Product launches take a lot of time and resources to launch successfully. After the work is done and the product is released, work on the product continues. The next step is to review and track the performance of the product. Post-product launch evaluations are valuable because they demonstrate how well the marketing campaign promoted the product and the ability of the creation to serve its target audience.

Although testing and pre-release steps are standard in the product development process, it does not always guarantee that the product will meet your sales projections. Post-launch helps you compare expected performance with actual performance. Live data review can help you see where marketing actions or product development can be improved to meet or exceed your anticipated goals. Another important part of the post-launch review is accumulating more positive data for the next launch.

When your launch is successful and you are selling a timeless product or service, you will probably re-launch it in the future. Post-launch helps you add to your testimonials and data to provide social proof that your product does what you say it will. As you collect testimonials in the testing phase of the development process, the more data you collect can help the product sell itself. The post-launch review includes:

1. marketing campaign performance tracking
2. collect social proof from satisfied customers
3. confirm that customer service channels responded and resolved issues promptly

The other vital section of the evaluation process is tracking the performance of the customer service response to issues. At a product launch, everyone is busy with their tasks and excited. However, it is essential to have staff available to take calls, respond to emails, tweets and Facebook posts about the problems they are having when buying the product. The last thing you want as a developer is to have a product available and consumers cannot buy it.

The customer service section is the only part of the launch process that is tested live. You can do a practice run, but until you launch the product, you won’t know how well you are prepared to handle unexpected situations. It is accepted that technology can and does have its unforeseen problems that we all have to deal with when they occur. However, customer service is perceived to be under the control of the company. “Why aren’t they answering the phone or my email?” The goal is to minimize this type of customer frustration as much as possible.

The post-product launch review helps you monitor your performance and confirm that you set your sales goals. Taking this assessment after your product launch will help you structure future product launches by creating better projections, improving marketing, and customer service planning for your launches.