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Companies today are facing a major challenge: customer churn. With customers increasingly switching providers, companies must find ways to understand why customers are leaving and act quickly to retain them. The key to reducing customer churn is to analyze customer data and take action to improve customer retention.
To do this, companies need to follow a process for customer churn analysis. Guessing why customers are leaving is not enough; companies need to take a systematic approach to understanding customer churn.
In this post, we will explore the steps to analyze customer churn and how to reduce it with machine learning.
Customer churn is anytime a customer stops buying a company's products or services over a given time period. SaaS companies, for instance, experience churn whenever customers unsubscribe or otherwise drop off.
Companies that rely on subscription services, or high-volume customer bases, need to keep track of customer churn and analyze it in order to optimize their customer experience and optimize their customer engagement, customer lifetime value (LTV), monthly recurring revenue (MRR), and other key performance indicators (KPIs).
Customer churn analysis is the process of examining data on existing and past customers, such as credit card usage, customer support ticket data, and other types of customer interaction data, in order to gain valuable insight into how to optimize customer success and reduce future churn and the customer attrition rate.
By analyzing customer churn metrics, SaaS companies can also gain an understanding of the types of customers they have and how to optimize their customer acquisition costs. With a better understanding of customer churn, they can retain more existing customers, acquire more new customers, and realize a higher lifetime value from those customers.
The process of analyzing customer churn can also help SaaS companies understand their customer's lifecycle, identify any time periods with a high churn rate, and identify any lost revenue due to voluntary churn or involuntary churn due to lack of functionality. With this churn data, subscription businesses can understand what actions they need to take, such as improving customer support, or adding new features or functionality, in order to increase retention rate.
Using customer churn analytics, SaaS companies can gain real-time insights into their customer base, understand the types of churn, and use cohort analysis to identify the most valuable customers.
Churn analysis is a crucial tool for companies to use when it comes to customer retention. It helps them identify which customers might be at risk for churn and take necessary steps to retain them.
In this section, we will explain the step-by-step process of churn analysis to help companies better understand and utilize this vital tool.
Data is the fuel for all analytical processes, and churn analysis is no exception. As companies move to better understand customer behavior and anticipate churn, the first step is to collect the right data from customers.
Demographic, firmographic, behavioral, and psychographic data are all key components in understanding customer churn. Demographic data includes age, gender, location, and income.
If you're an eCommerce store selling children's clothes, for instance, you may find that mothers are less likely to churn than fathers. Firmographic data includes company size, industry, and company type. A large company with deep pockets may be less likely to churn than a small startup.
Behavioral data includes customer interactions with your company, such as website visits, purchase history, and customer service inquiries. This helps you identify potential churners and intervene. Clients who didn't receive a timely, helpful customer service response may be more likely to churn.
Finally, psychographic data includes customer attitudes, beliefs, and values. If you can identify shared values between customers, you may be able to target them with specific offers and messages that will make them less likely to churn.
By collecting the right data from customers, you can assess your current situation and take the necessary steps to reduce churn. With the right data in hand, you can create a churn reduction plan that is tailored to your unique set of customers.
The second step in churn analysis is to segment customers based on relevant factors. While every individual customer is unique, groups of customers share certain characteristics and behaviors that can be analyzed to reduce churn.
For instance, consider pricing plans. Customers who are paying a premium price may be less likely to churn than those on a lower-tier plan. You can also segment customers based on the stage at which they left your company. Clients who left early in the onboarding process may have different needs than those who stayed until the end.
Using Akkio, machine learning models uncover segments in your data that are most predictive of churn. These segments allow you to tailor your churn reduction strategy to the individual customer.
In addition, you can consider industry factors such as economic trends, global issues, labor or union policies, and geographical factors such as legal policies, currency, and conversion rates. For example, customers in countries with unstable currencies may be more likely to churn than those in more stable economies.
The third step in churn analysis is to analyze historical data. By looking at the data from previous months and years, you can get an idea of how many customers are leaving each month and year. This allows you to predict future trends and make better decisions about where to focus your efforts.
