13. What the Netflix Model can teach us about customer experience and retention

EPISODE 13 OF WHAT WOULD THEY DO? THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE PODCAST FOR SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS

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In this episode, I answer a timely question I’ve been exploring recently during my membership relaunch:  “How does the Netflix model apply to online businesses, especially in content delivery, retention, and long-term loyalty?”

Drawing inspiration from Netflix’s mind-blowing roughly 98% retention rate, I unpack how you can borrow the streaming giant’s most effective strategies and apply them to your courses, memberships, or digital products without fancy corporate-level tech!

We cover everything from seamless onboarding and personalization to binge-worthy content and an ongoing evolution so you walk away with practical tips you can implement this week to keep your customers hooked and coming back for more.

What we cover:

What Makes the Netflix Model So Effective – From frictionless onboarding to data-driven personalization and emotional loyalty.

How to Apply Netflix Strategies to Your Online Business – Practical ways to design and evolve your content delivery and customer experience.

Creating a Frictionless First Impression – Why quick wins and intuitive navigation are key to customer retention.

Personalizing the Journey at Scale – Using tags, segments, and conditional content to customize the customer experience.

Delivering Consistent Value Without Overwhelm – Structuring your content and features to encourage steady engagement and loyalty.

Soundbites:

“Your offers are never set in concrete and Netflix does this so well as well to evolve the content, to evolve their customer experience based on what you’re telling them. So you need to do the same for your online business and really track what people are consuming. So the resources they love, the resources that usually fall flat, you can pay attention to, you know, which links they click, which emails they open and absolutely don’t be afraid to retire what’s not landing like I did with my copy confidence collective and double down on what your gut and your customers are telling you because it is getting them what they need, it is going to get them much more engaged and it is going to get their buy in long term because you genuinely care and want to make their lives easier.“

“Make it easy to get started as soon as someone purchases from you, whether that’s joining a membership, signing up for a course, they are super excited. They want to get started right away. Clunky processes really are a downer. So we need to make sure that our first impressions are flawless and we keep the customer in mind as soon as they sign up. Right? So that includes providing their login details in an easy to find format linking straight to their course portal. Sending comprehensive welcome emails. So not just a, here you are, good luck email. Really thinking about how you can support them to engage with those features.”

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Episode Transcript:

Hello, hello and welcome back to another episode of What Would They Do? Today we are being a bit sneaky here. I’m actually going to answer a question that I’ve asked myself as part of my membership revamp, the Retention Lab over the past few months. The question is, how can we apply the Netflix model to online business and

How does the Netflix model apply to online businesses, especially when it comes to content delivery, Retention strategies and long-term customer loyalty? See, as a long-term Netflix subscriber, yes, I have been with Netflix for a few years. I’ve tried other things, Disney +, you know, other services that are out there, but I have to say for whatever reason, while I cancel other services, Netflix,

has me hooked. For some reason I stay subscribed and it’s my go-to platform whenever it is Saturday night, the kids are in bed early and I can actually watch what I want to watch. So yeah as a long-term subscriber I absolutely know that there’s something magical to the way Netflix approaches not only delivering their content but also looking after

their audience and making that content consumption super super easy. And ultimately how I would describe it is that Netflix really has set the gold standard for content delivery and subscriber Retention. So I did bit of googling

And it actually blew my mind. in 2024, Netflix crossed the 300 million subscriber mark while having a churn rate of around 2%. That depends on which region you’re in. That means 98 out of 100 subscribers stay subscribed and are loyal to Netflix, which is incredible.

The key to that success not only the subscriber numbers but also the loyalty and the amount of customers that stick around is really not about providing binge-worthy experiences. It is about creating anticipation, personalizing the experience and really doing everything possible to have you stick around, right? To hook you and to want more of this

easy to consume experience. So in today’s episode, I’m giving you some practical ways how you and I can apply the Netflix approach to your membership, your online courses, your digital product experiences in a way that boosts your customer experience and your customer Retention. Because we all know the longer your customers hang around, the longer they buy from you, the more is it going to boost your bottom line.

