Oct 16, 2018 Written by David Barlev

Transparency Is The Secret Weapon To Churn Reduction

Reducing churn is a top priority for any SaaS business out there that hopes to survive long-term. You will find yourself consistently losing customers for a wide variety of reasons:

  • Bad customer fit
  • Poor customer service
  • Lack of customer success planning
  • Insufficient onboarding process
  • Product or service glitches
  • Pricing and value discrepancies
  • Unknown reasons or things you can’t control

Figuring out why people are leaving is the key to solving the problem, so you can unlock the mystery of what your customers require to stay happy long-term.

Some SaaS companies get the offboarding process completely wrong. But not you. After reading this article, you will not be one of those companies who succumbs to the urge to make it as hard as possible for customers to leave you. Instead of grasping at straws to reduce the amount of customers walking out the door, you’re going to embrace the challenge. You’re going to change your mindset and view every single lost customer as an opportunity to do better.

When you change your mindset about the mission of your onboarding process, it becomes a lot easier to see how you can use this to your advantage.

The secret ingredient to a great offboarding process? Transparency.

One unique element that all SaaS companies need to take full advantage of is the insight into the behaviours of their customers. Many companies and industries would kill for the ability to see what their customers are doing and when, so the significance of this shouldn’t be overlooked. This insight should give you the ability to start seeing problems early, and recognizing the signs when someone is about to leave.

When you couple the genuine desire to understand the customer success gaps along with complete and utter transparency in your offboarding process, you will be able to significantly impact your churn rates in the best possible way.

transparency creates churn reduction

Here are some ways to use transparency to create an onboarding process that’s capable of saving the relationship.

Create an Easy-To-Use Offboarding Workflow

Ensure that people can easily access the cancel button, but make sure you’re walking them through a simple yet impactful workflow, too. Without making it difficult to delete their account, offer them some easy-click options to tell you why they’re leaving. Maybe they don’t know how to use the platform, or perhaps it’s too expensive. Each option can be delivered with a solution to solve their immediate problem, or cancel anyway.

Never make it hard to cancel, but always provide a solution to the main problem that’s causing them to leave you. Offer educational opportunities, customer support, and anything else relevant to each specific selection.

Continue Customer Success Through the Offboarding Process

It’s not you – it’s me. Someone breaking up with you doesn’t mean they don’t like you. Maybe it’s just not the right time. Whatever the reason is, don’t kick them to the curb once they’ve cancelled.

Use the offboarding process workflow to continue to educate your customers, and keep pushing them towards customer success with educational content and tutorials. It puts their needs first, and gives them a reason to come back if and when they’re ready. This also keeps the communication lines open and demonstrates your commitment to customer service.

Provide Easy Access to Your Cancellation Policy

Transparency is about empowering your customers to make decisions that are right for them. If you aren’t making it easy for them to understand basic things like your cancelation policy, you’re opening the doors for confusion, frustration, and a poor customer experience.

You’ll have people who register one day and pay for an annual subscription. The very next day? They want a full refund. Maybe you allow this, maybe you don’t. Whatever your policy is, it needs to be crystal clear and easily accessible. You want to ensure they see it before they buy, and have continued access to it afterwards.

While customer churn may keep you up at night, it’s much easier to swallow when you use every lost customer as an opportunity to do better. Use your offboarding process to understand what your customers need to be successful, and look for creative ways to make the process simple, transparent, and about the customer.