Dose #59: How to Handle Churn (From a Pro)

Matt here with your weekly Subscription Prescription ??

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Dose #59: How to Handle Churn (From a Pro)

This dose is all about sharing! At SubSummit two weeks ago, Robbie Kellman Baxter shared her thoughts on the 5 drivers of churn…and how to fix them! You’ll get some keen insights on how to reduce different types of churn within your business.

SubSummit keeps on giving. This week’s dose is also inspired by one of my favorite sessions. Robbie Kellman Baxter is a subscription guru and has worked with businesses big and small.

The Five Drivers of Churn come from:

• Communication
• Onboarding
• Product/Market Fit
• Operational
• Passive/Involuntary

Churn from Communication

One of the most important ways to reduce churn in your business starts here. Are the offers you’re making aligned with the customers you want to keep? Are you selling something as easy to use, when it really isn’t? Are you marketing a powerful service with tons of resources that actually doesn’t have that at all?

One of the simplest ways I suggest brands look at communication is with post-purchase surveys and customer interviews. Seek to understand why someone selected a subscription in the first place and what they’re expecting to get from the product/service. This lets you check on how you’re offering aligns.

Onboarding

Subscriptions are much more than clicking ‘subscribe and save.’ For some, they just want the product each month. That’s it. Others want more involvement. Maybe they want to make a change or learn how to redeem loyalty points.

Ensure that your subscription program has a strong and easy-to-understand onboarding experience. This can be through emails, regular social posts, or even text messages. Answer frequently asked questions before your customer asks them. Don’t lose someone because they became confused or unsure how to manage their subscription.

Product/Market Fit

Sometimes churn comes down to someone not seeing enough value to stick around. There are quite a few ways to approach this (see this past dose for a deeper dive), so it comes down to changing what you offer or how you offer it.

“What” you offer can be the actual products, bundles, or additional items included in the shipment. This can also be how you influence the desired outcome, like including a digital subscription to a weight loss program if you’re selling diet pills.

“How” you offer it can include price, frequency options, or access. You can move the lever up or down on these things to change how your customer views what they’re getting.

Operational

Don’t drop the ball on operations. You’ve won the customer; now deliver for them. Ensure that simple things like packaging, tracking, support, and getting the actual right items are all dialed in.

This should also include making it easy for customers to manage their orders at any time.

Passive/Involuntary Churn

This one is a real killer. You’re losing customers due to expired credit cards and simple processing errors. Assess the amount of lost sales resulting from these things when evaluating a potential solution.

How to Use This List

There is a lot here to tackle, as I’ve (potentially) run through every aspect of your subscription business. A methodology I can recommend comes from another SubSummit speaker, Neil Hoyne.

Four questions to ask when considering change:

• What is the idea or hypothesis?
• Do we have any data on this?
• How could we test?
• How would we act?

Prioritize this list based on impact and ability to make the change. For example, building a better email onboarding list is easier than messing with your offers, but will also have a smaller impact.

That’s it for this dose! I hope you found this useful—Robbie is worth following if you’re not doing so already. Stay tuned for Dose #60 next Tuesday!

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- Matt Holman ??

Head of Growth, QPilot