CHURN.FM
Andrew Michael
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CHURN.FM is the podcast for subscription economy pros. Every Wednesday we hear how the world’s fastest growing companies are tackling churn and using retention & engagement to fuel their growth.
Available episodes
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5 days ago
EP 196 - Chris Dishman (Totango) Prioritising Customer Success During Challenging Times
Today on the show we have Chris Dishman, Sr. VP of Customer Success at Tango.
In this episode, we discussed Chris's unique transition from being a customer of Tango to becoming a crucial part of its team. We explored how his past experiences as a customer offered invaluable insights to shape the company's approach to customer success.
We then dove into an overview of Tango and its innovative customer success platform. Chris shed light on the concept of composable customer success and the importance of refining the customer journey. He shared interesting cases and surprising use cases of Tango, emphasizing that the principles of customer success are not limited to the software industry.
The conversation took a compelling turn as we discussed the importance of customer-centricity in a company's culture and strategy. With the increasing emphasis on customer success in the face of layoffs and budget constraints, Chris highlighted the role of robust Customer Success Platforms (CSPs) in boosting team efficiency.
We then navigated the realm of data and automation. We addressed how companies are focusing on automating onboarding and improving their processes to scale with limited resources. Chris flagged data integration as a major challenge in this domain and emphasized the significance of clean, consistent data for a seamless customer journey.
We wrapped up by discussing actionable strategies for improving customer retention. Chris advised against overcomplication and recommended focusing on one area at a time, refining it before moving on to the next. In a hypothetical scenario where he has 90 days to improve retention, he suggests starting with the value proposition and effectively communicating it to customers.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly at Andrew@churn.fm.
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May 3, 2023
EP 195 - Alison Prator (Float) The evolution of Customer Experience at Hyper-growth Startups
Today on the show we have Alison Prator, Director of Customer Success at Float.
In this episode, Alison shared her experience transitioning from leading a sales team to leading a whole department across sales, account management, and support. She walked us through the natural evolution these teams make as they grow into areas of specialization.
We then discussed how feedback loops between customer success and product teams are challenging to close, and ultimately solving the problem is a cultural challenge.
As usual, I'm excited to you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you.
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Apr 26, 2023
EP 194 - Tony Sternberg (ProsperStack) Automating Tailored Customer Experiences to Reduce Churn
Today on the show we have Tony Sternberg, co-founder and CEO of Prosper Stack.
In this episode, Tony shared the challenges of selling a business and the importance of churn and retention in the review process, and the final valuation they got.
We then discussed how you can use tailored user experiences to reduce voluntary churn and leverage your company's data more effectively.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you.
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Apr 20, 2023
EP 193 | Maria Blakeway (Pushway) - How to evolve your Customer Success approach from reactive to predictive
Today on the show we have Maria Blakeway, Senior Vice President of Customer Success at Pushpay.
In this episode, we discussed the reactive nature of customer success teams in hyper-growth startups and how Pushpay evolved its customer success approach from reactive to predictive.
We also discussed the importance of a cultural shift and mindset change within the organization, grounding the customer success team on a mission and vision for success that is shared widely with the entire team.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode. And if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you.
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Apr 12, 2023
EP192 | Nik Mijic (Matik) - How to effectively communicate your value to increase retention
Today on the show we have Nik Mijic, Co-founder and CEO of Matik.
In this episode, we discussed the importance of effectively communicating the value you deliver to customers and how to build an ROI calculator.
We also ran through an example of setting up a monthly review with your customers, the data sources to include, and how to set it all up.
As usual, I'm excited you think of this episode and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you.
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Apr 5, 2023
EP 191 | Eric Melchor (Optimonk) - How to create personalized user experiences for better engagement and retention
Today on the show we have Eric Melchor, head of Partnerships and Personalization Ambassador at OptiMonk.
In this episode, we discuss the increasing demand for personalized end-user experiences and best practices observed in the market by Eric.
We then dove into why focusing on pre-purchase experiences and insights is far more valuable for improving retention than focusing on churned customers.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you.
