2. Freedom over friction Don’t lock people in. Make it easy to leave or stay by choice. Subscribers value autonomy. When you respect that, they reward you with loyalty. 💡 Example: If you’re a streaming service, a clear cancel button and transparent pricing signal confidence. The trust you gain outweighs the short-term retention dip. Ease builds credibility. Credibility builds staying power. 3. Outcomes over offerings Don’t pile on features. Deliver results that matter. Your best subscribers don’t want more. They want better. Example: 💡 If you’re a learning platform, don’t add hundreds of new courses. Focus on completion rates, results, and community feedback. Outcomes drive word of mouth far more than volume ever will. The magic? Only you know who your best subscribers are. Serve them well, and growth follows naturally. Because in subscription businesses, scale isn’t about adding more. It’s about deepening what works. +++++++++++ 👋 I'm Robbie, I'm a consultant, author, and speaker covering all things subscription businesses. +++++++++++ 🛎 Tap the bell under the banner on my profile to catch the next post. ++++++++++++

Your customers don’t trust you (yet)… here’s how to fix that. Earning trust isn’t about flashy marketing or big promises— it’s about what you do every single day. Here’s the thing: Without trust, your business is running on fumes. Customers are smarter than ever. They can spot insincerity from a mile away. And if they don’t trust you or worse, if they don’t feel valued they’ll go elsewhere. So how do you earn their trust, make them feel truly valued, and create engagement that keeps them coming back? Here’s what works: 1. Start by listening (and act on what you hear).   * Run surveys, host focus groups, or jump on 1:1 calls with your customers.   * Pay attention to their pain points, frustrations, and needs.   * Most importantly: Implement their feedback. Listening without action destroys trust faster than ignoring them altogether. 2. Personalize every interaction.   * Address your customers by name.   * Tailor your messaging, offers, or coaching to meet their unique needs.   * Remember: No one wants to feel like a number in your CRM. 3. Be transparent—even when it’s uncomfortable.   * Made a mistake? Own it immediately.   * Raising prices? Explain why.   * Customers value honesty, even when the truth is hard to hear. 4. Engage meaningfully by creating value.   * Share free resources, Q&As, or tips they can use immediately.   * Celebrate their wins—whether big or small.   * Build community spaces for connection (think LinkedIn groups, Slack, or live events). 5. Go above and beyond with small, thoughtful gestures.   * Send handwritten thank-you notes.   * Offer surprise perks, like early access or exclusive discounts.   * Follow up on personal details they’ve shared with you (yes, remembering their kid’s soccer game matters). 6. Stay consistent.   * Deliver on your promises every time.   * Focus on quality over quantity—customers will forgive a missed update, but not mediocrity.   * Regularly measure satisfaction and make improvements where needed. Building trust isn’t rocket science—but it does take effort. Focus on these six steps, and you won’t just earn trust. You’ll build relationships that last a lifetime. Which of these are you already doing?
 Let me know in the comments I’d love to hear how you earn your customers’ trust. ♻️ Share if you wan to build trust in your market 🔔 Follow Mike Hays for more trust tips.

If you think regular customer updates aren't crucial, think again. Timely communication is the backbone of customer retention. Using automation tools like HubSpot, we ensure every customer feels valued and informed. Here’s what makes it truly effective: 1/ Segment your audience: We use data to segment our customers based on behaviors, preferences, and past interactions, allowing for more targeted communications that truly resonate. 2/ Automated triggers: Our system creates triggers based on customer actions—or inactions. For instance, if a customer hasn't interacted with our emails for a while, we initiate a re-engagement campaign automatically. 3/ Drip campaigns: We've set up drip email campaigns that send messages at just the right times or in response to specific user actions, keeping our communication flow consistent and reducing team workload. 4/ Regular monitoring: Automation isn't a set-it-and-forget-it tool. We continuously monitor and optimize our automated campaigns to improve engagement and conversion rates based on performance analytics. 5/ Feedback mechanisms: We automatically send surveys and feedback forms at different stages of the customer journey, making our customers feel heard and helping us quickly identify and act on areas for improvement. This strategy not only saves time but also enhances the overall customer experience, leading to higher satisfaction and loyalty. #hubspot #customers #engagement #automation

