Episodes

  • Locking out customers | Loomly's Thibaud ClĂ©ment

    Locking out customers | Loomly's Thibaud Clément

    · Retention Talk
    Topics discussed in this episode:

    Triaging customer feedback

    At Loomly they view retention as a tripod. The customer success team looks at data and helps to work with customers, the engineering team builds features and fixes bugs, and the management team works on growth and strategy. As they grow, the entire team is obsessed with scaling the feedback loop to make sure they stay in touch with customers and understand all concerns.

    Term optimization

    The folks over at Loomly make sure to offer an annual subscription both at sign up and once a monthly user has been using the product for a few cycles. By checking customer behavior and how active they are, they can prompt them with the best value for the customer.

    Locking out customers.

    Locking out a customer can be a last ditch effort to keep them around. By sending dunning emails and communicating the value that will be lost, hopefully you can avoid locking out a customer. But sometimes, it’s the only way to get their attention. Make sure to freeze the account without deleting valuable information in there. That way once you do recover the payment, your user won’t have to reset everything in their account. You don’t want your delinquent churn to turn into an active cancellation.

    This is a ProfitWell Recur production—the first media network dedicated entirely to the SaaS and subscription space.

  • Predicting Churn | ProdPad's Janna Bastow

    Predicting Churn | ProdPad's Janna Bastow

    · Retention Talk
    Topics discussed in this episode:

    Indicators of Engaged Users

    As Janna says, they look for the number of comments on the app as it’s a clear indicator of someone testing it out to see if it works. They also look at if a user is integrating another tool on the app. Folks who fail with integrations and may not post as much aren’t likely to stick around in the long run.

    Predicting Churn

    A huge part of what the folks at ProdPad have been doing is trying to figure out which activities people are or aren’t doing before they churn. The data is transferred to the CS team who then reach out to customers whose usage has dropped off.

    Iterating on Packaging and Pricing

    A big piece that Janna and ProdPad are looking at is how to better package and price the product to provide the proper value at the right size for the right customers. Pricing is a crucial tool in retaining customers and it seems they’ve been doing it right over at ProdPad as Janna says their first customer ever is still with them.

    This is a ProfitWell Recur production—the first media network dedicated entirely to the SaaS and subscription space.

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  • Focusing on second month retention | Winc's Jai Dolwani

    Focusing on second month retention | Winc's Jai Dolwani

    · Retention Talk
    Topics discussed in this episode:

    Options to provide when cancelling

    With wine delivery, Winc often runs into problems with delivery when no one is able to sign for the package which can lead to cancellations. In the cancelation flow they make sure to address this issue by educating customers on alternative options they may not have thought of such as getting it delivered to a FedEx location or a local Walgreens.

    Focusing on the second month retention

    At Winc, they use a first time incentive to acquire customers. Delivering a fantastic product is great, but it's about setting the right expectations and then delivering on those expectations month over month.

    Using NPS to understand holes in the customer experience

    When Jai first started, he discovered through NPS that there was a big hole in product availability. Despite pandemic struggles, the team was able to rally around getting the number of products that customers were asking for on the site. With CAC increasing year over year, they have been able to drive higher LTV by being on top of the latest wine trends and making sure more SKUs were available to their customers

    This is a ProfitWell Recur production—the first media network dedicated entirely to the SaaS and subscription space.

  • The customer isn't always right | Kelly Yanke Deltener

    The customer isn't always right | Kelly Yanke Deltener

    · Retention Talk
    Topics discussed in this episode:

    Keeping churned customers in the company biome

    During the cancellation process the team asks questions but is careful not to over do it. Customers can still keep their account and still get access to the free tools and white papers that are available. Kelly understands that a cancelled customer does not necessarily mean they are gone for good so they make it easy to return.

    Figuring out what a successful customer looks like

    It isn’t always an easy task but replicating success is tantamount to reducing churn. When you examine your app and look for movement patterns it can become clear where your efforts should be doubled and even tripled. Successful customers make churn an afterthought.

    The customer isn’t always right

    As Kelly says, the biggest mistake a product team or a company can make is allowing the customers to drive the bus when it comes to the roadmap. You have to reset yourself constantly and align to what the market fit is or the product fit is for the user that you're trying to solve the problems for. Low hanging fruit can be tempting but getting distracted by the things that there isn’t a market fit for can be deadly.

    This is a ProfitWell Recur production—the first media network dedicated entirely to the SaaS and subscription space.

