507: How to Stop Your Customers From Churning During COVID-19?

What It Covers

Steli Efti and Hasan Shah discuss strategies to reduce customer churn during the COVID-19 pandemic, emphasizing proactive communication, flexible payment options, and maintaining customer intimacy during crisis periods.

Key Questions Answered

• •Proactive outreach: Contact customers before they cancel to offer cost-saving alternatives like plan downgrades, data deletion options, contract discounts, or payment delays of fifteen to thirty days to prevent immediate cancellations and maintain relationships.
• •Pause versus cancel: Offer customers the ability to pause service instead of canceling outright, preserving their data, customizations, and user setups so they can resume easily without re-entering the market to evaluate competitors.
• •Customer communication: Reach out to churning customers through calls and emails to understand their decision-making process, sentiment changes, and priorities, which informs product roadmap, marketing strategy, and retention efforts across the organization.
• •Skip payment option: Send targeted emails allowing financially struggling customers to skip their next payment by clicking a button, giving them one free month to gather more information before making a cancellation decision.