How to handle the early signs of churn2 min read

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While keeping an existing customer is much easier than acquiring a new one, that doesn’t necessarily make customer retention an easy task. Since loyal customers significantly increase business revenue, it’s essential to spot early signs of churn and implement churn prevention strategies. This article shares tips on handling early signs of churn.

What is churn?

Churn is the number of customers a business loses over a given period or the revenue lost due to the lost customers. Therefore, the churn rate is the number of customers lost in that period divided by the number of customers at the beginning of that period, expressed as a percentage.

There are two types of churn: voluntary and involuntary. Involuntary churn is usually because of unavoidable circumstances, such as the death of your customer, relocation to where you don’t operate, or attaining an age beyond which using your product or service is unsuitable.

Voluntary churn is where the customer consciously ends the relationship. You need to be keen on this type of churn since you can intervene and thus save the relationship. To intervene, you need to observe the early signs of churn.

What are the early signs of churn?

Changes in usage behaviour

When you notice a customer’s product usage behaviour shifting, you’re likely about to face some churn. For example, a subscriber who suddenly changes their preferences or terms is likely not enjoying your services as much as before and is considering dropping it or picking a lower-tier package. Subscription churn is exceptionally costly for a subscription business model.

Reduction in customer interaction instances

Usually, customer support teams feel they have handled all customer complaints when a customer reduces or stops reaching out. While this may be true, a customer who suddenly cuts off communication may no longer like what you sell, how you sell it, sees no value in it, or you’ve failed to address a recurring complaint.

How do I deal with the potential churn?

You may inevitably lose some customers, but there’s a chance you can salvage some of those relationships. Here is what to do:

Understand why

You need to know why a customer is considering dropping you. While you cannot read minds, information and communication technology gives you an edge. Churn prevention software helps you understand your customers better and enables you to implement the right strategies.

Other churn prevention strategies are necessary, such as offering incentives and instituting a loyalty programme. However, these depend on how well you understand your customers, especially in the initial stages. For example, streamlining the onboarding process is only possible if you know what your customer considers an easy onboarding process.

Conclusion

Early detection of potential churn is critical to your company’s success. Besides meeting revenue targets, it helps minimise customer acquisition costs. We understand this significance and have the right tools to help you combat churn. Get in touch today to see how our all-in-one customer retention platform suits your business.