  • Retaining through activations | Meister's Kevin Kuhn

    Retaining through activations | Meister's Kevin Kuhn

    · Retention Talk
    Topics discussed in this episode:

    Moving away from the "solution-first" mindset

    As Kevin puts it, they try not to just keep fixing every single problem a customer comes to them with. Instead they gather data around the underlying problem and use that to improve the product. Instead of making faster horses, Meister is trying to evolve into cars.

    Activation is the first step in retention

    If folks sign up but don’t activate, writing an email to ask what happened can illuminate problems in your onboarding process. A customer who doesn’t understand the product in the first place is unlikely to stick around and boost your LTV.

    Build a strong relationship with other teams

    Sometimes there can be a natural tension between product and other teams. Kevin says, the solution is to work together with customer success and sales because all teams have contact with the user. Additionally, people who come through your self-service funnel are just as important as customers who sign up through the sales team, and oftentimes these are people who are educated about your product and interested to move forward with what they already know.

    This is a ProfitWell Recur production—the first media network dedicated entirely to the SaaS and subscription space.

  • Knowing when the customer journey is over | Supercast's Jason Sew Hoy

    Knowing when the customer journey is over | Supercast's Jason Sew Hoy

    · Retention Talk

    Check out the full writeup here.

    Topics discussed in this episode:

    Going to where your customers already are

    Supercast has a philosophy to not try and take listeners away from the platforms they are familiar with. They are able to cut down the number of steps for fans to support their favorite podcast enabling Supercast to have an advantage in keeping folks around due to the inherent value of being easy to get to.

    Making cancellation reasons easily accessible to the team.

    At Supercast, they feed all reasons for cancellation into one slack channel. This way as Jason says, he can check in periodically to determine if there is a trend or just bad luck.

    Understanding the customer journey

    Not all cancellations are due to a bad impression. For business models like podcasting, there is an extent to customer satisfaction. The reason they may be discontinuing your service is because customers have used it to the outcome that they were expecting.

    This is a ProfitWell Recur production—the first media network dedicated entirely to the SaaS and subscription space.

  • Two ways to segment churn | Close's Liz Stephany

    Two ways to segment churn | Close's Liz Stephany

    · Retention Talk

    Check out the full writeup here.

    Topics discussed in this episode:

    Eating your own dog food

    It’s essential to know how your products work from a customer perspective. At Close, Stephany says that the sales and CS team both use the product on a day to day basis. It’s easy to put yourself in the shoes of your customers when you already are there in the first place

    Learning from customer feedback

    When you listen to your customer, you will no longer have to wonder what is wrong with your product or how you can make them stay. They will proactively point out the areas in your product that they want improved. The key however is to act on that feedback, don’t just write it down.

    The two buckets of churn

    Putting churn into two buckets: avoidable churn and unavoidable churn. If you’ve done your offboarding properly, you’ll know if a customer left due to a reason that is within your control or not. Focusing on responses you get from surveys that contain something like a lack of a feature request, an adoption issue, and so on will empower you to observe fixable trends to give retention a boost.

    This is a ProfitWell Recur production—the first media network dedicated entirely to the SaaS and subscription space.

  • Automating churn reduction | Workpuls' Maja Rajić Milivojević

    Automating churn reduction | Workpuls' Maja Rajić Milivojević

    · Retention Talk

    Check out the full writeup here.

    Topics discussed in this episode:

    Drive automation to form as many connections as possible

    Segmenting clients is the first step in retaining them. Different clients have different MRR and different needs. Utilizing automation tools to determine segments will cut time spent in figuring out customer problems to get quicker answers.

    Gather information in the cancellation flow

    We talk a lot about adding friction to the cancellation process but Maja illuminated that often times different segments require different cancellation processes. It might be better to reach out to enterprise level clients preemptively whereas smaller to medium customers require help from support at the point of cancellation.

    Be proactive about term optimization

    If you have a customer for a few months and usage looks good, you can use push notifications or emails to ask them if they’ve considered upgrading. Using a discount is a great way to get folks to upgrade as well.

    This is a ProfitWell Recur production—the first media network dedicated entirely to the SaaS and subscription space.

  • How to leverage cancellations | Who Gives A Crap's Jenna Tanenbaum

    How to leverage cancellations | Who Gives A Crap's Jenna Tanenbaum

    · Retention Talk

    Check out the full writeup here.

