Monthly Renewals & Churn

Daryl Colborne
Daryl Colborne Member Posts: 50 Expert
Fourth Anniversary 5 Comments Photogenic Name Dropper
edited August 2021 in Strategy & Planning
Hello All,
I did some searching on GGR but did not find any similar topics. I'm curious to know if you any of you have any recommendations on how to decrease churn for a segment of our Accounts that have a monthly auto-renewal in place. These Accounts do have a CSM assigned to them, however, we oftentimes end up doing firefighting to salvage renewals in these accounts every month rather than fight churn proactively.

We are currently at a very low churn rate, which is great, but I'd like tips on how to continue retaining these customers.

Thanks!!
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Comments

  • Jeff Heckler
    Jeff Heckler Member, CS Leader Posts: 80 Expert
    Third Anniversary 10 Comments Photogenic Office Hours Host 2022
    edited August 2021

    Daryl,


    The key is getting ahead of the "last ditch effort" point of the customer's journey.

    Think about adding Enablement: digital touch points, repeatable consumable content (short-length videos, webinars, FAQs, etc.), onboarining-at-scale.

    The first place to start is by creating your Customers' Journey Maps.


    Cheers,

    Jeff

    Jeff Heckler

    MarketSource

    jheckler@marketsource.com

  • Ed Powers
    Ed Powers Member Posts: 193 Expert
    Fourth Anniversary 100 Comments 25 Insightfuls 25 Likes
    edited August 2021
    Daryl, do you know why your customers in this segment are churning? Perhaps your answer lies there. As a former boss of mine always said, "A problem defined is half solved."
  • Daryl Colborne
    Daryl Colborne Member Posts: 50 Expert
    Fourth Anniversary 5 Comments Photogenic Name Dropper
    edited August 2021

    100% agree, Ed. And we are doing as much due diligence as possible now to figure that out. I've made the recommendation to leverage a 3rd party to make the calls to the churned customers. That idea was veto'd I've had my CSMs reach out and while we've gotten some candid feedback in the few calls we've had, we have no conclusions yet. Without a strong root cause, I realize we are going to have to do some educated guessing.

     

  • Anita Toth
    Anita Toth Member Posts: 246 Expert
    Third Anniversary 100 Comments Photogenic
    edited August 2021

    @Daryl Colborne  Before you throw in the towel with 'educated guessing', have you considered running formal customer interviews on this segment to find out what's going on? Best practice is to have a 3rd party do this as it's arm's length and they experts at knowing how to dig deep and get customers to open up. Barring that, it's possible to have your CSMs do the interviews.


    I've attached some questions to help with the decision of hire or run in-house.


    Also happy to chat with you about it, if you want to sort out which option is best.

    Full disclosure: Customer interviews are my bread and butter. 


  • Daryl Colborne
    Daryl Colborne Member Posts: 50 Expert
    Fourth Anniversary 5 Comments Photogenic Name Dropper
    edited August 2021

    Hi @Anita Toth
    That is exactly the direction I'm trying to take. Since my idea to go with a 3rd part was rejected by our exec team, I'm working with my CSMs to to conduct these interviews. The most challenging part is getting the customer to take a phone call with us.


    Other things I'm trying to figure out:
    1. After how many months (median, mean) are the customers churning?
    2. Would it  make more sense to suggest an annual renewal to the org to "buy more time" to prove value (possibly offer a 10% discount if they sign a 6 month or year-long contract)

    Thanks for any other thoughts/ideas, everyone!

  • Anita Toth
    Anita Toth Member Posts: 246 Expert
    Third Anniversary 100 Comments Photogenic
    edited August 2021

    @Daryl Colborne

    Oh! Now I get what you meant by 'calls' in your previous comment. ???


    You're right, there certainly is a knack to getting customers to book the calls.

    A lot of it depends on your communication patterns with them.

    Also, it never hurts to offer an incentive if you can. 


    I don't know how much you or your team knows about running structured customer interviews. You want to get the best data you can for the time invested (and then get the most out of the data analysis so you can use it to drive action).


    While this presentation is on how to run exit interviews, you can take 95% of it and implement it to train your CSMs to get the most impactful data you can get to help you get a handle on this situation.


