The Loyalty and Habit Design Kit

A habit is behaviour that has stopped requiring a decision. Loyalty is a decision that keeps coming out the same way. They look identical in the sales figures and they break for completely different reasons, and most retention work is aimed at the more expensive of the two.

The kit covers the four-part loop that repeat behaviour needs, and the part almost every struggling product is missing: investment, where the user puts something in that makes the next visit better. Without it the loop is a treadmill and a competitor with a slightly better reward takes the customer at no cost.

Also inside: why points programmes usually buy discounts rather than loyalty and what works instead; streaks, including the signs one has turned from motivating into holding somebody hostage; the first seven days, where churn is actually decided; win-back segmented into three groups that need three different approaches; and how to design an exit that keeps people.

What it is not: a benchmark document. Retention numbers are wildly category-dependent and a figure from another sector is worse than none. The legal position on cancellation and auto-renewal is also moving quickly and differs by market, which the document says rather than pretending otherwise.

8 pages, A4, formatted for printing. Delivered as a PDF immediately after payment.