This got me thinking the other day as I have been using a walking app for years as a way to track my steps and as well you can convert them for things like rewards such as gift cards or items like an iPhone. You have to walk a ton to get anything decent and it’s in no way better than a job of course. But, it’s fun too. However, recently the app had a glitch where it didn’t seem to properly register my walking streak and so I lost a fun record. I contacted the company about it as I did read others had an issue that was similar where.
The thing was, the app apparently has a feature where if people actually missed their goal that resulted in a streak ending, they can actually pay real money to continue it. I wouldn’t do that and on top of the fact I did reach my usual goals. The response at first was disappointing as the agent essentially told me there is nothing they can do on their end and if I missed a day I can just use the features in the app to restart it. Hence, pay money.
That was a terrible response considering I had all the proof to show I did meet the goals where even the app says so but for some reason it didn’t register. So with that, I replied by saying I can provide them all the details they need and they can check internally as well. I also made a point on how I was a long-time user and was also a premium user. Hence, a nice way of saying I will likely not pay for their service anymore if they are just brushing me off for this.
I got no answer and so I did have the mentality of just not renewing. But as it turned out, for some reason it was fixed after. I can only assume they did something on their end such a maybe they manually “paid” for that function on my account to just restart the streak. But I think this is a good example too on how if you have longtime customers, you should always try your best to really understand what the issue is and if there is anything you can do to help within reason. Because even as a business these people should be steady income. To lose them because you are not willing to address like say a $2 issue is kind of crazy.