If mitigating churn is a top priority for your organization, you’re in good company. And for good reason! Churn costs organizations billions of dollars annually. But with the power of AI and a burgeoning understanding of Customer Intelligence (CI), we can do more than simply reduce churn – we can crush it! Let’s consider a few of the most effective ways…

Focus on customer value.

Reduce churn: Customers churn because of a lack of perceived value - they can easily see their spend and resource costs, but not always the positive outcomes of your products or services. CS leaders have long understood the importance of making sure customers both get and recognize the most possible value from products or services. 

Now crush it!  CI lets us take this a step further by using data to see exactly where customers’ recognition of perceived value is waning, what products, features or services they are failing to optimize, and where you can provide more personalized support.

Listen actively

Reduce churn: Another time-tested way to reduce churn? Checking on customer satisfaction simply by asking! Surveys, live interviews, and feedback portals provide invaluable insights into customer health if (a big if!) you are able to spend the time and resources to compile, analyze and act on the information they provide! 

Now crush it!  Pulling together and determining actions based on CSAT has traditionally been a challenge, especially for companies with large customer bases (and accompanying data sets). But the data analytics and natural language processing capabilities we have available to us today are making it easier than ever before to make CSAT an essential component of your Customer Intelligence churn-crushing machine. With sentiment analysis and NLP you can quickly identify common themes. AI clustering allows you to quickly and effectively sort and segment customers based on their needs and concerns.

Don't forget to share voice of customer results with all business functions so that they can take data-driven actions specific to their teams that improve your customers’ overall journey.

Show long-time customers the love

Reduce churn: Loyalty programs encourage ongoing customer relationships with your brand. These can take a number of shapes, from discounts for continued business, to early access to features, to regular, direct communication with your executive team. By offering exclusive incentives to specific customers, you can decrease the likelihood that these particular accounts will churn.

Now crush it! A data-driven approach to loyalty means you can identify from early on which types of customers you want to incentivize. Do you want to pay special attention to customers who are likely to upsell and expand?  Do you want a cross-section of customer health?  Or do you want to focus your incentive efforts on those who are struggling?  An all-in-one customer health dashboard lets you both see which customers are right to serve with loyalty programs and measure your program’s impacts over time.

The bottom line

As CS leaders, we need to take a holistic approach to reducing churn, but that approach can be so much more effective with the tools available to us today!  No, it's not just about numbers; it's about understanding your customers and their needs. But using the numbers strategically gives you an unbiased and meaningful understanding of those needs that will take you from churn reduction to churn CRUSHING!!  

Do you have any tips for reducing churn? How are you using Customer Intelligence to crush it?!  We'd love to hear! Share in the comments below.