How not to mess up retention: an operational guide for startups and scale-ups in North America

Retention is a collective responsibility and should be addressed in that manner. A siloed approach to retention usually leads to short-term success with an impact on long-term sustainability. Eventually, leadership and the operational teams move on to the next role, leaving behind a mess for the next in charge to deal with.

Short-term and siloed solutions often focus on offer management, promotions and communications. This leads to a dead end where you have reached out for the low-hanging fruits and now repeat the process hoping they will work. Yes, you could get lucky, but the database dries up and eventually you are left with no option but to compromise with bonus budgets and margins.

Startups and scale-ups need to build a full-stack approach to retention that realistically acknowledges and accounts for the contributing factors. A few things to watch out for and avoid are listed below.

Deploying CRM and player segmentation platforms without practical considerations

Let’s call it running before walking and, in some cases, walking before knowing where to go. You have just come off a demo of a CRM segmentation and modelling tool which promises to automate your retention and lifecycle marketing. And six months down the line, after integration, your team has almost the same amount of overhead. CSVs are still uploaded and uplifts in KPIs are either missing or unproven because the groundwork needed to integrate offer management, communication channels and reporting was missed. You are left with a fancy segmentation and predictive model, sitting in a half-baked reporting environment. And now, the operational budget is way higher to do it in the right manner.

Technology debt is not reduced

Some big names have fallen foul of this common error that leads to structural and chronic problems around customer experience. Symptoms are regular or degraded service levels, downtimes and post-release issues. Whether it is CMS, rewards engines, player back-office or data warehouse, please pay attention to your technology lead’s advice and balance the requirements of new features versus the stability of your platforms.

Ignoring acquisition mix and post-campaign readiness

Competing at the lower end of the funnel of demand capture is a good starting point for startups. And for some other brands, this may be the only choice, especially those working in grey markets. The challenge is acknowledging that this approach will eventually mean higher costs, lower retention rates and value.

In regulated markets, operators have launched large-scale acquisition activities without planning for follow-ups from the retention and product marketing side. And this leads to the age-old conversation with retention leads: “We have a huge database from a TV campaign we did a year ago; it needs to be reactivated. Can you do it?” The reality is that once the wave passes, there is almost nothing you can do about it, at least not without spending additional amounts.

Poor customer experience around gameplay, payments and KYC

Has your deposit success rate and withdrawal or KYC user journey been audited and accounted for in your commercial targets? Odd days when things don’t work are understandable but when this is a consistent issue, expecting an offer to bring back customers who were not able to deposit successfully is just addressing the symptom and not the problem itself.

You may have 5,000 games and probably the best odds, but if the customer experience in placing bets is not optimal, you will probably waste your acquisition budget; fix it before you spend. Even if you can entice some depositing customers, breakeven might be your best outcome and, in most circumstances, will mess with your actual player value potential predictions.

Bhopendra Rathore is a full-stack gaming professional with more than a decade of experience across gaming and betting verticals. He currently works as product marketing and CRM director at No BS Bets Consulting.