    Topics discussed in this episode:

    Utilizing Social Proof

    Search your company name, a hashtag, or other key phrases on twitter to see what folks are saying about you. Automation and outsourcing is your friend here if the operation becomes too time intensive. Otherwise set up a time periodically to review any social proof that is out there.

    Implementing exit surveys to figure out reasons for churn

    There are all sorts of reasons folks will stop using your product. Adding a little bit of friction to the cancellation process can have a big impact on unlocking retention solutions. In the case of Jenna and Who Gives a Crap, some folks may just be re-engaging in a non-subscription manner.

    Communicate early and often

    The team at Who Gives a Crap makes sure to stay on top of their delinquent churn with dunning emails. When they noticed a high churn rate in Australia, they did some digging and found out that the hyperlink to update payment systems wasn’t working. Fortunately they caught it early due to consistent tracking and checking in with their metrics.

    This is a ProfitWell Recur production—the first media network dedicated entirely to the SaaS and subscription space.

  • Retaining customers one bag at a time | Trade Coffee's Mike Lackman

    Retaining customers one bag at a time | Trade Coffee's Mike Lackman

    · Retention Talk

    Check out the full writeup here.

    Topics discussed in this episode:

    Acquiring customers the “right” way

    At Trade Coffee, they use data to make sure they get people coffee that they are guaranteed to love. There's a bright line between doing what’s necessary to acquire the right kind of customers the right way versus acquiring customers and figuring out how to retain them later.very single interaction with your customer is either a value-add or a value-diminishing interaction.A VOC (voice of the customer program) survey can very easily be a value-diminishing action. Asking for a lot of information takes time. But it doesn’t have to be a survey per se. Get creative. Look at or evaluate through a community forum, review sites, and more.

    Retaining customers one bag at a time

    Mike talked a lot about focusing on the experience had with the product on a single unit basis. Did they like the taste of the coffee? Did the bag show up on time? Did they make some sort of customization to their order? By providing the best experience possible, retention becomes second nature.

    Reduce the friction of your cancellation process
 but don’t eliminate it entirely

    Making your cancellation process difficult isn’t going to inspire a customer to come back down the line. Try to figure out why the customer is cancelling. You may not be able to change their mind at the moment, but you can figure out how to prevent future cancelations for the same reason.

    This is a ProfitWell Recur production—the first media network dedicated entirely to the SaaS and subscription space.

  • 5 Key Strategies for User Retention

    5 Key Strategies for User Retention

    · Retention Talk

    Check out the full writeup here

    Topics discussed in this episode:

    Having an outcome-focused product roadmap

    First we look back at our first episode with Oscar Carlsson of Framer. His advice was to have an outcome-focused product roadmap. Rather than worry about different features and capabilities, Oscar described how the entire company was aligned about segmenting their buyer personas and the outcomes they were working toward. This led to a laser focus for the entire company to radically shift, not only the distribution channel, but their product itself.

    Breaking down customer cohorts

    Next we look at our episode with the crew over at Knowledgehook. They advised to break down customer cohorts. At Knowledgehook there are three key people: there is the end user who uses the tool, there is the economic buyer, and there is the technical decision maker. They have assigned individual storyboards for each of these which help with pushing deals forward. Additionally, they have created story cards for each team on customer success so that they know the journey for teachers and district leaders. These storyboards and cards are helpful but only illuminate what’s on the surface. They still double click in to individuals to understand common bottlenecks in the customer experience.

    Retention starts with onboarding

    Next, Romain Pouillon of Beatport told us that retention starts with onboarding. Before retaining a customer, you have to instill the value that your product provides. At first, retention will seem to be all over the map, but this is no cause to panic. Over time as you improve your product and correspond it to the needs of your customers, numbers will naturally start to normalize. The best thing you can do upfront is ensure your onboarding is in a good place. Check in with your team weekly and ensure that the tweaks, large or small, are affecting the numbers you are tracking.

    Letting certain customers churn

    Let’s take it back to our episode with Oscar Carlsson. He had some great advice about customer churn. Though it sounds counterintuitive, letting certain customers go is a good thing. You want to focus your efforts and resources on those customers that are going to provide a higher lifetime value.

    Have a cross-functional approach

    And last, let’s look at our conversation with Kelly Danahy of CompanyCam. Kelly advised to have a cross-functional approach.Above everything else, a cross-functional approach is crucial to retention and it shouldn’t just be up to customer success. Aligning sales, marketing, and even product gives CompanyCam a holistic approach to making sure customers succeed.

