Failed Product Launch? Here’s How to Snap Back

Even the most successful business can experience a failed product launch from time to time. Maybe it’s simply not what the customers had in mind, maybe the time just wasn’t ripe for it – or maybe something was actually wrong with the product.

Whatever the reason was, you need to figure out how to fix it and how to gain credibility with your customers again. That way, you will be able to avoid making the same costly mistakes next time and may even bounce back a bit wiser and more experienced.

Here is a handful of ways on how to do exactly this so that you can get back to business again as soon as possible – and watch those numbers rise.

First: Figure out what went wrong

You can’t fix it unless you know what the problem is. This means that you need to do some thorough research into the market, send out questionnaires, and generally just gather as much data about their experience as you possibly can.

You might find that the products weren’t consistent. Maybe they broke easily or didn’t work as well as they were supposed to. Disappointed customers aren’t afraid to share their opinions, and once they do it’s important to get to the bottom of their complaints.

You might find that you need to use different manufacturing sourcing, better materials, or start from the ground up to rebuild and rebrand your product.

Talking to your customers is, therefore, key to understanding what went wrong. If they expected it to be of a higher quality and got sick and tired of having it break all the time, you should try to improve its durability – and if they’re simply not sure how to use it, you need to step up your marketing efforts.

In short, the research needs to focus on the customer experience so that you’re able to improve it.

Next: Let them know that you’re trying to fix it

After you have gathered all of their feedback and got back to the drawing table, you still need to keep in touch with them and let them know that you’re doing your best to fix it.

This is, after all, about more than just ensuring those sales; you’d want to fix the relationship between your business and its customers and build up a sense of trust again.

They were the ones who spent their hard earned money on a product or service they didn’t enjoy, after all, and they are the ones who may be writing all sorts of negative reviews about you online. You may want to get in touch with corporate reputation management as well, by the way, to take care of those reviews for you.

Give them a prototype

When you have fixed everything you can and kept in touch with the customers who gave you their feedback, it’s time to show them that you mean business. Let them have a prototype or an early version of the fixed product, let them know that you’ve taken care of the things they mentioned and that you would appreciate it if they would test it out.

That way, you’re ensuring that the next product won’t be a complete hiccup as well and can enjoy a vastly improved relationship with your customers.

They stood with you through all of this, at the end of the day, and will surely remember all the effort you did to get them back at your good side.

Image Credit: Pexels

Have you ever had a failed product launch?  And did you manage to make a come-back?