So let’s start with a quick look at what actually makes the Netflix model so effective. There are a few things, but really the call-outs here when it comes to a customer Retention and customer experience level perspective is ⁓ everything really starts with a frictionless onboarding experience. It’s super easy to sign up and you can start watching in a matter of seconds. It’s a matter of providing your payment details and off you go, right?

As soon as you’ve signed up and you start engaging with their content, everything via their own little AI algorithm becomes personalized. Right. So you don’t have to go through thousands and thousands of options. As soon as you start consuming content and searching their libraries, Netflix becomes, gets to know you intimately and really develops a really clear picture of the type of content you like.

the preferences and the type of content to serve you. And as a family of five, you know, all my kids have their own profiles. And if you play around in your account, if you also have kids, you’ll see that the content my husband gets delivered is very different to the content that I watch. know, Emily in Paris wouldn’t pop up in my husband’s ⁓ profile because it’s simply not something he’s interested in. ⁓

Netflix really also gives you huge content variety. There’s something for everyone. And as I said before, you know, once you’ve made your preferences clear, Netflix simply facilitates the process and makes it super easy for you to quickly find more of the things you enjoy. When it comes to keeping you around and, you know, keeping you subscribed, it all comes down to data. So Netflix is

awesome at tracking what you watch, at looking at your search behavior, the things you ⁓ know, consume, whether it’s TV shows, whether you’re more a movie kind of person, whether you binge watch seasons in one go, it really just develops your profile based on the data they’re gathering on you. And that ultimately develops emotional loyalty. So

You know, the ease of using Netflix combined with the feeling that comes from watching a Netflix show on a Saturday night, you know, with hubby on the sofa, it really helps you associate Netflix not only with ease, but also with relaxation, with enjoyment, with a level of comfort. And Netflix so well combines those two sentiments, you the level of ease.

with the level of comfort and it just gives you what you want in an easy to consume manner. And people like myself and possibly you, they stay with Netflix, not because, you know, we’re locked in. There’s a month to month plan that I’m on, so I could easily cancel anytime, but I stay with them because it feels worth it. I just love the convenience of being able to watch anything.

that I would like quality content whenever I feel like it without having to spend hours selecting things on a Saturday night. So now that we’ve looked at Netflix, what they do well, their little secret formula, we are going to have a look at how you and I can apply those same principles to our courses, our memberships, our digital products. Obviously, you know, they’re a huge corporation, so they’re looking at tools.

that are somewhat more elevated than what you and I have on offer but you can apply those same principles to your courses and your online business. It really comes down to ⁓ being conscious of those principles and integrating them in your offer design, in the way you market, in the way you sell and in the way you deliver your content inside those programs. First of all ⁓ make it easy

to get started. as soon as someone purchases from you, whether that’s joining a membership, signing up for a course, they are super excited. They want to get started right away. So clunky processes really are a downer as soon as you sign up. So we need to make sure that our first impressions are flawless and we keep the customer in mind as soon as they sign up. Right? So that includes, you know, providing their login details.

in an easy to find format linking straight to their course portal. Sending comprehensive welcome emails. So not just a, here you are, know, good luck. Really thinking about how you can support them to engage with those features. So if you have a welcome call, any two book, why not include the booking link in the email rather than having them log into the portal and track down the link?

those vital things really should be in that welcome sequence to get them going straight away and give them those quick wins and successes right away. You can also invite them to a platform tour. While your membership portal or your course portal makes total sense to you because you designed it, your customers likely find it a bit harder to find what they need. So why not start with a welcome video,

Give them a quick tour, show them how to find the features to make it super easy and also reduce those customer support calls from your customers. And generally really consider your content and the features of your course or membership from a customer perspective. How can you make it easy when it comes to the format, to the consumption and really making it easy to see successes from that. Looking at my own membership here, Retention Lab, how I have

incorporated this principle is I have a welcome video in the membership portal to talk people through the tier that they’re in. So my membership has two tiers. One is more self-guided, one is high touch and gets my one on one support. So each of those tiers has a different welcome video that talks people through where they find things, how they work, what they need to know and what I recommend starting with right now.

