CUSTOMER RETENTION
Help Viome customers manage their subscriptions easily
PROJECT SUMMARY
Led the design of a subscription management tool across platforms, simplifying complex workflows while navigating design and tech debt.
My Role
With PM, Customer Support Director, Marketing Designer, and Engineering Team.
Collaboration
2022 – 2024
Timeline
Subscription renewal increased by 2.24x and software costs reduced by $100K annually.
Impact
COMPANY OVERVIEW
Viome Life Sciences is a series-D company providing test-based health insights and personalized supplements.
Health Insights
At-home microbiome tests using stool, blood, and saliva samples to generate health and nutrition insights.
Supplements
Viome also sells subscription-based personalized supplements tailored to individual’s nutrition recommendations.
Customers didn’t have control over their supplements subscriptions, and therefore they canceled their subscriptions.
CUSTOMER PROBLEM
2022 H2 Total Customer Contacts (~33,500)
Before Version
Limited Features with External Tool
Pause subscription is actually a 30-day delay to billing. However, the page has overwhelming information that customers might miss this information easily.
Easy to Miss Key Information
Viome previously used a third-party tool that allowed customers to only pause their subscription. They couldn’t change their plan, address, billings, etc.
I worked with the Customer Support team to understand why customers canceled their subscriptions.
GATHER CONTEXT
01
Customers got their monthly supplement orders too frequently within the first two months of their subscriptions.
Inaccurate delivery timing
02
Unexpected billing
Customers didn’t expect they would get billed again after pausing their subscriptions.
Design & Tech Debt
CONSTRAINTS
The Viome mobile and web apps were outdated, with a very old look and feel. It had been challenging to create designs and implement design patterns that meet current, up-to-date standards.
The current subscription experience depends on a third-party tool, which offers limited technical flexibility. At the time, there were no in-house engineering resources available to build a custom subscription tool. The outsourced engineering team lacked the necessary expertise.
Clicking “Manage Subscription” directs to an external page.
EXISTING UX AUDIT
Pause subscription is a 30-day extension.
EXISTING UX AUDIT
Simplified the UX writing and set clear expectation for customers.
QUICK SOLUTION
“What’s the easiest solution? We need it quickly.” I provided a quick solution. However, this did not address the root problem.
How did I eliminate tech and design debt?
HANDLING CONSTRAINTS
With my PM’s support, we advocated for creating a custom subscription management tool to enhance flexibility. Our goal was to empower customers with features like viewing upcoming orders and pausing subscriptions. Building our own tool was critical for a better user experience.
Advocating for a Custom Subscription Tool
Around the same time, I contributed to an app revamp by helping develop a new design system. With the updated UI look and feel, I designed the subscription management experience to align seamlessly with this system.
Built a Design System
THE ART OF PERSUASION
Getting leadership to allocate engineering resources
DESIGN PROPOSAL
How can we make it easy for customers to handle their supplement subscriptions and deliveries?
DESIGN OPTION 1
Reframe “pause subscription” to “skip next order”.
MY TWO CENTS
The pros and the cons
Least Effort
This solution requires the least number of clicks to achieve the goal.
More Transparency
Show exactly when they are going to get billed (Next Order Date).
Con
It doesn’t collect feedback on why customers skip orders.
DESIGN OPTION 2
Allow customers to pause subscriptions for longer and choose dates to resume.
MY TWO CENTS
The pros and the cons
Collect Feedback
Customers feedback informs us to build a better product.
More Flexibility
Let customers delay their next order by 1–5 weeks, as some ran out of supplements after a 30-day pause.
More Effort to Set Resume Date
Since the supplements are packaged for one pack a day, customers must calculate their remaining supply in days.
DESIGN OPTION 3
Allow customers to pause subscriptions for up to 3 months and choose next delivery date.
MY TWO CENTS
The pros and the cons
Ensure Enough Remainng Supply
The supplements are packaged for one pack a day, so customers can calculate their remaining supply and get the next order delivered in time.
Most Flexibility
Customers can select nearly any date within the next three months for their next delivery—ideal for travelers.
More Effort to Make a Decision
They need to count how many packs of supplements left in the box and choose the next delivery date.
FINAL DESIGN
Let customers easily skip their next order or pause their subscription until a date they choose.
Of course, this was informed by customer feedback.
Skip next order and pause subscription are essentially changing the next order date. Instead of having two separate links under “Manage Subscription”,
More Simple UX Writing
Allow customers to easily and quickly skip or pause their subscription until a later date that is more convenient for them. This feature enhances the user experience by providing flexibility and control, making it easier to manage their time and preferences.
Choose Skip or Pause
BUSINESS IMPACT
Subscription renewal increased by 2.24x. Viome raised $86.5M for series C at the time (now reached series D).
01
In 2022, Viome had 4,038 supplement subscribers. Now increased to 9,064 and avg monthly revenue ~$1.3M.
Increased subscription renewal
02
Reduced annual software cost by building our own subscription experience in app.
Reduced software cost $100K
03
Viome funding round went from B to D. Just launched oral health products recently.