How to cut your churn by 10%

Churn - awful stuff.

But what if there was a way to cut churn by using just a few simple operations tricks?

Interested?

Read on...

Churn rate can be a dreaded KPI to track, but it's vital to understanding how many of your clients or users are leaving your service.

Firstly, what is churn rate?

Churn rates are usually the percentage of people who have left your service over a rolling 30-day period. So for easy maths, you have a high of 100 clients or users over a 30 day period, 10 of them leave within that period, your churn rate is 10%.

A good churn rate heavily depends on your industry or business, but the lower the better of course as it means people are sticking around.

And churn is often relevant mostly to SaaS businesses, but the steps here will apply to anyone offering a service and therefore has clients or users of that service.

And these are tried and tested, hence the bold claim of cutting it by 10%, because we did it, and saved loads of clients from leaving and therefore saved the revenue from leaving.

Got it? Let's get cracking.

Ask your Clients or Users Why They're Still Here

Not in those exact words of course...

But asking your clients what they love about your service is one fine way to understand why they're sticking around. It will uncover what they love about what you do so you can continue doing that for them, and ensure you can go and do more of it for other and future clients.

How? Using a service like Typeform is perfect as you can make the tone match your company's, as well as get funky with the logic in there when asking questions. That, or use a Google form. Failing that, just talk to them over a coffee if you can.

Try to get qualitative feedback like NPS scores, they're easier to track over time, and less time to analyse.

When? How often should you ask? Well...as often as you think appropriate, don't annoy people.

A tried and tested method would be to ask clients or users once they've had enough time to get benefit from what you deliver. This could be 1 week, 1 month or 3 months. But each time period will give you a different bit of gold to understand how to get a client to that point in their lifetime with you.

Why? You're trying to figure out what it is that's keeping that person from leaving you so you can rinse and repeat.

Ask Your Clients Why They Left

So they decided to leave, but why? Have they gone to a competitor? Did they not understand the benefit of what you offer? Did they run out of funds to pay you?

You won't know unless you ask!

How? Similar to the above, use Typeform or equivalent, and make it SUPER easy.

NPS Scores again, this is a quick way to gather feedback and less work for the person on teh other end of your survey. Remember they've left you so aren't going to be as invested as they once were.

When? Not immediately as they leave, let the dust settle, but soon enough that they don't forget what you did (or didn't) do for them.

Why? Finding out why someone's left is golden, it should highlight weak spots in your service, or something that a competitor is doing better than you. It could also shape your roadmap for future product or offer enhancements.

Ask Your TEAM What They Think

Can you see a theme going here?

Ask and thou shalt be told.

And your team is a huge one. These are the people delivering and often know the product or service inside out, and speak to the clients or users, so they'll know the pain points and things to fix.

How? Again, use a survey. Make it light touch but informative.

When? Every quarter. When onboarding new team members. When conducting exit interviews.

Why? Your team should be evangelists of your product, so make sure they are. If not, you've got a problem.

Make Onboarding a Dream

First impressions do matter. So the more seamless you can onboard your client or user, the better.

Do this through a seamless process giving them everything they need to get going immediately and get to that 'aha this is great' moment ASAP.

How? Template everything that a client might need. Show them how they're going to extract value from your service or product, set the scene and get them ready for the journey.

When? ASAP, once they're a client or user, better yet, use it as a Sales tactic to show them how seamless you are before they even sign on the dotted line.

Why? Getting off to a great start will set the standard, give your client or user what they need to set them up for success.

Reduce Billing Friction

Creating a seamless method for your user or client to pay you benefits everyone. Let them control it, but make it SO easy it's hard not to pay you.

How? Set up recurring payments, direct debit or equivalent. Where possible, use seamless payment methods such as Apple Pay, Google Pay etc.

When? Whenever they need to pay.

Why? Removing this friction will show them you're service is slick and allow your user or client to keep on using it without disruption.

Continuous Improvement and Development

Using all of the above, keep improving and making your product or service better. The clients and users will see that, and want to stick around to see more.

How? Create a roadmap of continuous improvement or value adds if you have a product. If it's a service, do the same to show your client the journey you expect them to go on. They're less likely to churn if they can see what's coming.

When? All the damn time.

Why? Continuing to improve and show your users or clients that you are always looking to give them a better service, and showing them where you are going gets them way more invested, meaning they're way less likely to leave!

And there you have it.

Some nifty tips on how to reduce churn.

If you need some help with it, the team over at Opticks. will be happy to help out.