Understanding Your Involuntary Churn

Usually subscription churn is when customers actively choose to stop subscribing to your product. However, this is only part of the churn, what is usually called the voluntary churn. But what do you know about your involuntary churn? Studies show that it can make up about 20-40% of the total churn, according to PriceIntelligently.

Involuntary churn occurs due to system errors, incorrect customer flows, poor data quality, outdated customer payment information or that the payment provider denies the transaction.

Here's a simple three step process to understand at start mitigating your involuntary churn:

1. Understand the Numbers. Go through all subscribers who've churned during the last 3-6 months and categorize exactly why and how they churned. Has it been an active decision from the customer or was it involuntary?
2. Map the Flows. For subscribers which has involuntarily churned, you must understand what led to this non-decision. For example, it might be a payment flow that automatically denies and churns customers.
3. Find Solutions. For each of the flows or pain-points you should brainstorm solutions to bring down the churn. Make a plan and start iterating it in your organisation. See what works and adapt accordingly.

All subscription businesses are unique, and it is important to understand your own numbers, and find your own solutions. Solutions might include: Notifying customers that they must update credit cards, change limits towards the payment provider or to update product codes / renewal chains in your subscription management platform.

Learn more about churn prediction here.

Do you need help analysing your churn and finding solutions? Get in touch for a discussion.