A CRO Mindset to Commerce Care

This post originally appeared in my weekly newsletter, BL&T (Borrowed, Learned, & Thought). Subscribe

Borrowed

"The customer-retention process is the proactive way that you take care of your customers after your product or service has been delivered and the way you retain customers so that they continue to come back and send you referrals."

From "Traction: Get a Grip on Your Busines" by Gino Wickman [Book]

Learned

When we launched our Commerce Care programs last quarter, it was a step to move away from hourly work and evolve our client relationships from simply executing tasks to adding value through proactive thinking and strategy. Previously, many clients often focused on using their hours for immediate priorities, overlooking the impact our ideas could bring. With Commerce Care, our focus was to change that dynamic. So, what is it?

We now offer two tiers of Commerce Care. The first provides a retainer for website maintenance and troubleshooting, plus our All Access program, where we offer clients strategic guidance, run quarterly strategy sessions, and help plan new initiatives. The second tier, Commerce Care Plus, includes maintenance and troubleshooting but also allows for workstreams of prioritized tasks each month. Pricing is fixed-fee for both and ranges depending on the scale and services of what we're providing.

The goal of Commerce Care Plus was to cover much of the execution work clients previously allocated in 100-hour/month or 150-hour/quarter packages. We were okay with the fact that, in some cases, the retainer might cost clients less, because we were confident we'd bring added value through additional projects throughout the year.

So far, we’ve seen positive momentum. Some clients treat us like an Ecomm Manager, managing tasks like product launches, some rely on us for ongoing fixes, and others engage us for creative needs like asset resizing. Many provide insight into their larger budget so we can collaboratively plan how and where it's used.

Recently, though, we’ve noticed a trend—clients interested in conversion rate optimization (CRO) but in more of a Commerce Care Plus engagement structure. CRO can mean many different things to different people, though—from A/B testing to implementing "best practices" to everything in between.

As of today, we’ve outlined three paths for CRO: clients can hire us for an audit, pay monthly for analysis and strategy, or invest more for ongoing testing and optimization. These conversations have been productive, though we’re seeing that clients are cautious about making significant investments in CRO. Even if they’re unhappy with past experiences from CRO-specific agencies, they're often anchored to previous pricing and are hesitant to invest more.

However, the core idea behind CRO remains appealing to them, just in a different form. The few recent clients who like Commerce Care Plus aren’t necessarily looking for an execution partner; they're seeking help building a roadmap for site improvement. They bring goals and initiatives to the table but want us to generate ideas, provide guidance, and prioritize what needs to be done.

Naturally, we’re saying yes to these clients, and I’m eager to see how these engagements evolve. One client recently hired us for an audit, which gives us plenty of findings and opportunities to explore. Another, a prospective client, would bring us on to manage their existing codebase and help drive improvements over the next six months as they prepare for a larger redesign.

It’s been energizing to test new services, gather feedback, and see where we can add more value. It reminds me of my songwriting days—creating something meaningful, only to see it evolve as it reaches different audiences.

I’m hopeful these two Commerce Care Plus engagements will be up and running in the next month or so, providing valuable insight into what’s working. Who knows, we might even launch another tier or new program next year.