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Mar 16, 2023
EP 190 | Robin Singhvi (SmartCue) - How Smartcue leverages customer champions to define their product roadmap and increase retention
Today on the show we have Robin Singhvi, founder, and CEO of SmartCue, a platform that allows sales teams to create personalized product demos.
In this episode, Robin shares his experience in building a startup and the challenges he has faced along the way.
Robin emphasizes the importance of having champions inside organizations to help navigate and validate the product roadmap. These champions provide valuable feedback and insights that help improve the product and increase usage, word of mouth, and loyalty.
Robin also shares tips on how to create buzz around new features and offer excellent customer support to increase channel retention.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Feb 8, 2023
EP 189 | Foti Panagiotakopoulos (Growth Mentor) - Doing Things That Don't Scale: How to Combat Customer Churn with
*Today on the show we have Foti Panagiotakopoulos, co-founder and CEO at Growth Mentor.*
*In this episode, we talked about the origin story of Growth Mentor and his struggle trying to learn without a mentor which ultimately led to the idea of Growth Mentor.*
*We also discussed how their biggest channel for growth is their mentors themselves, the high-touch human model they use, and the importance of doing things that don’t scale.*
*We wrapped up by discussing the challenge of sorting through data to create a predictive churn model, and the importance of looking for success indicators rather than churn prevention.*
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Dec 7, 2022
EP 188 | Eleanor Dorfman (Retool) - Tackling churn in a downturn
Today on the show we have Eleanor Dorfman, Sales Leader at Retool.
In this episode, Eleanor shares her experience in balancing priorities in her roles sitting at the intersection of sales and success.
We then ran through how Segment and Retool approach tackling churn in a downturn along with the 5 questions sales and success teams should always be able to answer about their customers at any point in their lifecycle and we wrapped up by discussing how adding friction to onboarding can be a great way to increase activation and retention.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Nov 23, 2022
EP 187 | Steve Hazelton (Sturdy) - Predicting vs preventing churn
Today on the show we have Steve Hazelton, Founder and CEO of Sturdy.
In this episode, Steve shares his experience with the varying levels of acceptable churn as your company grows and how to decrease it over time.
We then discussed how pricing can be leveraged to increase retention and how you can reduce onboarding fall-off rates in enterprise deals by charging your customers upfront and we wrapped up by discussing the pros and cons of predicting vs preventing churn.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Nov 3, 2022
EP 186 | Hubert Palan - How Productboard prioritizes their backlog and defines a retention-driving product strategy
Today on the show we have Hubert Palan, Founder, and CEO of Productboard.
In this episode, Hubert shares his experience as an early hire at GoodData through their rapid expansion and how it ultimately led him to discover the pain that Productboard now solves.
We then ran through how Productboard prioritizes their product backlog and defines their product strategy. Why understanding your ideal customer profile is critical in building a retention-driving product, and we wrapped up by discussing how layering on a services component can have a big impact on customer churn for your enterprise customers.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Oct 14, 2022
EP 185 | John Collins - How Intercom leveraged content to drive adoption and increase retention
Today on the show we have John Collins, former Content Director at Intercom, startup consultant, and advisor.
In this episode, John shares an overview of the early days at Intercom and how they laid down the foundations for their content team with the primary focus on delivering value.
We then ran through Intercom’s content team structure. How they used events and content to drive adoption and expansion within their user base and we discussed how the same principles were applied to a different business model with success during his time at Ramp.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Oct 5, 2022
EP 184 | Valentin Radu - How Omniconvert avoided death and pivoted into a blue ocean
Today on the show we have Valentin Radu, Founder and CEO of Omniconvert.
In this episode, Valentin shares an overview of Omniconvert pre and post-pivot along with the moment they realized they needed to change directions.
We then ran through the power of the competitive muscle that competitors with deeper pockets and stronger retention can impose forcing you out of acquisition channels and we wrapped up by discussing the research methodology Valentin used to evaluate the opportunity and set the new company strategy.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Sep 28, 2022
EP 183 | Geoffrey Moore - How your churn and retention is impacted by your stage of growth
Today on the show we have Geoffrey Moore, the best-selling author, investor, and advisor.
