Meaningful Conversations: The Key To Reducing Churn Rates

How can monthly and even hourly subscription service companies reduce the risk of churn in an ever more competitive and riskier business landscape?

Step in Customer Success Managers with their toolboxes of customer conversation.

Customer Success Managers reduce churn via customer education, coaching, and relationship building –all via old-school conversations– talking on the phone, and sometimes even in person.

Sounds easy, right?

Not so much. Customer Success managers drive strategic and meaningful conversations that require going beyond being a subject matter expert. In fact, these meaningful conversations go beyond technical expertise or product knowledge, and instead, focus on the impact of the product or solution and why that impact is necessary.

Here are 5 tips you can use to jumpstart a meaningful conversation with your customers:

1. Identify the customer’s overall objective with the service or product…and then map out how to get there using SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-oriented) goals. Use the roadmap as a living document to be updated by both you and the customer, weekly or monthly.
2. Ask the customer about any pain points with the product. Remember -- nothing’s perfect, and as much as we’re all evangelists for our products it’s important to be genuine and recognize opportunities –and who knows, maybe you’ll get some product insights for future features. Long story short, turn customer pain-points into insights.
3. Upgrade your customer from ‘masking-tape’ to ‘duct-tape’. Drive customer stickiness through education. Advanced users of products are less likely to walk away.
4. You’re only an acquaintance until you’ve had six points of contact with someone. Don’t automate messaging until you’ve created a solid relationship with your customer, let’s stick with at least three conversations on the phone--success is personal, let’s keep it that way.

5. Send handwritten notes (just like your mother taught you). This is, without a doubt, the antithesis of automated outreach, it is also a thoughtful and often unexpected method of outreach. Consider writing product anniversary cards, e.g. when a subscriber first joined, or a more general thank you note. In a time when automation rules, and commitments are low, it’s nice to have a human touch.