Customer lifetime value | Anthrobytes Consulting

Good product instructions add to the customer lifetime value

Good product instructions support your customers as they use your products. Good product instructions add to the lifetime dollar value of your customers and increase customer loyalty.

Useful product instructions that meet the needs of your customers make your customers feel that you care about them and their ability to use your products. In a recent poll, about 50% would not purchase more products from a company who delivered poor product instructions.

That's about half your customers.

The probability of selling to an existing customer is 60 – 70%. The probability of selling to a new prospect is 5-20% — Marketing Metrics

Poor product instructions also increase return rates

Poor instructions lead to a high return rate. For example, a client had a high double-digit return rate for a consumer product. When customers were asked why they returned the device, they said they couldn’t figure out how to use it. After analyzing and improving the existing product instructions, making the instructions task-based and user-focused, the return rate dropped into the single digits.

In a Dec 2011 research report, Accenture found that product returns have increased 21% and 68% of returned products are No Trouble Found (NTF) since 2007. In another recent poll, about 66% of the respondents say product instructions sometimes make sense, meaning that one in three people don’t understand product instructions.