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Reduce Your Customer Churn – The 17 Types of Churn

A lot of CEO’s and founders are reaching out to me about how they can fight churn which is hitting their customer base during these hard times.

All of them are now, more than ever, aware, that they can’t lose their customers. That churn prevention is arguably the most important thing they can do right now.

Start Growing By Reducing Business Churn

With a difficult year ahead for closing new business, growth now, more than ever, needs to come from upselling and making sure that no revenue is lost in the form of customer attrition.

Combine this with the fact that retaining customers is far cheaper than acquiring new ones, as it does not push hard on the cash flow (in the form of Cost of Acquiring a Customer) and also gives bigger revenue potentials.

It’s a no brainer that you need to invest in a solid churn prevention plan.

Churn spreads like a virus

As the COVID-19 virus spreads across the world and wreaks havoc amongst us, it reminds me that churn behaves in a similar way inside a company.

A healthy company shows low signs of churn and can accommodate a small hit.

On the contrary, companies that already have health issues are now more susceptible to the cold wind of recession and the dangers of the churn germs. Before they know it, they will develop a serious illness, or even worse, when they don’t make sure that their customer base is in excellent condition.

In this article, we will walk you through the 17 churn germs that live in the cracks of your customer base.

You can get the full guide, including signs, prevention- and countermeasures, in our free eBook!

Want to fight Churn? Here’s your free eBook!

In this eBook, you will get hands-on, practical know-how about:

The 17 types of churn and how you spot them early
How you can prevent every type of churn
How you can overcome them if they’re already there

The 17 Types of Churn in Business

1. The Penny Pinchers

Penny Pinchers are the customers that lost (a part of) the budget to buy your solution or product, or are focused on cutting expenses and/or cost-aware.

2. The Sleeping Dogs

Sleeping dogs are ‘Sleeping’ customers that hardly make use of your solution and are disengaged.

3. Bad Fit Customers

A customer who is unable to receive (sufficient) value from your product/service, because there is a mismatch between his needs and your offering.

4. Prisoner

A customer that’s stuck in the customer lifecycle and can’t move forward / get out of that stage (for example onboarding).

5. Lost Ambassador

A customer who used to be your close friend/main point of contact and now left the company (without having a good replacement).

6. The Victim

A customer who is attempting to use your product, but is frustrated because all the issues they encounter when using your product.

7. Acquired Customers

A customer who has been acquired by another company, which stalls all decisions or brings a competing solution to the table.

8. Busy Bee Customers

A customer who is not willing to put the effort into utilizing your product.

9. Misfit Customers

Customers who have a personal mismatch, causing personal disagreements.

10. Unguided Missile

A customer who goes in every direction (except the target), losing themselves and the rest of the organization along the way.

11. Sledgehammer

This customer is so focused on his target, that he is not paying attention to parts of the organization that need more time to change their process (losing buy-in along the way).

12. Puppy Customers

A customer who needs support and guidance, but is left helplessly alone.

13. Paradise Hunter

Customers who were sold a paradise island during the sales cycle, and now discover they bought a bag of sand.

14. Disconnected Customers

A customer who is not replying to any contact attempt.

15. Protesting Hippo

A person high up in the company is against your solution because he thinks his solution is much better.

16. Possible Defector

A customer who is in the process (or thinking) of signing a deal with your competitor.

17. Deliberate Churn

Churn does not always have to be a bad thing. Sometimes you need to let go of customers who don’t bring a positive contribution to your company so you can focus on the ones who do.

Get the Ebook

Get your Free eBook!

If you understand and overcome the 17 churn germs, you have taken a great first step into reducing your risk for churn. The 40-page eBook will provide you with in-depth information about

Foundations of churn
Detection signs for all the 17 types
Prevention measures for all the 17 types
Countermeasures for all the 17 types