Sunsetting a product: Communication

If you are considering sunsetting a product or platform, you need to proceed with caution, as all good Product Managers will do.  Our previous blog addressed the data that you need to make an informed decision.  Once you have that in hand, you need to think about a well-organized and well-executed communication plan.

Create a communication plan

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If you are going to alter the customer’s experience, you need to think through how that will be communicated and you will likely need to over-communicate to make sure the message is received and no customer is surprised.  There are a number of factors that will influence your communication plan.  How many customers are impacted?  Do they have active account managers involved (more on this below)? How do the customer receive information today?  Through Bill Inserts?  From the Website? E-mail alerts?  Make sure that you know all communication vehicles so you carefully consider how to handle each one.  The messaging is also critical and must be very action oriented and clear.  This is not a marketing campaign or a sales slick.  The verbiage needs to be simple to understand and clearly articulate the steps that need to be taken.  You also need to consider the repetition.  Sunsetting a product is a big event and you will need to tell customers over and over again to ensure that the message is received and digested.  The easiest way to create a plan is to grab a calendar, pinpoint the desired date of the decommissioning and work backwards.  For example, if you are relying on bill inserts as your primary mode of communication, then you will need to factor the billing cycle into the calendar.  You will also need to ensure that your systems have the ability to differentiate the customers with the product targeted for sunsetting.  Otherwise, you may have to inform the entire customer base and that may have larger implications.

Involve the Marketing Team

Often Product Management and Marketing are tightly linked, but this is one area where partnership is critical.  Marketing needs to review the messaging and the communication plan.  They might be running campaigns that target the same customer group so that timing needs to be considered.  They may be able to edit the message to make it more customer friendly or more concise.  Marketing may also be able to access communication channels that Product Management didn’t think of – perhaps social media or direct mail.  Everything that a customer sees or reads with regards to the product disposition is going to contribute to their perception of the brand overall so Product Management and Marketing need to work closely to make the experience the best it can be.

Inform all Customer Touchpoints

When a decision is made to sunset or decommission a product or platform, you need to make sure that everyone who talks to or meets with a customer is fully informed.  This means Sales, Account Management and Customer Service, at a minimum.  In fact, if the impacted customers have Account Managers assigned to them, the message should be delivered personally – even face-to-face if that can be arranged.  Sunsetting a product is disruptive for the impacted customers – there is no doubt about that.  Being considerate of the customers’ needs and timelines will go a long way towards making this a minor inconvenience versus a major upheaval.  Leverage all of the customer touchpoints within your organization to soften the blow and share the correct information.  Just like the impacted customers, the internal groups need to be informed multiple times in multiple ways.  Don’t send a single e-mail and think that you are covered.  Depending on the size and scope of the decommissioning, there might be Town Hall meetings and company announcements and customer services scripts and FAQs and all sorts of other artifacts and meetings to ensure that everyone is on the same page.  You do not want an already inconvenienced customer to call in and talk to someone who is ill-informed.

Nearly every company with longevity is faced with a situation of sunsetting a product or platform at some point.  These efforts can be important to the bottom line and to the strategic direction of the company.  They need to be handled with care and the communication plan is one way to be certain that the best and most accurate information is shared in a timely fashion.  This is a critical step for project success. The next blog in this series addresses pricing and financial implications.