Offrir de meilleures expériences utilisateur grâce aux analyses et aux guides in-app

Nous pensions que nous n’avions besoin que d’analyses, mais le véritable gain de valeur est venu de la possibilité d’utiliser Pendo pour agir sur ces données. John Thorpe, Chef de produit principal chez TraceGains

The power of data-backed decision making

Today, it’s difficult to pinpoint an industry that doesn’t run on software—and the world of food, beverage, and dietary supplement ingredients is no exception. TraceGains was founded to help companies in this space maintain compliance in their supply chains. It began with a focus on document exchange between suppliers and manufacturers, and has expanded into an enterprise software platform rooted in supplier compliance and new product development.

John Thorpe (principal product manager at TraceGains) and team recently launched a freemium marketplace platform called TraceGains Gather, a global alerting system for businesses’ supply chains that also includes tools to facilitate better collaboration and ingredient discovery. More specifically, the team is working to implement product-led growth strategies for the new platform—which is why they turned to Pendo.

TraceGains first started using Pendo for its analytics capabilities. They wanted to make decisions based on how customers were actually using their product and its key features. “With Pendo, the ability to configure what we’re measuring ourselves and then translate that into our product strategy and prioritization was very useful,” Thorpe explained.

Thorpe also noted that no longer needing to rely on engineering to access these usage insights was a major benefit for the team. In fact, it was Pendo data that helped solidify the company’s decision to launch TraceGains Gather. 

Après avoir implanté Pendo Analytics, l’équipe s’est immédiatement penchée sur sa marketplace interne, qui n’était ouverte qu’aux clients et aux fournisseurs de TraceGains à l’époque. Les données ont montré un fort engagement envers plusieurs fonctionnalités de la marketplace, notamment un niveau élevé de communication entre les partenaires du réseau. Et cet engagement augmentait régulièrement avec le temps. « En continuant à mesurer l’utilisation avec Pendo, nous avons acquis la confiance nécessaire pour lancer ce modèle de croissance axée sur le produit et ouvrir notre réseau et notre marketplace à tout le monde », déclare M. Thorpe Ce marché s’appelle désormais TraceGains Gather.

While utilizing Pendo for product analytics, the TraceGains team realized the opportunity to leverage Pendo’s in-app communication capabilities after seeing guides in the Pendo platform itself. “As we were using Analytics to understand engagement, help define our roadmap, and justify prioritization decisions, we started seeing in-app guides promoting new Pendo features and upcoming webinars, and also started using the Resource Center,” Thorpe explained. “Seeing the guides in action made us say, ‘We want to do that for our customers.’”

Using the Pendo platform to turn data into action

À partir de là, TraceGains a commencé à tirer parti des guides in-app de Pendo et a élargi sa stratégie globale. « C’est à ce moment-là que nous avons commencé à voir la transition d’un cas d’utilisation par l’équipe produit à un cas d’utilisation par presque tous les services de notre entreprise, qui utilisent Pendo pour diverses raisons », déclare M. Thorpe. « Nous pensions que nous n’avions besoin que d’analyses, mais le véritable gain de valeur est venu de la possibilité d’utiliser Pendo pour agir sur ces données. « Du moment où nous avons considéré Pendo comme un outil d’engagement, et pas simplement comme un outil d’analyse, il est devenu évident qu’il nous permettrait de mieux évoluer. » 

M. Thorpe a également souligné l’importance de la segmentation chez Pendo, qui est cruciale pour communiquer efficacement avec son réseau de plus de 55 000 utilisateurs de la marketplace. Il explique : « Nous avions besoin d’un outil qui nous permettrait de communiquer à grande échelle, mais de manière ciblée et avec des ressources limitées de notre côté. »

Emma Karp, chef de produit chez TraceGains Gather, insiste sur la valeur de Pendo alors que l’équipe faisait sa transition vers un modèle de croissance axée sur le produit pour la nouvelle plateforme gratuite. Étant donné que ses ressources étaient limitées, la combinaison de l’analyse produit et des guides in-app a permis à TraceGains de collecter et d’agir sur les données de manière efficace. « Nous avons pu examiner les données, y réagir, puis utiliser les outils de Pendo pour entreprendre certaines de nos initiatives clés. » « Et nous l’avons fait à une échelle qui aurait été impossible sans Pendo », explique Mme Karp.

One of those initiatives was to increase usage of key features in Gather. This started with understanding how users were currently engaging, and if they were utilizing features the TraceGains team knows are valuable. Karp explained, “Using Pendo, we were able to identify that quite a few of our users in one of our target audiences were not engaging with certain features in the way we’d expect them to.”

So, the team ran segmented tests based on job title and created in-app guides driving to different marketplace features. “We were able to create different messaging based on what we thought a user with a particular role was interested in,” said Karp. From there, Karp and team could see how the guides impacted users’ behavior, leveraging reports in Pendo to measure the impact of the targeted messaging.

“We were able to use Pendo throughout the whole process of seeing what users were doing, identifying a page or feature with low engagement, using in-app guides to drive certain behavior, and then using analytics to see whether our efforts were effective,” said Karp.

L’utilisation de l’intégralité de la plateforme Pendo a également permis à TraceGains de créer une meilleure expérience de formation pour ses utilisateurs tout en réduisant la charge de travail de ses équipes de réussite client et d’assistance. Kathleen Kasel, conceptrice d’expériences de formation, explique : « Avec Pendo, nous avons pu réduire le nombre d’interactions directes avec nos utilisateurs, et cela nous a permis de créer une meilleure expérience produit. » Mme Kasel a créé des guides in-app pour aider les nouveaux utilisateurs à naviguer dans le produit, les accompagner dans les tâches clés et les orienter vers des ressources supplémentaires.

As part of the improved learning experience, TraceGains used Pendo to create an in-app product tour for new users—and over 50% have started and completed the tour in its entirety. Kasel also shared that 25% of their seven product walkthroughs have been viewed over 3,000 times. “I think this demonstrates how valuable of a tool Pendo is to really get our users engaged in learning the product on their own, rather than reaching out for help.”

Since implementing in-app guides in addition to analytics, TraceGains has benefited immensely from being able to reach users while they’re already engaged in the product. “One of the things we’ve noticed is that email isn’t the way to communicate with people anymore,” said Karp. “In-app guides give us a direct path to our customers. Combine that with the visibility into what they’re doing, who’s doing it, and for how long, and we get this really full story of our customers—and it’s just so powerful.”

Beyond improving the experience for their users, Pendo has also helped TraceGains improve collaboration across the organization. “It’s really broken down walls, and I think we’ve all been able to work together much more closely,” said Kasel. 

Thorpe noted that the product and customer success teams now have a shared measure of customer health that’s rooted in product engagement data in Pendo. And the sales and marketing teams use Pendo for more targeted upsell outreach to existing users. “Even our finance team uses Pendo In-app Guides as an effective communication tool for billing, because we know customers are more likely to read these types of messages,” he added. “The biggest unexpected benefit of using Pendo is that it’s actually helped break down barriers in our company, because we’re all using the same centralized set of engagement data.”

Pro tips

• Get the most out of Pendo by leveraging product analytics and in-app guides together, for example by using product usage data to determine who to target for an in-app adoption campaign, and then to measure the impact on user behavior
• Customer education doesn’t stop after onboarding—use in-app guides in Pendo to deliver continuous education when and where users need it
• Encourage teams outside of the product organization to use Pendo to communicate with users more effectively and make data-informed decisions