A couple days ago, I revealed some weird ways you get in your own way. I’d like to add the real world cost of this getting in your own problem with an example:
Mayhap you remember my client who is completely upending his backend fulfillment side of his business, and how this also meant a brand-new website. (You may also remember how every single link has changed too and this requires me to go through hundreds of emails and update links.)
Well, the project has had more setbacks than I imagined. And I remember a couple years back, the updated website launch went so disastrous that we had to completely abandon the project, revert back to our old website, and get a refund.
Annnnnnnd this one might be worse…
The website actually works this time, so people can still buy our products.
But for some unknown reason, the Klaviyo pop-up form won’t load on the new site. And so, there’s no telling how many visitors we’re failing to turn into leads because the pop-up form is disabled.
Worst part?
This is hardly my biggest concern!
When I plopped down at my desk this morning and checked my email, I got an ominous warning from Klaviyo:
There is a potential issue with one of your flows, the subject line read.
I opened the email, and guess which three forms aren’t working. I’ll give you a hint, they’re mayhap the most important flows:
* Abandoned Cart
* Post-purchase (for a specific product that has been purchased recently)
* Customer winback
(Okay, maybe that last one isn’t the most important.)
If you’re familiar with Klaviyo, then you probably already know what’s wrong here…
If not, lemme break it down for you:
Each of these flows are triggered by an important buying action:
The abandoned cart triggers when someone starts checkout, but doesn’t finish.
The post-purchase for a specific product triggers when the specific product is purchased.
The customer winback triggers X days after a purchase with no repeat purchase.
These are event-based marketing automations that haven’t worked in a week!
Worst part?
This is hardly my biggest concern!
While the email softened the blow, the problem is much hairier than the Klaviyo warning email states. Because it’s not just these three flows that aren’t working, but…
Every
Single
Flow
Is
Broken!
Every single one.
No flows are working. We have 51 active flows. And besides a few exceptions, none of them are working.
So, just how much revenue has this stolen from my client?
Well, our flows generate anywhere between $30k on the low end and about $60k on the high end, each and every month. So, on the low end, we’ve lost $5-7k in a few days. On the higher end, we’ve lost $10-$14k in less than a week!
(It’s been five days, so not even a full week yet.)
So, what happened?
Here’s the deathblow:
I know exactly what happened—and I can’t fix it.
My client switched backend systems from WooCommerce to Odoo. Now, Odoo doesn’t have a Klaviyo integration like WooCommerce does, and so it requires a custom API solution to get the two softwares to “talk” to each other.
Without this integration, we can’t use crucial metrics like “Placed Order,” “Ordered Product,” “Fulfilled Order,” etc. You know… metrics that are based on crucial actions our customers take that make a bunch of the “behind-the-scenes” automations that improve the general experience, increase customer loyalty, and drive consumption of the products they just purchased are rendered useless.
And it’s completely out of my control. I don’t know why the developer turned off the Odoo integration. I just know that he did (and I’m assuming he has a reason).
And yeah, we’re just completely stagnant right now because of this change. Not only losing current revenue and loyalty and wrecking the customer experience, but also losing future revenue and loyalty to boot.
Mo money mo problems, right?
Anyway, I got a day full of headaches ahead. If you’d like to turn my headaches into your personal gain, hit reply, and let’s chat about bidness.
John
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