Netflix has lost over 30% of its content in the last few years but you probably didn’t notice.
And that’s by design.
After all, it’s not like they’d display the movies and shows they don’t have on your dashboard. You’d only discover this by trying to find the missing content through their search tools. When you do search for something they don’t have you tend to get a list of recommendations in its place. Recommendations for films and shows that Netflix does have.
This seems fair. Netflix’s goal is to entertain you. If they can’t provide the exact content you seek then they need to propose something similar to meet your needs instead.
But do those alternative recommendations help as much as we might think they do?
Alternative recommendations can be useful but they also serve a vital purpose. If you search for something and discover it isn’t available you might go elsewhere to find it. Providing a set of suggestions instead of a blank page is a powerful way to retain a disappointed user. Yes, you can keep searching the Web for what you’re looking for if you really want, but wouldn’t it be easier to just stay where you are and try one of the suggested options?
Just like the Netflix homepage, these suggestions direct users away from the search functions of the site. And while the recommendations you’re served up on the homepage (and elsewhere) may be tailored to you through Netflix’s world-class algorithm(s), their primary purpose is to keep you on the site (or in the app) and not looking somewhere else. This is not to say the movies and shows Netflix provides are bad. Much of their content is very good. The problem is that there is a clear aspect of self-interest in their recommendations.
That aspect of self-interest is easy to overlook. In fact, the idea that Netflix would offer up other options to compensate for its lack of particular content seems so obvious that a failed search resulting in suggested alternatives would barely faze most users.
While this occurrence won’t stop a user in their tracks, it can impact them subconsciously. There’s a reason why we often look to our friends and family first for recommendations. We trust them. We know that there’s social clout at stake when we give information to those in our network. If the suggestion is good it gives us status but if it’s bad we can lose influence with the people and groups we care about.
This isn’t the case with businesses. They deal in cash and subscriptions, not social clout. If a friend offers a poor suggestion you simply refrain from asking them again, but with a company like Netflix you’re still subscribed after the first bad experience. You can cancel the following month but by then you’ll likely have forgotten the incident. But this can’t go on forever. Enough failed searches and you’ll fail to see the value in the subscription.
By providing recommendations you’re not given the time to focus on a failed search experience. That’s if you ever get to search in the first place. Just look at the user interface for Netflix. Rows and rows of suggestions with a small search box at the top. This isn’t all bad. A recommendation-focused homepage helps you quickly discover something to watch. However, it also helps capture your attention and can lead you to forget searching is even an option. Reducing your likelihood of searching reduces the chance of a failed search which helps prevent you from leaning towards cancellation.
We recognize this. It only takes one failed search to know that Netflix (and plenty of other services) don’t have everything we’re looking for.
And knowing that can make it difficult to fully trust their recommendations.
This is important because it can shape how we process our user experience and ultimately how confident we are in the recommendations and results we’re provided with. The more we wonder if we’re seeing great alternatives or just a distraction to keep us from going somewhere else, the harder it can be to commit to one of those alternatives.
This second guessing can be explicit or in the back of our minds but it makes it harder to choose and forces us to spend more time thinking and less time watching. If you’ve ever opened up Netflix only to find yourself unable to decide on what to watch this could be part of what’s happening.
Admittedly, you may just not be in the mood, but when failed searches are met with alternatives one can’t help but wonder if the selection of films is meant for us or if they’re meant for Netflix.
There’s no doubt that Netflix has built a great company by providing a wonderful product for their users. But good recommendations can be a challenge and sophisticated algorithms will only go so far.
To win with recommendations trust must always come first.
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