EPISODE 54 OF WHAT WOULD THEY DO? THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE PODCAST FOR SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS
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In today’s episode, I take you on a behind-the-scenes tour of one of the most effective membership experiments I’ve ever run inside Retention Lab: the CX Escape Room Challenge.
What started as a 3-day “part challenge, part game” experience quickly turned into a powerful retention engine that increased engagement, brought in new members, and helped existing members finally take action and get quick wins.
If you’ve ever felt like your membership (or online business) needs more content to keep people around… this episode will completely flip that belief on its head.
Because the truth is:
people don’t leave because you didn’t post enough. They leave because they didn’t get results.
This episode is packed with insights on momentum, gamification, micro-commitments, and how to create experiences that feel personal, even when they’re automated behind the scenes.
What we cover:
The thinking behind my CX Escape Room Challenge
How the Escape Room created instant momentum and quick wins in my membership
Why the challenge worked so well even though it was mostly automated
How I turned quiet members into active participants overnight
What didn’t work & the lessons learned
Soundbites:
“Focusing on quick wins really puts people in touch with that transformation and with the possibilities on the other side of taking that action. And the bonuses and the prizes that people could scored were designed in a way that would make them even more powerful.”
“Retention doesn’t come from more information. It’s about intentional interactions and the fastest way to build loyalty inside your business, inside your membership is giving people an experience that they can participate in. And that’s exactly what the CX Escape Room challenge was. It was an exciting opportunity for members to connect, for members to share their wins, and for members to take action on something that they had the best intention on.”
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Episode Transcript:
Nadine Nethery (00:01)
Hello, hello and welcome back to the podcast. Today I am diving into a really juicy case study because in December last year I ran a three-day experiment if you want to call it that. That was part challenge, part game and it worked far better than I expected. It increased the engagement in my membership saw a whole bunch of new members
join and also created a retention effect I was hoping for, but totally of course didn’t know whether I could pull it off. So the ripple effect of this experiment has lasted until today and I’m super excited about. So why did I run this experiment? Right? Most memberships or even online businesses, so course creators, online coaches rely on more
content in their business to make sales and boost retention. But we all know that customers don’t leave because you you didn’t post enough and there wasn’t enough content in your membership. Your customers cancel and don’t buy from you because what you have provided them with didn’t get them results and quick wins.
My state of the customer report has clearly shown that people are time poor. They are there for quick wins, quick takeaways and real impact right there and then. So retention doesn’t come from quick tips, how to’s, the five steps to X, Y, Z. Retention comes from momentum.
So the experiment I created was all about momentum and giving people quick wins instantly. So that is where the CX Escape Room enters the picture. It was a three-day live experience in inverted commons because the only real live component was a live kickoff call.
The rest was all automated on the backend, but felt totally bespoke, totally in the moment and totally personal. Right? So there were three rooms people could unlock. Each room had a different purpose and delivered a different quick win. And every room people unlocked also came with a reward. So quick dopamine hit there, right? You take action and you are rewarded. And
Participants unlocked progress and wins via taking bite-sized actions. And the whole experience was built around customer journey triggers that helped them grow their list, make their first sale, and also encourage long-term loyalty. So those repeat purchases.
And it wasn’t a challenge as you know it, where you get daily videos, you have a daily live session, you know, you need to spend 90 minutes of your time watching something before you can even get stuck into the action. This challenge was designed to give you long-term transformation. If you participate, bite-sized daily actions, no time-wasting fluff. and it worked a treat So what
happened during this three day experience is that people who had been quiet in the membership, so they weren’t really engaging, I knew they hadn’t taken any action yet, all of a sudden became active. They became active in the community, they actually dove into the content in the membership, and they even thanked me at the end for finally giving them that push so they wouldn’t just sit there consuming
the new formula, taking it all in, but not taking action. So this challenge, was what they needed to actually get into the membership, get those quick wins and really understand what’s on the other side of that bite sized action. Memberships are often designed in a way that, you know, you’re super excited, you get stuck in, you have a quick look around, but then…
That’s it, right? You just stay in month on month on month without taking action. So these people that joined in had been in the membership for a while, but they were lacking that gentle encouragement to actually take action and make things happen.
And the gamification aspect of this particular challenge is what created urgency. So the reward and the prizes for taking action for most of them was enough to actually just go, on, like we’ll knuckle down three days and we’ll just see what happens. And what I didn’t realise is how many people in my membership were tempted to take action.
But I just needed to give them a reason to do so. And my membership, if you’re not aware, so Retention Lab specifically on purpose is designed mostly self-guided. So there’s one new formula every month. And then there you’re encouraged to take action and execute one formula, one strategy of your choice, because every business is different and
You know, your priorities are different as well, but this live component definitely was the encouragement people needed. And I thoroughly enjoyed connecting live with my members as well. And it gave me so many insights around, you know, how I potentially need to support members better to take more action, which is something that, yeah, has come as a result of.
this particular escape room challenge, which I’ll get to in a second. So why did this particular concept work? it was really relying on three powerful ingredients. ingredient one were the micro commitments. I didn’t ask people for five days of their time, the request was simple.
