The reasons a customer may stop using your product are so varied, it may sometimes feel like you have little to no control over attrition rates.
We’ve combed through the research on customer churn and identified the top 12 reasons your customers abandon ship, and how to combat them. Use these tips to improve retention, increase upsell, and improve customer advocacy, regardless of industry or vertical.
01
Show them the value of their investment
RISK
When customers are left to their own devices, they’re more likely to stop engaging shortly after sign up, and may lose sich or your product’s long-term value for their company.
BENEFIT
Customers who are actively engaged during the entire journey, not just after the sign up process, will remain confident in the ROI of their investment.
SOLUTION
Encourage long-term engagement by establishing goals and metrics early on and holding regular business reviews to ensure they are on track. Guide them through the onboarding and adoption phases, and continue to nurture them through the entire journey.
02
Ramp up quickly
RISK
It’s easier for customers to abandon a process they’re only part-way through. A slow implementation creates numerous opportunities for them to stall setup.
BENEFIT
Customers with fully built-out accounts are more likely to become dedicated participants and advocates of your product, particularly if you are regular engage with them to keep them active.
SOLUTION
Support them throughout implementation by helping them define their key goals, establishing buy in from their leadership, and building a customer journey map that guides them through set up and notifies you if the process stalls.
03
Support their flexible, changing teams
RISK
When the teams using your product change, the level and quality of interactions with your product can change too. Engagement can slip through the cracks as team dynamics shift, so make sure new members are onboarded quickly so they can become product advocates.
BENEFIT
Consistent interactions with your customers supports ongoing education and visibility of your product.
SOLUTION
Start by establishing a schedule of check ins with their team. If you notice a decline in interactions, proactively engage with additional team members and management, and offer training for new users to keep your product top of mind.
04
Identify and monitor key engagement metrics
RISK
If customers aren’t taking full advantage of your product’s feature set, they may only be scratching the surface of what it can do for them.
BENEFIT
Customers who adopt and utilize your product to its fullest potential gain the most value from it, and are likely to remain loyal customers month after month.
SOLUTION
Set clear parameters within your product to signal stagnant, poor, or declining customer engagement. For example, a decrease in general usage and engaged users, or an increase in support tickets. Then, offer training and support to guide customers back into full adoption and utilization.
05
Provide clear, tangible benchmarks for their success
RISK
If it’s difficult to see how a product is meeting or exceeding their goals, your customers may submit an increasing number of support tickets and openly question the product’s value.
BENEFIT
Customers who can clearly define and measure the metrics for their success within your product can prove its value to their team and management.
SOLUTION
Help them benchmark their success over time so they can easily see improvements and growth. Show them where they can find statistics that demonstrate the impact of their investment to company stakeholders, too.
06
Be proactive and transparent about feature releases
RISK
Customers who fully utilize your product and submit feature requests may feel like no one is listening to or cares about their feedback—especially if they don’t get a timely response.
BENEFIT
People who submit requests are already engaged with your product, so their feedback should be submitted to your product teams to be considered for future enhancements.
SOLUTION
Continue to engage with them, respond to their requests, and share their feedback with the product team. Truly engaged customers may even be interested in signing up for beta product releases, where they can help test new feature ideas and product usability.
07
Communicate with management
RISK
Changes in management at your client’s company could impact utilization and adoption of your product.
BENEFIT
If you have visibility into your customer’s internal organization, you may pick up on signals of restructuring or shifting roles in leadership.
SOLUTION
Managers are key champions and advocates for your product, and can help others understand it’s value and benefits, so it’s important to proactively reach out to new leaders to stay on top of changing goals and strategies.
08
Be understanding about product shortcomings
RISK
Even the best products have feature gaps and bugs. Customers who are frustrated by these may consistently report the same issues to customer service time and time again.
BENEFIT
Use their engagement with your team and product to solicit meaningful, useful feedback for your product and development teams.
SOLUTION
Support frustrated customers with knowledge and empathy. Communication is important. Let customers know when issues will be fixed, and offer solutions or alternatives when appropriate. And, of course, report all bugs to your development team immediately so they can fix them quickly.
09
Support shifting organizational goals
RISK
As your customers roadmap their futures, they may find that the goals they had a year ago aren’t the goals they’re working towards today.
BENEFIT
If you’ve established an expectation of open communication with your customers, they may ask for more advanced or different features, or a lower fee structure to help meet their goals. You may be able to establish metrics that monitor their progress and offer existing solutions within your product that fit their shifting needs.
SOLUTION
Circulate customer feedback internally to see if there’s a way to scale your product up or down to support client goals. If your product is not delivering the right results, you may need to revise and monitor your internal program goals and performance.
10
Identify product expectations at the start
RISK
Not every potential customer is a fit for your product. But some may still sign up, expecting that it will be close enough to their needs, or that they can improvise with the product to suit their needs.
BENEFIT
The best, most loyal customers are those that have reasonable expectations of your product before they even sign up. It’s important to discuss this upfront, and be clear about what the product can do for them.
SOLUTION
Collaborate internally to open the lines of communications between your team and the sales team. If you’re able to participate in the sales discussion before the deal closes, you can offer a clear path for implementation and onboarding to set reasonable expectations.
11
Align your people with their people
RISK
Not every customer service or onboarding manager will click with every single customer. Customers who feel misunderstood may become frustrated and abandon set up or implementation.
BENEFIT
If you know the communication style of your customers, try to match them with a similar personality on your team to facilitate open, flexible relationships.
SOLUTION
At the beginning of the onboarding process, quickly evaluate who seems to click the best with the customer to determine the best fit.
12
Grow with your customers
RISK
Product alignments can easily slip through the cracks during rapid growth or changes at a company--especially if it’s acquired.
BENEFIT
Leadership at the customer’s organization can advocate for your product during an acquisition, ensuring your place there for the foreseeable future.
SOLUTION
Ask your contacts to make introductions to their new counterparts so you can advocate for your solution. Even if they are already standardized on a different solution, they may be open and ready for change.
