Churn Reduction Case Study

An Urgent Performance Gap

In early 2025, trend analysis revealed a recurring late-Q1 churn pattern in our customer service organization, one that historically resulted in significant revenue loss. Before a planned price increase had even been announced publicly, I identified that our international vendor teams, many of whom were lower-tenure agents working in a second language, were not equipped to handle the surge of emotionally charged disconnect calls that was coming.

When the price increase was announced, I escalated to senior leadership with data: historical churn trends, projected call driver volumes, and estimated revenue impact per disconnected line. My concern was that the emotional intensity of these calls would spike immediately upon customer bill notification, not gradually, as leadership initially predicted. I proposed a targeted frontline reinforcement program and requested priority scheduling. At first, the project was placed five to six weeks out.

Within the first week of bill notifications going live, we reached projected high-risk churn volumes. Leadership fast-tracked the launch.

Disclaimer: Due to confidentiality and intellectual property considerations, original materials from previous roles cannot be shared. The work shown here has been recreated to reflect and summarize my designs and approach.

Analyze

I needed to understand not just what agents weren't doing, but why. I pulled from call quality data, churn reporting, performance scorecards, and supervisor feedback across our international vendor sites.

A few patterns emerged quickly:

Agents were jumping to solutions before fully acknowledging customer emotion, which caused escalation rather than de-escalation
Discovery questions were weak or skipped entirely and agents weren't uncovering the real reason for the disconnect
Save offers were being presented too early, without first building enough customer trust to make them land
For ESL teams specifically, language and cultural nuance added complexity. Responses that worked in English weren't transferring to the emotional reality of these calls

The gap was the consultative conversation that had to happen first. Agents needed behavioral practice in the moments that mattered most, not more information about policy and products.

Design

I designed a 12-week, multi-channel program built to change behavior fast and sustain it over time.

The full program included:

Five 15-minute experiential learning sessions focused on one consultative behavior at a time: acknowledging emotion, uncovering root concerns, positioning value, handling objections, and presenting save offers
Twelve 5-minute weekly reinforcement videos featuring frontline representatives and executives modeling best-in-class disconnect handling, designed with ESL accessibility and cultural relevance in mind
A capstone microlearning experience built in Articulate Storyline, designed to bring the full behavioral arc together through realistic, scenario-based practice using verbatim pulled from actual customer calls
The capstone was intentionally placed at the end of the program, once agents had built foundational fluency with each individual skill. The goal was application under pressure, not recall. Scenarios were structured so agents had to make real decisions at key emotional inflection points in the call, with branching outcomes that reflected realistic consequences.

For ESL teams, I prioritized plain language, visual cues, and scenario contexts drawn directly from the types of calls these agents were actually receiving. The design had to be accessible without being simplified.

Develop

Given the urgency of the launch, I made deliberate decisions about how to allocate my own time and what to delegate. I focused on microlearning design, strategy, messaging consistency, and outcome alignment. I partnered with a dedicated media team to manage video production at speed.

For the microlearning, I handled the full design and build in Articulate Storyline. Key development decisions included:

Branching scenario architecture so each decision point had meaningful consequences, not just right/wrong feedback
Verbatim from real customer calls to ground the scenarios in the actual language agents were encountering
Visual and audio design calibrated for international learners, avoiding idioms or cultural references that wouldn't translate
Smooth animations and layered states to keep pacing engaging across a 10-15 minute experience

Microlearning Learning Objectives

Week 1: Acknowledging Emotion - Learners will use active listening cues and reflective language to de-escalate emotionally charged customer interactions during disconnect scenarios.
Week 2: Asking Effective Questions - Learners will use open-ended questions to uncover what the customer actually needs.
Week 3: Positioning Value - Learners will apply consultative communication techniques to reframe customer perception of cost or value.
Week 4: Handling Objections - Learners will use structured questioning techniques to uncover the reason behind a customer objection and reposition the appropriate solution based on any new information received.
Week 5: Presenting Save Offers - Learners will present customized save options based on a customer's stated needs.

Capstone Training Deliverable Example

At the close of the program, agents completed a capstone activity designed to bring the full behavioral arc together in one realistic application moment. Built as a scenario-based experience, the capstone asked agents to draw on all five skills: acknowledging emotion, uncovering root concerns, positioning value, handling objections, and presenting save offers.. After seven weeks of reinforcement, this final activity served as both a knowledge refresher and a confidence-building application exercise.

Implement

The program launched to more than 35,000 frontline agents across our internal representatives and international vendor sites. Delivery was structured so the five experiential sessions ran through team huddles and facilitated learning moments, while the reinforcement videos were pushed weekly through our internal comms platform for the start of team meetings. Over the course of 12 weeks, agents received one skill-focused microlearning per week for the first five weeks, each targeting a single consultative behavior. Weekly reinforcement videos ran throughout the full 12-week program, keeping key skills visible and top of mind even after the structured microlearning sequence ended.

The capstone microlearning was assigned through Workday LMS as the culminating activity for the program, with completion tracked against performance milestones. I leveraged my team of analysts to monitor completion rates, call quality data, and churn metrics in real time throughout the rollout and made content adjustments when data indicated specific behaviors weren't shifting as expected.

Evaluate

Churn dropped from approximately 12% to 6.3% over the course of Q2 2025, representing millions of dollars in preserved revenue. I was recognized with the Customer Service Operations Q2 2025 Impact Award.

The program validated a design approach I'll carry forward: short-form, behavior-specific learning, modeled by credible voices, built for the learner's real context, and reinforced over time, changes frontline behavior in ways that a single training event simply cannot.

The microlearning format gave agents a low-stakes space to practice the hardest moments before they faced them on a live call.

Takeaway: When learning is designed around the actual moments where behavior breaks down, not just the content agents need to know, it protects revenue, improves the customer experience, and builds agent confidence at the same time.

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