I also send separate welcome emails to those tiers. So Starter members receive an email with everything they need to know and all the relevant links in the footer to make it super easy for them to log in while the incubator level receives quick links to all the things they need, like booking their welcome call, their onboarding call.

submitting ⁓ their first critique request and things like that. So it really sets the expectation and the tone for what’s to come and it helps people get started within minutes of joining and handing over their hard cash. Then once you’ve welcomed them and onboarded them it’s really about personalizing their journey. So Netflix does this so well with recommended next steps right. So they’ve got the top 10 lists

for top 10 series, top 10 movie, just to give you an idea and potentially even get you to explore different formats and different genres that you might not have considered before. ⁓ It also gives you, you know, you may also like suggestions based on your watch behavior and that’s all algorithm based ⁓ on your searches, on your consumption. We explored it before, you know what I’m talking about. So in your online business, you can do the same.

you can tailor your content that you deliver based on behavior triggers, on tags, on segments, and you really can customize the journey without too much ⁓ effort and too many headaches. So could be conditional content in emails, again, tailored to the tier that they’re in, for example. So everything is bespoke to their tier rather than just a generic

membership email as I do for Retention Lab. So what I’ve also done in my membership, so I’ve just launched my membership ⁓ middle of May, so literally now, and anyone who joins before the 30th of May receives a founding member badge for the lifetime of their membership. So for as long as they stay inside and

In the header of my email, I have conditional content. So anything who joins before the 30th of March has a header that clearly highlights the founding member bench to make people feel special and remind them that, yes, you’ve been around from the start. You’re one of the OGs. Anyone who joins after the 30th of May is going to see the stock standard banner. So that means as long as they’re inside the membership, they are going to feel treasured and valued.

How I do that is simply by applying a tag to anyone who joins before the 30th of May inside my email platform. And then based on that tag, I display the different banners. You can also, if you wanted to personalize the journey when it comes to, you know, their course experience, once someone completes, for example, module one, you can give them little prompts, little progress prompts to help them.

settle into module two, for example, or to prompt them that if they’ve already done X, module three might be the next logical step. So really anticipating again the best journey through your course content or membership content. Another great option is a quiz. So you could have an onboarding quiz where people can tell you a little bit about themselves and why they bought the course, what they’re hoping to achieve. And based on that feedback, you can then ⁓

them to bespoke tracks or pathways that give them suggestions when it comes to, you know, which content to do first, which live sessions to attend. And again, just keeping in mind how you can make it easy for those members to work their way through all the content inside the course or the membership they’ve just joined. ⁓ Next up we have here, delivering consistent value. So as

for Netflix, Netflix has thousands and thousands of videos and content and you know, things you can watch and consume, but it doesn’t, you know, just dump it on you. So it, it really helps you to go through that content without overwhelm. And you can apply that to your membership or course portal as well by having a search function, for example. So how can you turn your content library of

videos, lessons into a searchable tool where you can, example, look for marketing topics, for visibility topics, for Retention topics, whatever your topic is, but make it easy for people to sift through and find all the resources linked to that. You could also have a monthly theme where every month you’re working on one specific topic inside your membership.

Again, to keep people on track, to have them engage with your content ⁓ in a structured way. And again, to keep delivering value and to remind them why it’s important for them to stay inside your course or membership. Next up, really keeping things fresh. Right. So Netflix, as we said, has thousands and thousands of things for you to watch, but they constantly add new content and retire.

old content to keep things fresh, but they don’t do that by guessing, right? They know what their viewers like and they give them more content of, you know, along the lines of what they already like and what they’re already watching. And you can do the same inside your business. So that could be, you know, talking to your customers, finding out what’s missing from your course or what else they would like to know, and then adding

exclusive bonuses to the membership or to the course to really address those in our fresh interests or aligned interests that could get them quicker results. You could also offer live Q &A sessions or guest expert sessions to enhance those results and touch on aligned topics, which is what I’m doing inside Retention Lab ⁓ every month.

or you could even have seasons or themes that you’re releasing the content in. So for the next three months, you could ⁓ work on list growth, for example, the three months after you’re working on ⁓ sales tactics. So really having themed implementation rounds can get your audience to take action, to stay engaged because you know, the next three months are gonna be exciting.

