In the competitive world of consumer tech, delivering an exceptional customer experience can be the key differentiator between rapid growth and stagnation. We had the pleasure of speaking with Rich Donnellan, Head of Customer Experience at Aro, a startup on a mission to help families prioritize real-world connections over screen time. Our conversation explored how Rich and his team use customer insights to refine their product, shape their marketing strategy, and fuel sustainable growth. Here are the key takeaways from our discussion:
Q: Can you give us an overview of Aro's offering and your role within the company?
Rich: Aro's mission is to create a generation of families who prioritize family time over screen time. We do this through a habit-forming app paired with a physical device that lives in your home. The box acts as a visual cue to be present and put your phone away, while the app tracks and rewards your phone-free time.
As Head of Customer Experience, my role spans everything from marketing and customer acquisition to onboarding, support, and renewals. We're a small team of about 12 people, so I wear many hats. My focus is on attracting more eyeballs to our website, educating people about the problem we're solving, and then building a sticky experience that keeps users engaged and coming back.
Q: That’s an expansive domain! How do you see the connection between customer experience and growth in your role?
Rich: The two are inextricably linked, especially for a product like ours that's aiming to change deeply ingrained habits. People don't buy Aro just to put their phone away - they buy it because they want us to guide them on when and how to create phone-free moments. So every touchpoint, from our marketing to our onboarding to our ongoing engagement efforts, needs to reinforce that value proposition and help users build this new habit.
We're constantly looking at data to understand how quickly people are finding value, how often they're using the product, and whether they're inviting other family members to join. Those insights then feed back into our acquisition strategies, our product development, and our retention efforts.
Q: Can you give an example of how customer feedback has shaped your product or go-to-market strategy?
Rich: Absolutely. One of our biggest learnings came early on when we realized our initial assumption about our target market was off. We thought our primary audience would be families with older kids who already had phones. But we quickly discovered that our most engaged users were actually parents of younger children who wanted to model better phone habits before their kids reached that age.
This insight completely transformed our approach - from the visuals we use in marketing, to the audience we target in ads, to the way we talk about the product's benefits. We shifted from a reactive "fix bad habits" message to a more proactive "be the parent you want to be" angle. And we saw an immediate uptick in both acquisition and engagement as a result.
Another example is how we've evolved the product based on user behavior. We noticed that people's usage would drop off when they traveled because they didn't have the physical box with them. So we developed an "invisible box" feature that uses the phone's motion sensors to track intentional non-use time even without the hardware. That feature now accounts for 25% of our usage and has opened up new market opportunities for us with an app-only version.
Q: How do you approach gathering and actioning customer insights at Aro?
Rich: Transparency and rapid iteration are key for us. Being a small team, everyone sees all the customer feedback that comes in through support channels, and we have dedicated Slack channels for sharing voice of customer insights.
We also do a lot of direct outreach. Our community manager, who's a former Aro customer herself, sends personalized videos to new users. We offer onboarding calls to every customer to help them integrate Aro into their household routines. And we have a podcast where we feature customer stories and dive into the challenges they've overcome.
All of these touchpoints give us a rich well of qualitative data to complement the usage metrics we're tracking in the app. We then use those insights to refine everything from our product features to our content strategy to our onboarding flows.
Q: Speaking of content, how do you leverage customer stories in your growth efforts?
Rich: Customer stories are absolutely central to our growth strategy. We know this is a business built on social proof and relatability. Our website features dynamic tiles showing real users engaging with the product. Our podcast has a "Voices of Aro" series where customers share their experiences. And we're constantly creating blog content and social media posts that highlight specific use cases and success stories.
This approach has been incredibly effective. In our post-purchase surveys, we consistently see that word-of-mouth and social media are our top two acquisition channels. People need to see others like them succeeding with Aro before they're willing to give it a try themselves.
Q: As you scale, how are you thinking about balancing personalization with automation in the customer experience?
Rich: It's definitely a challenge, especially given the nature of our product. We're building a digital customer experience to help people spend less time on their devices, so we have to walk a fine line.
We recently implemented Customer.io as our omnichannel marketing tool, which gives us much more granular control over user journeys. We're using that to create highly personalized, trigger-based communications. For example, we now show users pictures of their own family (which they upload during onboarding) in reminders to use Aro. We've found that kind of personal touch significantly boosts engagement.
We're also very intentional about our brand voice throughout the customer lifecycle. Our co-founder Joey, who hosts our podcast, is our primary brand voice for acquisition and early onboarding. Then we transition to our community manager Paige, a former customer, for ongoing engagement. The goal is to make users feel like they have a personal coach and cheerleader in their corner, even as we scale.
Conclusion
Our conversation with Rich underscored the symbiotic relationship between customer experience and growth, especially for products aimed at behavior change. By maintaining a relentless focus on user insights and rapid iteration, Aro has been able to refine both its product and its go-to-market strategy to accelerate adoption and engagement.
Some key principles emerged that can benefit any company looking to leverage CX as a growth driver:
- Use early customer interactions to validate (or invalidate) your assumptions about your target market and value proposition
- Create feedback loops that allow customer insights to quickly influence product development, marketing messages, and engagement strategies
- Harness the power of customer stories and social proof in your acquisition efforts
- Balance automation with personalization to create scalable yet authentic user experiences
- Align your brand voice and messaging across the entire customer journey to reinforce your core value proposition
As Aro continues on its mission to help families reclaim quality time from their devices, their customer-centric approach to growth offers a powerful model for any startup seeking to build lasting habits and drive sustainable expansion. By keeping the user's success at the center of every decision, they are well-positioned to turn early adopters into vocal advocates and fuel the next phase of their growth.
