What is Customer Churn? Causes and Solutions

Imagine you are happily rafting down a river with a bunch of your clients. When y'all got on board, everyone was happy. Soft drinks were opened. Life jackets were donned. Jokes were exchanged. Morale was high. 

All goes well until you get to the first rapids. You tell everyone to hold on … but you’re speaking Greek for some reason? To a bunch of Americans? And even though you’re saying it really loudly, they’re still just chatting and soft-drinking, not paying attention?

Long story short: they fall out. Half of them disappear, never to be seen again. You head downstream and load more people in, only to face the same fate.

If you’ve borne with us this far, gold star. That was quite the drawn-out metaphor, but we hope you see where we’re going with this: you can’t speak Greek to English speakers and expect them to listen.

More to the point, you can’t throw fancy software at a customer and expect them to understand it just because you want them to.

Yet that’s the approach most SaaS companies take with their failed onboarding programs, erroneously thinking their customers will wade through the foreign language of sub-par training all by their lonesome. It doesn’t work, pal. And if you’ve been in business for any length of time, you’ve likely already discovered this.

Happily, there’s a better way, and we’re here to tell you what it is. Our latest eBook will answer questions such as:

• What is customer churn, and why should you care?
• Why does it happen?
• What role does onboarding play?
• Why the heck is no one paying attention to all this?

Oh, right. Because it’s easier to hit the McDonald’s drive-through than to make meaningful changes in your business and life.

… or is it? Today, we submit to you that perhaps the way of least resistance does not involve hot, greasy, potato-y goodness. (Actually, can’t it be both?) And we’ll tell you all about it in the eBook.

Churn: What it Is and Why You Should Care

We could define churn in many ways, from choppy seas to sailors’ stomachs. But we’re not talking about agitating liquids super-fast in the real world … no, we’re here to talk business.

Churn is one of the most critical business concepts you’ll ever encounter if you’re a software company; in fact, churn is the No. 1 challenge you and your competitors will face when trying to grow.

Simply put, the churn rate measures the percentage of people who, having signed on to use your product, then turn around and walk right back out the door. Sometimes it takes them a year, sometimes only a month, but the result is the same: you spent time and money convincing them to close the deal and then onboarding them, and it amounted to naught.

Because subscription dollars are often the only way a company can pay back the marketing investment needed to bring someone on board, churn is more than a bummer … it is an existential threat.

If you want to play roulette, go ahead and keep hoping for the best. Otherwise, download our free eBook here and learn how to kick churn to the curb.

Why Churn Happens and How to Reduce It

There are several reasons why churn could be eating into your bottom line – or do we mean your top line? 

*thinking face emoji*

Whichever line determines whether your business will fail or flourish; that’s the line we’re talking about. Too many folks fail to realize that half or more of their marketing budget is going to customers who are going to bail, like, the second after their annual contract expires.

It’s undoubtedly happened to your company and is confusing. It makes you want to send out a survey or something. And you should definitely send out a survey; surveys are great. But it would be best if you also dived into our eBook to learn more about causes and solutions.

For instance …

Causes of Churn

In our download, we’ll talk about why seemingly happy customers, joyful at finding a solution to their problem, trickle away over the months that follow … often within the first 60 to 90 days.

We see tons of businesses asking, how did our amazing solution become its own problem for this customer??

And the answer is that there are many answers. These may include reasons such as pricing, value, or functionality. The issue may lie in poor introductions to new features or crummy onboarding. Sometimes, churn occurs because your company hasn’t stopped to consider the differences between the B2B and B2C customer models, which have enormous implications for B2B sellers.

Overall, the biggest issue is failing to give your customers the support they need when they most need it: after the sale.

Bummed out yet? Before you rush off to drown your sorrows in a flat white or a bucket of golf balls (or whatever you do when The World turns grey), hold on … there are solutions.

Solutions for Churn

See?? Look! Solutions! It says so in that fancy heading right there.

Told you so.

The truth is, there are plenty of ways to mitigate churn and ensure your marketing efforts stay relevant, even after someone has signed on. But it requires reimaging how you treat your customer after they come on board.

In the eBook, we’ll discuss why the current marketing model (side-eyeing you, funnel) neglects a HUGE portion of the customer journey. Moreover, you’ll learn exactly how to demonstrate your worth to your customer through the right type of training and onboarding.

We’ll also explain why you must never use one particular system to onboard your clients and customers. Unfortunately, many (if not most) businesses do this all the time and don’t even know they’re doing it! If you only pick up the book for one reason, make it this one.

Do yourself a favor and stop hoping for the best when you could instead be doing something about churn right. this. very. moment.

Time to get that eBook, friend.

How Can You Kick Churn to the Curb? Sneak Peeks From the eBook

Still not sure if downloading the eBook is a good idea?

Now, we don’t usually like to give the milk away for free. But since we’re chums, here’s a little lump of butter (get it? churn jokes?) in the form of some sneak peeks. In our book, you’ll learn:

• Why we’re so obsessed with onboarding … and you should be too
• Which hopeless onboarding strategies you’re probably using and shouldn’t be
• Which type of onboarding system should never darken your doorway again
• Specific ways to reduce customer churn
• How to refocus your onboarding efforts so they function as they’re supposed to and keep your customers around
• The system that actually works to stop churn in its tracks

Ready to learn more? Of COURSE, you are, so just click that shiny download button right there and get started.