Rescuing a sinking ship: How customer feedback saved CXL Institute

What do you do when you take a massive gamble on an initiative you think is a sure bet, and then it almost tanks your company?

In today’s episode, Peep, the founder of CXL, one of the most popular conversion optimization blogs on the internet, shares:

How the launch of the CXL Institute training program completely bombed, left the company with only 30 days worth of cash, and got Peep to the point where he was almost ready to pull the plug and let his whole team go.

BUT, he also shares how thanks to his people-first approach, Peep and his team were able to turn things around and start generating a profit.

We talk about the exact steps Peep and his team took to understand the needs of their customers as the ship was going down, including:

• The exact questions they asked when their customers started AND left the course, and how that led them to give away a key part of their course for free
• How they broke down the limited data they had to better understand who was staying in the course, who was leaving, and why
• As well as the fundamental change they made to the course’s format that encouraged a positive change in their customers’ behavior and led to an increase in attendance

So if you’re interested in hearing how one of the top minds in CRO managed to rescue a sinking ship, you’ll definitely want to listen to this episode. 

Topics Discussed in This Episode:

• [00:02:36] How the CXL Institute got started
• [00:05:04] The size of the email list CXL had at the time of the launch of CXL Institute
• [00:05:58] What Peep decided to do when it looked like CXL Institute was about to run out of money
• [00:7:35] The things that Peep learned from the qualitative feedback they got from people who were using or canceling their service
• [00:11:00] How CXL Institute conducted interviews and surveys
• [00:12:53] The types of questions CXL asked in surveys
• [00:14:17] How the surveys helped CXL decide what to stop doing and what to keep doing
• [00:14:54] The process that CXL used for analyzing the data from interviews and surveys
• [00:15:39] How changing the cancellation process helped CXL get necessary feedback
• [00:17:02] The top reasons why people were canceling their CXL Institute service
• [00:18:29] How CXL used churn analysis to help them understand their cancellation data
• [00:24:58] Resources that Peep recommends