Track Churn & At-Risk Customers in Product-Led Growth

The Hidden Cost of Neglecting Churn:

Reflecting on my PLG time, I've learned some hard lessons along the way. I want to share a critical mistake I made in my journey: not utilizing the right tools to track churn. 😔

Let me take you through my experience and the valuable insights I've gained.

The Oversight

In the whirlwind of running Product Led Growth with over 1,000 customers, I found myself overwhelmed with responsibilities. Before, I didn't know about at-risk customers, till they were at-risk…. 😟 Without a proper alert system, I kept missing it... My best attempt at monitoring customer engagement was a basic BI dashboard showing inactive users for more than 90 days. Little did I know how much I was missing.

Red Flags I Overlooked

🛑 Low core activity engagement

🛑 Email unsubscribes

🛑 Low response rates

🛑 Payment failures

These crucial signals were slipping through the cracks, leaving me in the dark about at-risk customers until it was often too late. If I were to do it again, I would build a dashboard that aggregates all of these. So I can report my findings quickly.

The Impact of Churn

Here's what happened when I didn't see it coming:

• Revenue took a nosedive every quarter 📉

• Marketing budget? Drained trying to replace lost customers 💸

• Ex-customers became our biggest critics 🗣️

• New business? Harder to get with all that negative buzz 🐝

• Missed chances to save at-risk customers 🚑

• Growth? What growth? We were just treading water 🏊‍♂️

It's like trying to plug leaks in a sinking ship with your bare hands.

The Toolkit I Wish I Had

If I could turn back time, I'd invest in a robust set of tools to keep a pulse on customer health:

1. Churnkey 🔄

   • Collect churn reasons with exit surveys

   • Provide analysis and reporting

   • Save customers from canceling

2. Baremetrics 📊

   • Track ARR/MRR growth

   • Monitor NRR churn

   • Segment customers effectively

3. Customer Success Platforms (like ChurnZero or Customerscore.io)

   • Implement customer scoring

   • Create and execute playbooks

   • Set up at-risk notifications

Build vs. Buy: My Take

You might be wondering whether to build or buy such a system. Given the number of blindspots I encountered, I strongly advocate for buying. The expertise and comprehensive features these tools offer far outweigh the time and resources required to build something in-house.

The Power of Proactive Churn Management

With a PLG model, the sheer volume of customers can be overwhelming. It's easy to miss critical signals when juggling multiple responsibilities. That's why I now encourage leveraging data to drive growth and combat churn effectively.

Staying ahead of churn isn't just about retaining customers—it's about fostering growth and building a sustainable business. Don't make the same mistake I did. Invest in the right tools, and watch your customer retention soar.

What's your churn-fighting stack? Drop it in the comments! 👇

Read more about Product Led Growth and Churn

1. OMG! 1⁄3 of PLG customers churned

2. The 5 reasons customers churn

3. How to do Churn Analysis for PLG

4. How to Report Churn to Leadership

5. Buffer has more than 5% churn rate. Whats your churn rate?

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I am Gary Yau Chan. 3x Head of Growth. Product Growth specialist. 26x hackathon winner. I write about #PLG and #BuildInPublic. Please follow me on LinkedIn, or read about what you can hire me for on my Notion page.