I wonder if it’s the holiday season that makes companies a little crazy about this time of year. Or perhaps they think that announcing unpopular decisions might go unnoticed in the annual shopping frenzy.
Whatever the reason, I’m starting to see a pattern. Almost exactly a year ago, Evernote, the company that produces the popular note-taking app of the same name, came up with a new privacy policy that seemed to give company personnel direct access to users’ private information. As you can imagine, that went over like a lead pipe, and Evernote quickly backtracked.
This year, it was Patreon, the popular group-funding site, that nearly caused a mass exodus from its services. The company announced a new method of funding that was not only more complex than its previous method, but also had a strong and very negative impact on those creators (as Patreon’s users are called) whose fans (or patrons) were funding them with $1 and $2 monthly contributions.
This was made even worse by some rather unfortunate language in a guest blog that indicated Patreon only wanted higher-earning creators and that, in fact, “unqualified leads are getting weeded out.”
You can imagine the reaction. There was a lot upheaval on the social networks, not to mention angry blogs. Patrons started pulling out, creators started looking for other places to get funding, and Patreon’s reputation with its users — if not with its stockholders — was quickly going down the tubes.
Today, like Evernote did a year ago, Patreon backtracked, apologized to its users, and assured them that the company would rethink its strategy, consult with its users, and try again. “We recognize that we need to be better at involving you more deeply and earlier in these kinds of decisions and product changes,” wrote CEO Jack Conte. “Additionally, we need to give you a more flexible product and platform to allow you to own the way you run your memberships.”
Everyone makes mistakes, and it’s always a good thing when companies own up to those mistakes. In this case, however, the consequences to Patreon users were more serious than those for Evernote users a year ago — while the latter had to search for a new place to store their info, some Patreon users lost income, and will now have to work to get their patrons back. Others may have lost confidence and jumped ship entirely.
Patreon is a good example of a company that saw a need, created a loyal following, and then forgot how invested loyal followings can be. It sounds like they’ve realized that they are no longer just a service provider, but part of a new ecosystem made up of company, creators and patrons. With any luck, this will be a lesson that not only Patreon, but similar companies, will learn from to avoid future blow-ups.
