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Churned customers are great

First of all -- this is an important - churned customer are great. While emotionally, it doesn't feel anywhere as good as getting a new customer, there's a lot of value in what you can learn so you can grow the business even faster.

I keep this quote by Bill Gates on my desk:
👉 Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.👈

If you're able to reach out to speak to your churned customers, they can give you very valuable insights into the product, sales and marketing they encountered while with you.

Most of all, if you can get to the 'real' reasons why they chose the product in the first place and the 'real' reasons why they left, you'll have very powerful data to act on.

The reason I used 'real' is that it takes an in-person interview to get to the deeper levels of understanding that survey or text based answers just don't give. When interviewing in person, you can dig deeper to discover the 'real' reason, not just the answer they think you want to hear. You can ask them probing questions like "Can you tell me more?" which will get you to that more 'real' response.

Most successful companies reach out to churned customers to speak with them in person because they know they can get some really insightful answers that will help them retain more of the their current customers.

And the earlier you can put this into practice for your business, the quicker you'll discover things you didn't know and you can make changes to better the customer experience. The info you get will also improve your product, marketing and sales.

If you're wondering how to structure in-person interviews and what questions to ask there's a section on how to do this in this guide: https://anitatoth.ca/crush-your-churn-guide.

Churned customers don't have to be a negative thing. They can be viewed as an opportunity to learn and to grow.

Hopefully you will see churned customers as an opportunity to learn more so you can grow your business faster. 👍

  1. 1

    I totally agree! In my past experience, we tried all kinds of ways to deal with churn and the insights you can have about your product are priceless! That's one of the reasons I've built Churndler and we'd love to get your feedback about my product.

  2. 1

    Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.

    100% agree with this. Every customer I've failed is a customer I could've helped thrive, so I try to make sure it never happens again. Only way to improve a business is to focus on the reason it exists in the first place, to serve its customers 🙂 - Pavin.

    1. 2

      @mailcheap Pavin -- "Only way to improve a business is to focus on the reason it exists in the first place, to serve its customers" -- you've got it. The earlier any company can put this as their central focus, the faster they will grow--simply because they are seeking to improve as a way to make things better for their customers.

      Thanks for replying. 🙂

  3. 1

    Well said and I totally agree.

    There were even a few times that we reached out to churned customer and asked them why they left, and they came back to us -- because they were previously misinformed. E.g. Thought our app can't do x or y, then after explaining that we were able to do, they came back.

    From there, you can also learn that your UI might need some improvement since people are not finding the things they're looking for, etc.

    1. 1

      @wellymulia What a great thing to have happen! And I'm sure you used that knowledge to better retain your other customers. Everything can be improved when you take the time to speak with customers -- from billing, to product to marketing.
      But it takes time to ask. And it takes humility to listen to their negative opinions of your product.
      Thanks for commenting. 🙂

  4. 1

    Great insights, thanks for sharing!

    1. 1

      @akhilnadendla You're so welcome! I hope you got something out of this post. 🙂

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