    How to Conduct Customer Exit Interviews and Use What You Learn to Fight Churn

    here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPlVSdgoy6o



    Hi @Anita Toth
    That is exactly the direction I'm trying to take. Since my idea to go with a 3rd part was rejected by our exec team, I'm working with my CSMs to to conduct these interviews. The most challenging part is getting the customer to take a phone call with us.


    Other things I'm trying to figure out:
    1. After how many months (median, mean) are the customers churning?
    2. Would it  make more sense to suggest an annual renewal to the org to "buy more time" to prove value (possibly offer a 10% discount if they sign a 6 month or year-long contract)

    Thanks for any other thoughts/ideas, everyone!

    @Daryl Colborne  Before you throw in the towel with 'educated guessing', have you considered running formal customer interviews on this segment to find out what's going on? Best practice is to have a 3rd party do this as it's arm's length and they experts at knowing how to dig deep and get customers to open up. Barring that, it's possible to have your CSMs do the interviews.


    I've attached some questions to help with the decision of hire or run in-house.


    Also happy to chat with you about it, if you want to sort out which option is best.

    Full disclosure: Customer interviews are my bread and butter. 




    100% agree, Ed. And we are doing as much due diligence as possible now to figure that out. I've made the recommendation to leverage a 3rd party to make the calls to the churned customers. That idea was veto'd ? I've had my CSMs reach out and while we've gotten some candid feedback in the few calls we've had, we have no conclusions yet. Without a strong root cause, I realize we are going to have to do some educated guessing.

     






    Original Message:
    Sent: 8/23/2021 8:51:00 AM
    From: Ed Powers
    Subject: RE: Monthly Renewals & Churn

    Daryl, do you know why your customers in this segment are churning? Perhaps your answer lies there. As a former boss of mine always said, "A problem defined is half solved."
  • Daryl Colborne
    Daryl Colborne Member Posts: 50 Expert
    Fourth Anniversary 5 Comments Photogenic Name Dropper
    edited August 2021

    NICCCCCCE!!! Love the incentive idea ��  Some people just can't turn away an Amazon Gift Card.  I may just happen to be one of those people...ha ha!

     


    You're right, there certainly is a knack to getting customers to book the calls.

    A lot of it depends on your communication patterns with them.

    Also, it never hurts to offer an incentive if you can. 


    I don't know how much you or your team knows about running structured customer interviews. You want to get the best data you can for the time invested (and then get the most out of the data analysis so you can use it to drive action).


    While this presentation is on how to run exit interviews, you can take 95% of it and implement it to train your CSMs to get the most impactful data you can get to help you get a handle on this situation.


    How to Conduct Customer Exit Interviews and Use What You Learn to Fight Churn

    here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPlVSdgoy6o



    Hi @Anita Toth
    That is exactly the direction I'm trying to take. Since my idea to go with a 3rd part was rejected by our exec team, I'm working with my CSMs to to conduct these interviews. The most challenging part is getting the customer to take a phone call with us.


    Other things I'm trying to figure out:
    1. After how many months (median, mean) are the customers churning?
    2. Would it  make more sense to suggest an annual renewal to the org to "buy more time" to prove value (possibly offer a 10% discount if they sign a 6 month or year-long contract)

    Thanks for any other thoughts/ideas, everyone!

    @Daryl Colborne  Before you throw in the towel with 'educated guessing', have you considered running formal customer interviews on this segment to find out what's going on? Best practice is to have a 3rd party do this as it's arm's length and they experts at knowing how to dig deep and get customers to open up. Barring that, it's possible to have your CSMs do the interviews.


    I've attached some questions to help with the decision of hire or run in-house.


    Also happy to chat with you about it, if you want to sort out which option is best.

    Full disclosure: Customer interviews are my bread and butter. 




    100% agree, Ed. And we are doing as much due diligence as possible now to figure that out. I've made the recommendation to leverage a 3rd party to make the calls to the churned customers. That idea was veto'd ? I've had my CSMs reach out and while we've gotten some candid feedback in the few calls we've had, we have no conclusions yet. Without a strong root cause, I realize we are going to have to do some educated guessing.

     






    Original Message:
    Sent: 8/23/2021 8:51:00 AM
    From: Ed Powers
    Subject: RE: Monthly Renewals & Churn

    Daryl, do you know why your customers in this segment are churning? Perhaps your answer lies there. As a former boss of mine always said, "A problem defined is half solved."