This kind of high-level, manual analysis overlooks the more detailed patterns in your data. Using advanced analytics tools, you can uncover more granular trends and correlations, such as the impact of customer service interactions on churn.
With sophisticated algorithms, you can identify which customers are most likely to churn and why. This allows you to develop targeted strategies to reduce churn. For instance, you may find that clients who receive a personalized message after their first purchase are less likely to churn.
Analyzing historical data also helps you identify outliers and anomalies. By recognizing patterns in customer behavior, you can pinpoint potential churners before they leave and intervene accordingly.
Next, calculate your churn rate. Customer churn rate is calculated by dividing the number of customers who stopped using your product during a given period by the total number of customers at the beginning of that period.
For instance, if 100 customers started using your product in March but only 90 remained by April, then your monthly customer churn rate for March would be 10%. Annualized, a 10% monthly churn rate is 72%. In comparison, a 3% monthly churn rate is 31% annualized.
Clearly, the higher the churn rate, the more urgently you need to take action. If your churn rate is high, you can choose correctional measures that are more drastic and easier to implement. If your churn rate is lower, you can invest time and resources in better customer research, customer service, and innovation.
By understanding your churn rate, you can better prioritize your resources and focus on the areas that will yield the greatest results. This allows you to minimize customer attrition and maximize customer loyalty.
The fifth step in churn analysis is to use predictive analytics to identify trends in churn by customer segments. By using machine learning and data science models, you can identify trends such as at which stage customers are most likely to leave, for what reason, and which channels customers are most likely to appreciate communication in order to be retained.
You can also use predictive analytics to predict future trends based on past data, as well as identify opportunities for improvement. The best way to apply predictive analytics is to use a tool like Akkio, which is a solution that comes with ready-to-use statistical models built for churn prediction.
Traditionally, businesses would need to build data pipelines, collect and clean data, and then run complex statistical models. With Akkio, however, the entire process is simplified and automated, making it easy to identify churn trends and take the necessary steps to reduce customer attrition.
Below, you can see what an Akkio churn analysis model looks like. Simply enter some sample values to generate a prediction of whether the customer will churn.
Finally, it's important to remember that your insights are only as good as the action you take. Once you've identified areas for improvement, make changes to your product or service and monitor their impact over time.
For instance, if you identified customer service issues as the primary driver of churn, you can invest in better customer service training and better customer service tools. Alternatively, if you identified a poor onboarding experience as the primary driver of churn, you can invest in a better onboarding process.
It may be that competitive pressures are driving customers away. In this case, you can invest in better pricing strategies, better marketing, and better product features.
Akkio's platform makes it easy to take action on your insights. With Akkio, you can create segmented customer journeys and tailor your messaging to each segment. This allows you to target specific customers with offers and messages that will make them less likely to churn.
You can also use Akkio's analytics and reporting tools to monitor the impact of your changes over time. This helps you identify other areas for improvement and repeat the process until your customer churn rate is as low as possible.
By following these six steps, you can effectively analyze your customer churn rate and take the necessary steps to reduce it. With the right data, predictive analytics, and actionable insights, you can create a churn reduction plan that is tailored to your unique set of customers.
Customer churn is a major challenge for businesses today. It’s important for companies to understand why customers are leaving and take action to reduce churn.
By following the six steps outlined in this post—collect the right data, segment customers, analyze historical data, calculate churn rate, use predictive analytics to identify trends, and take action—companies can effectively reduce customer attrition and maximize customer loyalty.
Akkio is an easy-to-use platform that makes it easy to analyze customer churn. With Akkio, companies can create segmented customer journeys, tailor messaging, and monitor the impact of their changes over time. By using Akkio’s predictive analytics and reporting tools, companies can reduce customer churn and maximize customer loyalty.
Beyond churn analysis, Akkio can be used for a variety of other business purposes, such as fraud detection and lead scoring. Try Akkio today and see how it can help your business.