    This is a ProfitWell Recur production—the first media network dedicated entirely to the SaaS and subscription space.

  • Voice of the customer, dunning strategy, and customer loyalty | GoSite's Danielle Rojas

    Voice of the customer, dunning strategy, and customer loyalty | GoSite's Danielle Rojas

    · Retention Talk

    Check out the full writeup here.

    Topics discussed in this episode:

    Nailing the core principles of the Voice of the Customer Program

    Every single interaction with your customer is either a value add or a value diminishing interaction. A VOC survey can very easily be a value diminishing action. Asking for a lot of information takes time. But it doesn’t have to be a survey per se. Get creative. Look at or evaluate through a community forum, review sites, and more.

    If you don’t have a dedicated dunning strategy: get one

    Having a sole individual responsible for reaching out to customers about failed payments is better than nothing. However, adding some sophistication to the process isn’t as difficult as you might think. Sending automated emails or implementing winback campaigns can go a long way
 okay we may be a bit biased
 we wrote the book on churn. Literally.

    The two kinds of customer loyalty to focus on: Behavioral and Attitudinal

    Behavioral loyalty involves customers who are renewing month over month or year over year (depending on your payment term). Attitudinal loyalty is about willingness to trust the business, willingness to forgive bad experience, and willingness to refer a friend. Evaluating this loyalty against net revenue and logo retention reveals discrepancies in order to close the gap.

    This is a ProfitWell Recur production—the first media network dedicated entirely to the SaaS and subscription space.

  • Expansion revenue, CX perpetuity, and maintaining focus | Pipeliner's John Golden

    Expansion revenue, CX perpetuity, and maintaining focus | Pipeliner's John Golden

    · Retention Talk

    Check out the full writeup here.

    Topics discussed in this episode:

    The perpetuity of Customer Experience

    A customer’s journey isn’t impervious to ending which means you should be ready to serve at a moments notice. This can be achieved through training videos, help docs, chat features, or even a knowledgeable team member. It’s nice to think that you can just “set it and forget it” when it comes to product usage, but learnings are there to be had.

    Feedback can lead to renewals and expansion

    There are certain metrics you’re going to be able to measure that your customer can’t access, but on the flip side your customers may use your product in a way contrary to what you envisioned. There’s only one way to find out how they feel about your product: ask. As with John Golden, it can be as easy as asking on a scale of one to five how your product shapes up.

    Focusing on the right customers will lead to success

    While it’s easy to think that anyone could be a customer, the reality is your resources are best spent focusing on the right customers. While this is preached with acquisition, it’s very much the same with retention as well. And while your customer profile needs to be specific, you need to be somewhat ready to pivot at a moment's notice. Constant measuring and testing will help you determine if your profiles are accurate or if the notecards you pinned to the bulletin board 3 years ago belong in the trash.

    This is a ProfitWell Recur production—the first media network dedicated entirely to the SaaS and subscription space.

  • Integrating ecosystems, forecasting churn, and onboarding | Beatport's Romain Pouillon

    Integrating ecosystems, forecasting churn, and onboarding | Beatport's Romain Pouillon

    · Retention Talk

    Check out the full writeup here.

    Topics discussed in this episode:

    Integrating with your customer’s ecosystem

    By forcing their users to use only one software, it was not easy to retain customers who had already built out systems on other platforms. This led them to adopt up to 15 different platforms that Link integrates with, shoring up faith in the Beatport product.

    Using segmentation to forecast churn by cohort

    Romain learned that using a broad retention tactic for all customers is not as effective as a calculated winback campaign for individual segments. He noticed usage dropped by streaming fewer and fewer tracks on Link which made it clear a dedicated email to re-engage with the platform was needed.

    Retention starts with onboarding

    The best thing you can do upfront is ensure your onboarding is in a good place. Check in with your team weekly and ensure that the tweaks, large or small, are affecting the numbers you are tracking.

    This is a ProfitWell Recur production—the first media network dedicated entirely to the SaaS and subscription space.

  • Onboarding, customer cohorts, and non-traditional CS | Knowledgehook's Travis Ratnam

    Onboarding, customer cohorts, and non-traditional CS | Knowledgehook's Travis Ratnam

    · Retention Talk

    Check out the full writeup here.

