3 ms·
>> A rough advance estimate of retention is the "toothbrush test": do people use it as often as a toothbrush Ugh - I have heard this before - its such an unhel
by duncanawoods 10y ago
>> A rough advance estimate of retention is the "toothbrush test": do people use it as often as a toothbrush
Ugh - I have heard this before - its such an unhelpfully high level that it fails its purpose as target setting advice. Almost nothing is a "twice a day" service. Whether its Uber or Pizza, the vast majority of users do not use them twice a day despite their love and loyalty. For the few businesses that are e.g. FB, Slack etc. its because they are communication oriented rather than task oriented so they are more like monitoring a feed than using a tool.
Sure, its wise to be sceptical about services that are once per life "AirB&B for gravestones" or once per year "Uber for Christmas decorations" but your once per month billing/invoice system is likely to have high retention once you get customers locked in.
- paulsutter 10y agoThe toothbrush test isn't just retention, it's also about sales velocity. A product used monthly tends to have a slower sales velocity than a product used weekly. The pace of the decision cycle is related to frequency of use. For a monthly use product, the moment the customer learns about the product will be an average of 2 weeks from when she needs it. That's two weeks for her mind to get distracted with other things. It's easy for the evaluation to get pushed by one or more intervals, and even once the decision to purchase has been made, there might be a month delay before the close and that's a month in which urgency can fade and a chance for it to get set aside. Note how sales velocity and retention are similar, can you retain customer interest long enough to close a sale? There are successful occasional use products. It's not meant as a threshold or black and white test, its just one factor to consider when choosing which business to start.