and get those wins. ⁓ Another clever strategy is ⁓ sort of in line with those seasons or the series where you can even create binge worthy experiences. So we all know Netflix shows like I’m Guilty where I’ve stayed up till 2am on a Saturday night because there was an eight part series and I just could not stop watching right. So you can do the same in your membership or in your course and

⁓ If you design it in a way that people simply can’t get ⁓ enough of it and people can’t stop consuming, then you have them hooked, right? And they want more and more more. So that again can happen by our pathways, via checklists. So potentially again, as a follow-up from the quiz, the onboarding quiz, you could give people a checklist of things they should complete.

and work their way through your content. You could also have podcast playlists, for example. So if you have a private podcast as part of your course, you could have curated playlists so people can listen to anything relating to sales, anything relating to list growth, anything relating to Retention, whatever that looks like. But it just helps you create opportunities and moments for people to keep going.

and hopefully get so excited that they share about this opportunity with their friends. How do get people into this whole experience and into your course? Particularly for memberships, is important here. So Netflix does this so well where they give you a low cost or even free trial depending on whether you’ve been subscribed before or not. But a limited time risk free trial.

where you can check out all the features, hopefully fall in love with their system, with their approach, with their super easy customer experience. ⁓ And then hopefully you’re sticking around. ⁓ You can do the same for your membership if you don’t want to give free trials because usually churn rates or cancellation rates for free trials are much higher than ⁓ paid trials and paid memberships.

You can also just give a free sample of potentially, you know, one resource in your membership for a number of days and encourage them to stick around if they want access to all the things waiting inside. So there are different options of doing this, but really reversing the risk and showing people that you can sample things without signing up for a year is a huge, huge opportunity to grow your membership and also ⁓

people with your onboarding experience with all the things that we just talked about that easy to navigate experience, the value that you deliver, the level of personalization waiting for them inside and the level of support via pathways, checklists. If you can show those trial members that you genuinely care and there is support for them to get them the results.

much more likely to sign up for a paid membership and for a paid plan. And generally shouldn’t come as a surprise coming from me a data nerd is really make sure that you pay attention to how your customers are engaging with your offer and your you know your experience inside. So let the data guide your offers

your offer creation, but also the evolution, which is what happened in my case. ⁓ My membership, the copy.confidence collective was working. You know, I had members and they kept showing up, but I read between the lines, had conversations with my members and I could deliver much more value in this new format that is Retention lab via two tiers, via ongoing boxer support for the incubator level.

So your offers are never set in concrete and Netflix does this so well as well to evolve the content, to evolve their customer experience based on what you’re telling them. So you need to do the same for your online business and really track what people are consuming. So the resources they love, the resources that usually fall flat, you can pay attention to, you know, which clicks, links they click, which emails they open and absolutely

Don’t be afraid to retire what’s not landing like I did with my copy confidence collective and double down on what your gut and your customers are telling you because it is getting them what they need. It is going to get them much more engaged and it is going to get their buy in long term because you genuinely care and want to make their lives easier. So before we wrap up.

As per usual, I’ve got some reflective questions to help you get started and take action from this episode. So what I would love you to ask yourself to work out, you know, how you can incorporate the Netflix model into your online business is, is your onboarding experience quick and easy, or are you getting your customers jumping through a million hoops to get started?

Are you sending the same content and the same resources and the same information to anyone who signs up or are you making conscious efforts to get to know them and to tailor their journey through your course or through your membership to their needs? Third question, what could you release in Netflix speak, right? This month that could deliver

unexpected value could spark intrigue and can increase loyalty. So to get people to stick around for another month or year depending on their plan. And final question here is what is one small tweak that you could make to your offer to make it more binge worthy? Can you add an audio playlist, a video playlist, a checklist, a curated pathway based on where your customer is at?

How can you hook them and draw them in like Netflix does so well? So my challenge for you today before we wrap up is pick one Netflix inspired opportunity and see how you can make it happen in your course or membership or digital product this week. If

You would like me to answer your burning customer experience or customer Retention question on the podcast. You can submit your question via the link in the show notes. You can do that anonymously or add your name and I’ll give you a shout out on the episode. And if you enjoyed today’s episode, then I would love you to subscribe, leave a review and share it with anyone who you think might be interested. Thanks so much for tuning in and I’ll see you next