3 Proven Ways to Use Customer Insights to Tackle Churn

Churn is like watching guests leave your party early—after you’ve spent all that effort planning and hosting. You’ve put in so much work to bring in new customers, onboard them, and support them, only to see them slip away. And it’s not just the revenue loss that stings; it’s the nagging worry that your product might be losing its edge. Are competitors stealing your spotlight?

Here’s why churn is such a headache: Every customer that walks away represents lost upsell opportunities, missed referrals, and, most crucially, a potential red flag. If the churn includes your core customers, you’ve got a bigger problem than you might think.

But here’s an interesting twist: not all churn is bad. And sometimes, trying to win back every customer isn’t the smartest strategy. The real secret is understanding why your customers are leaving and focusing on retaining the ones that truly matter.

Here’s what we’re going to explore:

1. Understand which churn requires action and what to ignore.

2. Find new opportunities to retain and expand your customer base.

3. Improve the onboarding experience to help customers see value faster.

Let's break this down.

1. Understand what part of your churn to act on (and what to ignore)

Your product wasn’t built to serve every use case under the sun, and that’s okay. The key is recognising which customers are within your core audience and which aren’t.

Picture this: you’ve designed a tool to simplify engineering drawings. Now, someone tries to use it for woodworking projects. They quickly realise it’s missing some woodworking-specific features and decide to leave. It’s not because your product is bad; it’s because they were never the right fit in the first place. When the churn comes from outside your core audience, there’s no need to panic.

Here’s what to do:

1. Conduct 10-15 interviews with a variety of your customers. Speak to people in different roles, company sizes, and use cases. Look for patterns in how they use your product. From this, create task-based personas and rate them as "core" or "tangential." This step helps you identify who your product really serves best.

2. Next, dive into your CRM data to segment these personas. Tag each customer, so when the next churn happens, you’ll know if it’s from a group that should concern you or one you can afford to let go.

Here’s the key thing to remember: When the churn comes from your core audience, it’s time to act. If it’s not, take a deep breath and move on.

2. Find opportunities to retain & win more

Have you ever thrown discounts at a churned customer in the hope they’ll come back? You’re not alone. Many companies try to win back customers this way, thinking a little price cut will change their mind. But here’s the fundamental truth: you can’t win back someone if your product doesn’t meet their needs. And honestly, why would you want to if they’re not part of your ideal customer base?

Instead, use customer insights to dig deeper into what your best customers do need. What other challenges do they face in their day-to-day work? This is where you can explore new ways to make your product stickier and attract more of the right customers.

To get started:

1. Have conversations with 5-10 current customers. Ask them about their biggest challenges in their roles and how your product fits into their daily workflow. (And listen closely - you might be surprised at what you learn.)

2. Use these insights to uncover adjacent pain points. For example, maybe they struggle with data management, and your product could integrate more seamlessly with their workflow. By addressing these new challenges, you add more value and give them a reason to stick around.

Remember, it’s about retaining and expanding relationships with the right customers, not chasing everyone who’s left.

3. Activate your ideal customers faster

Here’s a fun fact: The quicker your customers see value in your product, the less likely they are to leave. It’s like making a great first impression - you set the tone for the entire relationship.

So, how do you find out what works? Look for your product’s “aha moment.” That point when your customers realise, "Ah, this is what I’ve been looking for!" Then, figure out what’s stopping others from reaching that moment.

Here’s how:

1. Talk to 5 of your super users. (You know, the ones who sing your praises at every chance.) Ask them when they first saw the product's value and what made them stick around.

2. Then, interview 5 infrequent users or those who never fully activated. Find out what held them back. Was it a confusing feature? Lack of support? Dig in to uncover the roadblocks.

3. Use these insights to refine your onboarding process. Maybe you need to add a quick-start guide, an interactive tutorial, or a series of welcome emails. The goal is to get customers to that "aha moment" as fast as possible to prevent churn before it even starts.

Here’s the key takeaway: An improved onboarding experience means your customers will see value sooner, reducing the risk of them leaving.

Ready to tackle your churn? Let’s work together

Struggling to make sense of your churn data? You're not alone. Understanding why your customers leave and how to keep the right ones can be overwhelming.

That’s where we come in. At Insight Sprint, we help B2B companies dig deep into customer insights to pinpoint why churn happens and what to do about it. From customer interviews to segmentation and actionable retention strategies, we’ll help you focus on what really matters - keeping your ideal customers.

Ready to turn churn into an opportunity? Book a call to discuss how we can tailor a churn analysis and retention strategy for your business. Let’s get started!

TL;DR

Churn is inevitable, but not all churn is bad. Use customer insights to:

1. Identify what churn to act on: Focus on retaining your core audience and ignore the rest.

2. Retain & win more: Explore adjacent pain points of your ideal customers to make your product stickier.

3. Activate customers faster: Improve the onboarding process to help customers see value quickly.

Here’s the encouraging part: With a targeted approach to customer insights, you can transform churn from a problem into a powerful growth opportunity!