How to Communicate Product Changes?

Communicating product or service changes is an important part of customer relationships. Keep in mind, that as in any relationship between people, the business relationship with the customer is also based on trust.

And poor communication can easily break that. Communicating the changes that have come through user feedback makes them feel heard.

Communicating it the right way drives engagement.

Why do you need to communicate?

Reporting a change is beneficial to your business if done right. Human beings naturally do not like change, while a stopped service also pushes them away.

Talking to your audience has to be done in an assertive and inclusive way, so that this change is not sudden for the user and he feels that there is continuity of your product.

Not communicating or doing it wrong

As a tool user, each client will have their own life, with their tasks and little time to get information.

In short, it lives on automatic and has little interest in looking for updates, explorer everything that can be implemented on its platform. Perhaps few will be the users who use the full power of your tool.

Therefore, not communicating updates or not increasing anything over time, makes the consumer see their platform as stagnant, losing interest and wanting to look for more up-to-date alternatives.

This mistake can define the success or failure of your startup, especially if you are in the information industry.

How not communicate product changes?

Email is still widely used by most users, but each email account receives dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of messages a day. Reading them all becomes impossible for most inbox users.

Few actually read and engagement is low. Even the users who most explore the functions, which are few in the community, miss some updates. It's not an easy task to keep updated on everything all the time.

Use a changelog tool like Changelogfy to increase your communication efficiency.

Changelogfy is a newsfeed tool, with an in-App Widget that increments and enhances all your updates with your community. Facilitating access to the news that is coming to your service or product, with several integrated functions!

Internal communication in SaaS: what is the correct method for effective communication?

How to Communicate product Changes?

Making updates as visible as possible, in every way possible, increases the number of users who read the updates.

Don't wait for the user to read an email or to be interested in going after that push notification, place the update on the platform screen in an attractive way so that as soon as you use your service, you'll see what has changed.

Post updated photos, make a tutorial explaining how it works and give examples of situations where this new function makes a real difference, considering your audience and what the real daily demands are.

Insert a CTA, the interaction increases engagement and your interest in learning about new updates.

Be inviting

Invite your users to try the new features, ask them to use, and let them tell what they think of the new feature. From suggestions on how each user could use the tool in different situations.

It attracted attention, involved it as part of the ongoing construction of the service.

Customize by segmentation

Generic messages and updates are easily ignored because of the lack of human characteristics that bring people closer.

Customize these updates to your community's audiences. Younger people use language that is more popular among them.

Adapt to the language of each user group. Communicate in different ways according to the different users you have.

If your business is international and your users don't have language barriers, choose to insert each update in multi-language, with Changelogfy you can put the new updates in several languages.

When the user sees the update, they will have the option for other languages, including their native language, which will have all the information adapted to their region and culture. Improving understanding and facilitating the customer's learning to use each new functionality inserted in the tool.

Show how much you listen to your community

Whenever possible, say in updates that the new feature has been requested by users, and always thank them for contributing to improving everyone's experience.

If you're working on new features, don't wait for them to be ready to announce to users, show them what's in progress, ask them what they think about it, and show time estimates so they know when this update will hit the service.

Use the changelog tool to organize all your work, keep it visible and provide user interaction actions with each update, with a simple like/dislike function for example, or optional comments like a thread.

What are the advantages of having and keeping your changelog always up to date?

Analyze your communication

In the beginning, it is normal not to understand how you actually communicate with the users of your service, each customer is different from the other, and even knowing how to actually communicate takes some time.

Analyzing through user engagement and feedback whether your communication is good, is essential.

Also, take into account the rate of retention and gain of new users, if it is not good that way, try to change a little here or there.

As in the image below, which shows the percentage of happy emojis and how many of your users actually read and interact with the update, this function is also present on Changelogfy.