It wasn’t overwhelming and it was a bite sized action. So I specifically chose the strategy that was super quick and easy to implement because I knew people would not take action if it took them hours every day. And the good thing is that a whole bunch of participants unlocked all three rooms and one even shared with me that they just sat down, they knocked out all the rooms, unlocked all of them in one session and it only took them an hour and a half. So that is what I call
an awesome win, right? They worked on growing their lists, they worked on making their first sale, and they also worked on driving retention. And the strategies that they implemented as part of this challenge are going to work for them on autopilot now that they have implemented them. So an hour and a half, three strategic action steps and ongoing list growth.
sales driving strategies and retention boosters. That’s what I love. Ingredient two were quick wins. So as I said, they weren’t big task. Each of those tasks was totally achievable and felt like people could actually pull it off. So focusing on quick wins really put people in touch with that transformation and with the possibilities on the other side of taking that action.
And ingredient number three were powerful incentives. So gamifying, dopamine, that combination works so well. And the bonuses and the prizes that people could score weren’t random, freebies. They were strategically chosen to create even more impact from those actions. So they were…
copy critiques, there was one-on-one voxer access to me and a bonus formula which is still not available in any other shape or form inside the lab. You have to unlock room one to get access to it. On the flip side there’s always something that didn’t work in inverted commas or that could have gone better. So I totally didn’t run it at a great time. I ran it and promoted it literally
in the middle of Black Friday. So there was so much competition for people’s wallets and information overload that I totally believe if I had run it at a different time, I would have signed up even more new members because yeah, it was just the worst time ever. Lessons learned, right? So next time I’ll run it live, which is going to be towards the middle of 2026,
I’m totally going to make sure I’m not competing with a million other things. What I also did at the end, because if you’ve been tuning into the podcast for a while, you know that I love my insights straight from the source. So I asked people who clicked on the sales page, checked it out, but didn’t end up buying, why they didn’t join. And the answers were so useful and insightful.
that I can now tweak the way I position the escape room for next time and make sure everyone is crystal clear because the four objections that came up most consistently were that people were time poor. They simply didn’t have the time. It was before Christmas. It was off the back of Black Friday. As I said, busy time of year, so timing was off. They felt overwhelmed, which again, you know, busy time of year.
in personal and business life so get it. They were confused. So I need to make sure I’m clearer on what exactly this is, how it’s going to unfold and what’s on the other side of this three day live experience. And last but not least, money. Money is always an issue. Some people just will never have the money to invest.
But none of these objections were actually about the offer, about the experience. They’re all fixable. And I’m totally going to do that. So it’s just a matter of shifting the timing and slightly tweaking the messaging. So people are crystal clear on what exactly they’re signing up for. And yeah, the escape room challenge
from a new member perspective, from a retention perspective, from a fun perspective, because I loved, loved, loved the engagement and the hive of activity in the community So this escape room challenge has now with a few simple tweaks become
an ongoing retention engine in the lab. So as soon as people sign up, they can take this escape room challenge
For three powerful quick wins, that means they’re off to a flying start. They have three quick wins, they have that dopamine hit, and I have turned it into a powerful onboarding experience to make sure people take action right away and don’t just sit there for months with the best intentions. And what the biggest lesson is from this
experience this experiment is that retention doesn’t come from more information. So you do not need new content in your membership all the time, new how to use quick tips on your social media channels. It is about intentional interactions and the fastest way to build loyalty inside your business, inside your membership.
is giving people an experience that they can participate in. And that’s exactly what the CX Escape Room challenge was. It was an exciting opportunity for members to connect, for members to share their wins, and for members to take action on something that they had the best intention on.
We all aware people are drowning in content. Like I am so over the flood of AI slob and same, same content. Trust is definitely harder to get. So experiences again is where that trust is built and where people connect with you on a deeper level and experiences are your differentiator. Offering
Out of the box experiences that are not like your usual challenge is what’s going to make you stand out. It’s going to show that you actually care about the challenge experience and about how your customer experiences, your brand and goals on that transformation with you. So in the age of AI, the businesses that win aren’t the ones that are producing the most content, the most carousels with quick tips.
I totally wholeheartedly believe that if you are creating connection and creating opportunity for community, shared wins and shared action, that is what is going to set you apart from everyone else in your niche. So,
If you want to dive deeper into the structure of this challenge, the thought process behind it, I would love to invite you into Retention Lab because a complete breakdown of this concept, the event, the strategy behind the rooms, the engagement psychology, the behind the scenes tech and automations, so how I could pull this off without being totally tied up for three days.
and how I now use it in my onboarding and re-engagement strategy for my membership. I’m going to share that in the Lab. I’m recording this mid-Feb. I’ve just wrapped up the debrief. That’s why I’m so excited. Buzzing by the results, by the numbers, how the sales came in, the breakdown of who took which action.
It’s really juicy. And as this episode airs early March, the case study is ready in the lab waiting for you. And it’s going to have everything you need to pull off a challenge, gamified challenge like this one in your business, whether you’re a course creator, whether you’re a membership site owner, even if you’re a service provider, if you want to create opportunities and connection points for your audience to get quick wins and grow that brand affinity,
with you and your offers and your genius, then this is such a fun way to do it. So the link to join is in the show notes. As I said, you get instant access to the full debrief as soon as you join. We also have some other fun things happening in the lab. We have two guest experts this month, which is one more than normal, and they’re actually joining us live as well. If you can’t make it live, there’s gonna be replays. So as I said, it’s meant to support you in
your current business structure and in your current capacity. So come as you are. I would love to welcome you into the lab and yeah, brainstorm a fun customer experience like this one for your business. If you’ve enjoyed listening, please hit that subscribe button, so you don’t miss any future episodes. And I will be back in your Airpods
next week. Thanks so much for tuning in.
