My dad died in January and since then I have been checking his email accounts. (I’m the executor of his will and don’t want anything to fall through the cracks.) This morning, he received an email from Sam’s Club saying, “We notice you haven’t visited us recently and your membership expired on June 13, 2021. Can you spare a minute to give us some feedback?”
First, some kudos. They saw that a customer churned out and they probably have a campaign to try to bring the customer back. This is smart. But it’s too late.
A better strategy would have been to notice the customer hadn’t visited recently and reach out before the subscription expired.
To be fair, my dad isn’t re-subscribing no matter what they do, but this is a good lesson for all of us.
Losing a customer is painful, but it’s easy to detect. We know when someone stops paying us. And yes, trying to recapture the customer is probably smart. But waiting until they stop paying is usually too late.
On the other hand, not knowing a customer is about to churn out isn’t painful. It’s just a customer who hasn’t yet renewed. We can go about our business oblivious to what might happen in the near future.
But what if you knew which customers were about to churn? You likely have more opportunity to turn the customer around before they unsubscribe. I haven’t seen a statistic, but it must be easier to keep a customer than win one back after they unsubscribe.
What are you doing to predict who will churn? If Sam’s club knew my dad wasn’t visiting the store in Feb, Mar, or Apr, maybe they should have started the campaign to keep him then, not wait until two months after he unsubscribed. What information do you have or can you collect that will help you predict who might churn?
When someone churns, they are saying that they no longer think the value they receive is worth the price. Your company needs to help customers continue to receive value. Look for indicators that your customers aren’t receiving value and work to promote more usage. Be proactive, not just reactive.