When I was in graduate school I first learned about nonlinear pricing: subscription plans, tiered contracts, bundled offers. Such solutions immediately struck me as an elegant solution to the consumer heterogeneity that we all knew existed. The maestro lets consumers sort and firms extract surplus while buyers land on the contract that's best for them. Clean. Efficient. Optimal. I always wondered, however, what would happen when real consumers haven't had a chance to read the syllabus. I was afforded that glimpse back at Lyft when we conducted a large-scale subscription pricing natural field experiment. We found two inconvenient empirical facts sitting side by side: many high-demand riders declined subscriptions that would have saved them money. Alternatively, some consumers who did subscribe failed to break even. Both groups made systematic errors, just in opposite directions. What's driving these results? We built a structural model that allows for three behavioral culprits: salience failures (consumers don't weight future usage correctly when evaluating a plan), forecast errors (they simply mis-predict how much they'll use the service), and impulsivity (present-biased decisions at the moment of signup). Salience failures and forecast errors turned out to be the quantitatively important ones. The policy punchline: optimal subscription pricing does generate substantial gains over linear pricing — but those gains are highly sensitive to how far consumers deviate from ex-post optimal choice. Which means that designing the right contract is only half the job. The other half is reducing the behavioral frictions that cause consumers to mispick in the first place. Nonlinear pricing isn't just a contract design problem. It's a behavioral intervention problem too. Paper is available here: https://lnkd.in/gaiigtuu Wonderful coauthors Aaron Bodoh-Creed, Brent Hickman, Ian Muir, and Gregory Sun. Lyft Uber Walmart University of Wyoming University of Chicago Anthropic The Australian National University Universidad del CEMA

We built our subscription the wrong way first and that’s exactly how we learned to get it right. When we first launched subscriptions, we made the same mistake most brands do. We just copied our one-off journey, added a small discount, and hoped for the best. It didn’t work the way we thought it would, so we changed the way we thought about subscriptions altogether. The 5 switches that made our subscription finally work. First, we lowered the entry price. We wanted people to try the product easily and stay because they loved it, not because they’d committed too early. Second, we stopped measuring success on first orders. A subscription isn’t about that initial conversion, it’s about what happens over 60 or 90 days. That’s where lifetime value is built. Third, we rebuilt the entire experience, from a dedicated landing page to clearer messaging about what you actually get, how flexible it is, and why it’s worth it. Fourth, we made it effortless to manage. Our old setup created daily headaches for customers who couldn’t log into their accounts. Switching to password-less access changed that overnight. And finally, we planned like operators. With subscriptions, you can predict demand, manage inventory better, and plan cash flow with far more confidence. The result was higher take-rates and stronger 90-day LTV. Most brands add subscription. We rebuilt the journey around how people actually clean - small, regular top-ups that just show up when you need them. Fun fact: our peak purchase time is the morning.

The subscription strategy nobody saw coming! ⬆️ Harry's didn’t scale subscriptions by shooting discounts or locking customers in. Their real advantage was how refreshingly simple they made the entire experience. Most brands treat subscriptions like a billing strategy. Harry’s treated it like a service people should genuinely enjoy. ⛳️ 1️⃣ Delivery timings were flexible. 2️⃣ Cancellations were effortless. 3️⃣ Refills arrived exactly when people needed them. And, 4️⃣ Customers could tweak everything without feeling trapped. This level of customer empowerment created something rare in subscriptions: trust! ⛳️ Because when a brand respects their customers’ preferences, the customers stop guarding themselves against commitment. A strong subscription program isn’t built on urgency timers. It is built on reducing friction at every step so customers feel in control of their own journey. 🎯 Make the refill experience predictable. 🎯 Make making changes easy. 🎯 Make the end to end experience feel like it fits their life instead of interrupting it. That’s how convenience quietly turns into loyalty.

Your subscribers aren't "busy." They're scared of reading. We tell ourselves people don't open emails because they're swamped. Inbox overwhelmed. No time. Too much going on. But here's the truth: They're opening emails. JUST NOT YOURS. Because the second they see a wall of text, their brain screams "work" and they bail. It's not about time. It's about effort. TikTok rewired us. Instagram trained us. We scroll now. We don't read. Zero patience. Zero tolerance for dense paragraphs. So if your email looks like an essay? It's dead before the second line. Here's what works now: 1. Write for the scroll, not the classroom Short sentences. Line breaks. White space everywhere. Make it feel like texting, not reading. 2. Use bold subheads as trail markers Let them skim and still get the point. If they can't extract value in 10 seconds, they won't give you 10 minutes. 3. Pattern breaks every 3-4 lines A question. A one-word sentence. A call-out. Anything that stops the eye from glazing over. 4. Mix content types Story. Lesson. Question. Offer. Variety keeps them engaged. I rewrote a client's email sequence using this approach. Old emails: 400-word blocks. 12% open rate. 0.8% click rate. New emails: Skimmable. Punchy. Lots of white space. Opens jumped to 28%. Clicks to 4.2%. Same list. Same offer. Different format. Your subscribers aren't ignoring you because they're busy. They're ignoring you because you're making them work too hard. Make it easy. Make it fast. Make it skimmable. #EmailMarketing #CopywritingTips #DigitalMarketing LinkedIn LinkedIn Guide to Creating