Your at-risk customers haven’t left—yet. While their behavior is leaning close to customers that have churned before, history doesn’t need to repeat itself.
Of course, you can’t save all your at-risk customers, but these instances should be few and far between. Before discussing how to save those customers at risk, let’s discuss the signs you should look for. Here is a glimpse of what we’re covering today:
How to identify at-risk customers
- Review your Online Community
- Increase in support tickets
- Tune into Website Tracking
How to proactively save at-risk customers
- A Stellar Customer Onboarding Experience that does all the talking
- Kick start the renewal quickly
- Use automation to monitor customer behavior
- Focus on building an individual relationship
How to identify at-risk customers
Customers can churn for any reason. But it’s pertinent to look at things they are (or aren’t) doing that can be an early indication of leaving. By paying attention to the following, you stand a good chance of keeping your at-risk customers from going.
Even if your customer isn’t satisfied with your company or product, they might not tell you directly. So how do you know whether they’ll stick around or not? One way you can find out is by researching your online community (if you have one). By analyzing your customers’ online behavior, you can immediately reach out to them if you notice anything alarming.
Some of the warning signs include a negative comment or an unsatisfied product review. But knowing is one thing. To save your at-risk customers, you’ll need to invest your time, energy, and resources into the issue and address the problem promptly.
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Increase in support tickets
When there’s a sudden surge in support tickets, there’s possible something that needs attention. See which customers have what problems and help them reach a solution that’s in line with their desired outcome.
Tune into website tracking
You can see if your customers frequently visit your deactivation or cancellation page with a web tracking tool. This is a clear indication that you might be steps away from losing a customer.
Additionally, if your customers aren’t trying to change their account status, that’s also not a good sign. To help, you can reach out to these clients and find out what’s going on. And depending on the severity, you can discuss the issue with your support team.
How to proactively save at-risk customers
Now that you know some of the early warning signs to look for, here are a few battle-tested tips to stop customers from churning:
A stellar customer onboarding experience that does all the talking
A good ‘first-things-first’ is to optimize customer onboarding. For starters, create personalized targets and ensure that they’re not facing any bottlenecks when using your product or service. It might be possible that your at-risk customer are having troubles with product adoption. In such cases, you should provide them with informative materials like how-to videos, webinars, and links.
Kick start the renewal quickly
A good strategy is to remind your customers when their subscription is ending. You’ll also want to spend that time being more proactive with your engagement. Try to solve their potential issues and render additional support before they decide to churn. Your help might help them change their mind about leaving. Also, alleviating a client’s pain points and assuring their decision to renew quickly will see that the renewal goest as planned.
Use automation to monitor customer behavior
It could be challenging for your team members to spend all their time looking for at-risk clients. So let automation handle that. With the right tools, you can quickly determine triggers and detect when there is an at-risk activity. Enabling automation cuts the overload on a CS member to look into the matter manually. Aside from monitoring customer behavior for you, it will ensure that no client’s troubles go overlooked.
Focus on building an individual relationship
Some customers dislike having the majority of their conversations with a brand through a bot. And that is why personalization is the key. Let your customers know that you pay attention to their needs and expectations. They really want to see your care and understand them. Plus, the key to customer loyalty is meeting—even exceeding—their expectations and making them feel important. And if your customer isn’t feeling valued and heard at your company, they’ll go to your competitors that will.
That’s a Wrap
Spot churn quickly by learning how to identify at-risk customers. And ultimately, once you know what customers need your attention—with the right tools—you can help your customers feel understood, be more proactive, and prevent churn.
An implementation engineer with six years of experience is a seasoned professional specialising in implementing and integrating complex systems and technologies for businesses. Possessing a diverse skill set that combines technical expertise, and project management capabilities.
Published November 26, 2020, Updated August 19, 2024
