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When is the ideal time to force a user to register?
Curious to hear what the community feels is 'best practice' these days when it comes to forcing a user to register.
For some tools, you can almost use them end-to-end without ever handing over an email address, whilst others can feel like you need to provide a birth certificate and passport photo to validate that you are in-fact you before you can even start.
Naturally both have their pros and cons, but curious to hear what approaches are working (or not working) for them and where they feel the market is expecting these days?
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Samantha Harris
I think all users prefer to be able to 'test out' a product as much as possible before they hand over any details to see where it is really something they want to continue using, however on Product's where I've implemented this approach I've had poorer activation and engagement metrics for those users than the ones I've forced to go through a simple registration flow.
Other departments I've worked with as well, like Marketing, Growth, etc weren't happy with us knowing less about our users for longer either when we tested this out.
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Thanks for sharing those insights @samantha_harris_. I have to admit I'm a bit surprised by the results you saw. I assume they were against the who user base engaging with the product and not just those who did eventually register?
@stevenbirchall we saw it in both cohorts.
Our theory, which eventually proved true, was by the time the users registered (and we could effectively message them), a number had already achieved their immediate goal and were one foot out the door.
By forcing users to register earlier, we were able to educate users better on all the use cases that could be performed in the product (both in and out of app), which did lead to better results.
I guess when you know that your product is helping users in the best possible way and its hard to find a substitute for it.
I can help you market your SaaS by writing a detailed review of your product on my blog.
@software_guy thanks for the offer. Would love for you to review Vouch if you have time. Always after feedback.
@stevenbirchall I request you to email me the product name as subject to thesoftwareguy1994 at gmail dot com for better communication.
You should never force the user to register. You should allow the user to use your product with limited functionality if he wants to. This way, if the user would like to access the full features of your product, she/he would like to get registered. The registration page should have a very clear call to action and make it clear that you value the user's time and hence you're not trying to sell them something.
Ideally, you would have a really good reason to force your visitors to register. If you are not sure that you can do that, then you should never force your visitors to register. You know what they say, if you give someone an inch, he will take a yard. So it is better to be legitimate because you would have to make sure that you are not doing anything illegal. If you are not sure, you can always try A/B testing.
It narrows down to your approach to the customer and what you want from them. Giving them freedom to explore products is a benefit that customers value so long as they have space to roam, but if you provided evidence of why you are better than the competition and they don't choose you, it's because they don't have skin in the game and well ultimately there is nothing at stake for them.