Remember when I emailed asking you
It took me 43 days to read your responses. Here's how it panned out.
2017 ended with 2 key observations.
1. 'None of us is as smart as all of us.' - Ken Blanchard
A single mind is limited in its capacity and thus innovation will also suffer. We accepted that the best of minds, the most innovative of people and teams will sooner or later plateau. It’s improbable to expect one great idea after another, for years on end.
We realized that we need more minds… A lot more.
2. 'Ask your customers to be part of the solution, and don't view them as part of the problem.' - Alan Weiss
Customer centricity has always been one of our strengths. PureVPN was the first to offer 24/7 customer support and this feat has remained unmatched for quite some time now. Discussing and resolving complaints became a great source of insight and drove a lot of our decisions. A customer’s complaint would be addressed as a problem and we then worked towards the solution.
We realized that these weren’t necessarily problems. They were opportunities. Our customers were actually providing insights and the road to progress.
We realized that the only way forward was to actively invite feedback and thus, we changed perspective and changed gears. At the end of the month we emailed over a million of our users a very simple question:
“What should we do to make PureVPN even better?“
It took only a few hours to think through and send that email… But it took me over 43 days to read each reply.
Where there were notes of encouragement, there were also concerns. From “The service couldn’t possibly get any better!” to “Is a commercial VPN even safe?”.
I decided it was crucial to put this worry to rest. It all pointed to the need for a different perspective. This new perspective must dictate how PureVPN rallies for the next decade.
Here’s how user feedback dictated 2018.
We’ve been working on your responses. Milestones were set with your feedback and remained our top priority.
After 43 days of reading emails, another 3 weeks of creating a plan of action, we spent the rest of 2018 implementing feedback and suggestions through the following steps.
What good is a VPN if it doesn’t ensure anonymity and security?
Explicit changes were made to our privacy policy. It was simplified, solidified and vouched by leading law firms in Hong Kong, North America, Europe and Australia.
Taking a look at our network infrastructure, we introduced the NAT’d and Non NAT’d servers. As is the norm in the VPN industry, a user connecting to server is given a unique IP. PureVPN has now upgraded our infrastructure to allow multiple users to hide behind a single IP.
Our upcoming app updates will allow for the option of connecting through a NAT’d or a Non NAT’d server, as per your desired level of anonymity and/or accessibility.
We then reinforced our security infrastructure by partnering with BugCrowd. A platform hosting over 90,000 ethical hackers and penetration testers.
It is now an ongoing campaign. An open invitation to anyone on the platform to test our infrastructure and report any abnormalities for immediate action. Edge case examples of these included highlighting minor instances of IPv6 leak occurrences and suggestions to improve DNS Leak prevention even further.
So far so good, only minor bugs have been reported and were successfully patched in a matter of days.
To complement our updated policy, revamped security, bug identification protocol, the improved server infrastructure and renewed commitment to immediate issue resolution… We followed up with our biggest achievement yet.
An industry first- PureVPN became the first GDPR compliant VPN service provider.
The cherry on top is that this policy does not apply to citizens of the European Union alone, but can be utilized by users all over the world.
We hold ourselves accountable to what we promise, and we promised that our users will get more with PureVPN. With the added options of NAT’d and Non NAT’d servers, we set out to improve connection stability and increase connection options.
PureVPN now offers over 2000 servers!
The next most logical improvement? Speed. Load balancing, protocol selection, improved ping tests and optimal server recommendations were just the tip of the iceberg.
We went on to revamp our underlying technology stack to improve per-connection service quality. Improved SLAs and enhanced Server Health Alerts allowed for advanced performance metrics and consequent optimization.
This is what we mean when we say ‘continuous server optimization”.
This is why PureVPN is quite literally The World’s Fastest VPN Service.
3% of our user replies had at us about connection reliability, unexpected connection drops and delayed successful connections to servers.
Though most might assume we’d neglect such a low percentage, that’s not how we do things at PureVPN.
We’ve taken proactive steps to make sure that our users do not suffer any connectivity-related issues. To address this particular issue, we took the following steps:
Feedback channels are still open and the results do seem promising. This doesn’t mean however, that this will not be optimized further. We’re always tweaking and testing better possible solutions.
Consider the steps taken above as foundations. Once all of the above was complete, your feedback suggested the need for improvements in user experience…
The ideal user wants to connect, secure and go on with their day. For this, we introduced “Quick Connect”. 1 click connectivity that selects the nearest, fastest and best server.
Quick, simple and effective.
We followed this up with a more streamlined onboarding journey that included a simpler addon implementation process as well.
Add into the mix an overhauled IKS functionality, improved Port Forwarding option, over 200 support articles and an easier to navigate website and you’ll arrive at a cleaner, simpler PureVPN interface!
New app platforms were also explored. We launched an app for Linux, Android TV and Firestick. Downloads have steadily grown and user acceptance is rising.
With that being said, proactive actions at PureVPN never stop. We’ve temporarily taken our iOS app down for an overhaul. Working closely with Apple, we’re working on providing a more stable environment and increased functionality. Expect an updated app for iOS soon!
Now that the groundwork has been laid, let’s move on to one of most requested items on the list.
“More channel support!”
The above sums up most of what was categorized under streaming requests. Users requested increased access to Entertainment, News and Sports. After all, censorships and geographic restrictions are the biggest hurdles to cross in internet freedom.
Our primary objective has always been to provide freedom of access to any website or streaming channel on the web, regardless of your physical location.
The following are derived directly by working in close coordination with our users:
Enhanced streaming support was tough to address. ISP’s regularly bolster their censorship and policies related to regional limitations. However, we can proudly state that we have been successful in allowing our users to access some of the most in-demand streaming services and channels.
A vast majority of our actions stemmed from direct user feedback. It only made sense that this feedback continue and iterations continue towards progress.
Our customer support has always been ahead of the industry in terms of user satisfaction. Going through your replies, we noticed how integral a role our support team plays.
Our support team was restructured and renamed to Customer Success. Like our engineering networking and development teams, our Customer Success team acted on feedback as well.
What they achieved is phenomenal!
That’s more than any VPN provider in the industry!
Through the Customer Success transformation, new feedback hinted at something interesting.
Few users found claiming a refund cumbersome, primarily because they felt that a 7-day refund policy was insufficient to gauge the sheer number of features offered by PureVPN.
Customer Success took immediate action and introduced.
An industry first Refund policy - updated from 7 days to 31 days!
All that we’ve done, all that we’ve accomplished wouldn’t hold value without recognition and validation.
Don’t take our word for it…
Auditing firms like AV Test GmbH was invited to test our service and vouch for all our claims. Their team of top German researchers probed and assessed our infrastructure and claims.
AV-Test GmbH, renowned German IT experts, tested our service and endorsed our claim of enhanced speed and service performance. Here are a few excerpts from the report published by AV Test on November 30, 2018:
It doesn’t stop there.
All this is validation and reassurance of our claims. Not by us, but by renowned IT experts, consumers, publishers and our peers.
So for the year ahead, let me ask you again…
“What should we do to make PureVPN even better?“
I look forward to your honest and constructive feedback. PureVPN remains committed to live up to your trust, for years and years to come.
Talk to you soon and Happy New Year.
Don`t forget to leave your feedback in the comment section.