    Topics discussed in this episode:

    Onboarding in a group setting

    Initially, Knowledgehook would onboard district by district with the intent to trickle down the understanding of the product to principals and teachers. They shifted this process to instead onboard multiple districts at one time with key stakeholders present.

    Breaking down customer cohorts

    At Knowledgehook there are three key people: there is the end user who uses the tool, there is the economic buyer, and there is the technical decision maker. They have assigned individual storyboards for each of these which help with pushing deals forward.

    Think outside the traditional CS box

    The Knowledgehook team understands that you cannot have expertise in every single area. If you don’t seek help from different disciplines or outside sources, tunnel vision can lead to structural collapse. A key asset that the team found helpful was sourcing an outside panel of researchers. This panel offers insights into what the value of the product means to them as educators separate from the core team.

    This is a ProfitWell Recur production—the first media network dedicated entirely to the SaaS and subscription space.

  • Better email campaigns, tracking metrics, and aligning teams | CompanyCam's Kelly Danahy

    Better email campaigns, tracking metrics, and aligning teams | CompanyCam's Kelly Danahy

    · Retention Talk

    Check out the full writeup here.

    Topics discussed in this episode: Be proactive when it comes to customer success. You improve what you measure and CompanyCam has been disciplined about tracking and optimizing metrics throughout the entire funnelSmall wins matter. There are a number of tactics they have experimented and improved overtime from driving better email campaigns to even optimizing their upsell to an annual planAbove everything else, a cross-functional approach is crucial to retention and it shouldn’t just be up to customer success. Aligning sales, marketing, and even product gives CompanyCam a holistic approach to making sure customers succeed.

    This is a ProfitWell Recur production—the first media network dedicated entirely to the SaaS and subscription space.

  • Overthinking, hacking retention, and rallying around metrics | Better Proposals' Adam Hempenstall

    Overthinking, hacking retention, and rallying around metrics | Better Proposals' Adam Hempenstall

    · Retention Talk

    Check out the full writeup here.

    Topics discussed in this episode: Don't overthink it. Sometimes the simplest answer is the most effective one. Better Proposals has a culture and framework to experiment at a rapid pace. Don't underestimate the impact that a weekend hackathon can have on your retention.Nothing else matters if you don't measure success. Rally the team around a key set of metrics to make sure you're monitoring the health of your business.

    This is a ProfitWell Recur production—the first media network dedicated entirely to the SaaS and subscription space.

  • Customer surveys, leveraging NPS, and the power of onboarding | Hunt A Killer’s Mary Callaghan

    Customer surveys, leveraging NPS, and the power of onboarding | Hunt A Killer’s Mary Callaghan

    · Retention Talk

    Check out the full writeup here.

    Topics discussed in this episode:Hunt a Killer uses ongoing surveys down to the cohort level to really understand the customer journey and dig up various pain points that customers have every step of the way.They leverage NPS to directly influence the product roadmap. They prioritize what they can do broken down by small and quick wins all the way to longer-term initiatives to really drive customer satisfaction.Mary Emphasizes the importance of onboarding and customer experience. If you build a product that your customers absolutely love, they'll come back.

    This is a ProfitWell Recur production—the first media network dedicated entirely to the SaaS and subscription space.

  • Product roadmaps, leveraging data, and defining churn goals | Framer’s Oscar Carlsson

    Product roadmaps, leveraging data, and defining churn goals | Framer’s Oscar Carlsson

    · Retention Talk

    Check out the full writeup here.

    Topics discussed in this episode:Leveraging data across the entire stack: Empowering your teams across the board to take ownership of certain metrics will help create a data-driven culture, fostering experimentation and data driven decision-makingLetting certain customers churn: Though it sounds counterintuitive, letting certain customers go is a good thing. You want to focus your efforts and resources on those customers that are going to provide a higher lifetime valueHaving an outcome-focused product roadmap: Rather than worry about different features and capabilities, Oscar described how the entire company was aligned about segmenting their buyer personas and the outcomes they were working toward. This led to a laser focus for the entire company to radically shift, not only the distribution channel, but their product itself.

    This is a ProfitWell Recur production—the first media network dedicated entirely to the SaaS and subscription space.

  • Retention Talk Audio Trailer

    Retention Talk Audio Trailer

    · Retention Talk

    Each episode will be jam-packed with key takeaways you can implement or hand off to your retention team.

    Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and get ready to listen to all things retention.

    This is a ProfitWell Recur production—the first media network dedicated entirely to the SaaS and subscription space.

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