In this episode, Geoffrey shares the biggest takeaway from working with Regis Mckenna in the late 80s.
We then ran through an overview of the ‘crossing the chasm’ framework and how it was developed during a time of great innovation. We then dove into how the different stage of growth can impact churn and retention and we wrapped up by discussing the importance of focusing on power metrics over performance metrics.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Sep 21, 2022
EP 182 | Daniel McCarthy - How investment firms use customer behavior predictions to set valuations on the companies they acquire
Today on the show we have Daniel McCarthy, Director & Co-founder of Theta.
In this episode, Daniel shares how he founded two companies all while doing his master’s degree and teaching at a university.
We then discussed the key metrics companies should start tracking to build their evaluation scorecard
And how investors use it to set a company’s valuation and we wrapped up by discussing the relationship between customer acquisition costs and organic acquisition and it’s impact on valuation.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Sep 15, 2022
EP 181 | Dominic Constandi (ZoomInfo) - The value of a first impression
Today on the show we have Dominic Constandi, Chief Customer Officer of ZoomInfo.
In this episode, Dominic shares his favourite country he has visited and how the experience has influenced his work in customer success.
We then discussed what separates Disney from all other theme parks and we wrapped up by discussing how ZoomInfo unifies the customer experience across the various touch points and stops their customers from feeling like they are going through a generic process.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Sep 2, 2022
EP 180 | Darius Contractor - Activation lessons learned from Airtable, Facebook, and Dropbox
Today on the show we have Darius Contractor, Angel Investor & Advisor.
In this episode, Darius shares how he evaluates and selects companies to work at and invest in with his incredible track record at companies like Airtable, Dropbox, and Facebook.
We then discussed the psych framework he developed to help evaluate websites and onboarding experience. Why adding friction to onboarding can be a good thing in B2B SaaS and we wrapped up by discussing activation lessons that Darius has learned throughout his career.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly at Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Aug 24, 2022
EP 179 | Rupesh Rao (CogniSaaS) - Focusing your customer onboarding on customer outcomes and how it impacts retention.
Today on the show we have Rupesh Rao, Founder, and CEO of CogniSaaS.
In this episode, Rupesh shares how he managed his career to optimize learnings before taking the leap over to entrepreneurship.
We then discussed how you can switch your customer onboarding focus from a task-based to an outcomes-based approach and the impact it has on retention and we wrapped up by discussing how to manage priorities between departments and remove communication silos while onboarding new customers.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly at Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Aug 17, 2022
EP 178 | Fio Dossetto (Postmark) - Using product-led content marketing to fuel customer retention
Today on the show we have Fio Dossetto, Editorial Lead at Postmark and Founder of Content Folks.
In this episode, Fio shares the origin story behind her team's comic “Dun Dun Dunning” and the learnings and best practices she came across while producing the comic.
We then discussed the early content mistakes at Hotjar and how the team made a major turnaround with product-led content and we wrapped up by discussing how to repurpose content generated for acquisition to drive retention.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly at Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Aug 10, 2022
EP 177 | Matt Young (UserVoice) - How to collect retention driving feedback
Today on the show we have Matt Young, CEO of UserVoice
In this episode, Matt shares how he has navigated the shift from CTO to CEO with his biggest learning along the way.
We then discussed how UserVoice uses its product to collect user feedback, why user interviews are the most impactful form of customer feedback, and how you can maximize the time invested while doing them and we wrapped up by discussing how to avoid confirmation bias while conducting your research.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly at Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Aug 3, 2022
EP 176 | Dileepan Siva (Upscribe) - How to fuel e-commerce growth with retention
Today on the show we have Dileepan Siva, CEO and Founder of Upscribe.
In this episode, Dileepan shares how Upscribe helps direct-to-consumer e-commerce brands build recurring revenue, reduce churn, and increase acquisition.
We then discussed why the most significant drop-off happens within the first 90 days for B2B & B2C subscription businesses and we wrapped up by discussing the consumption challenges of building a subscription e-commerce business
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly at Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Jul 27, 2022
EP 175 | Paul Harwood (Useristics) - Understanding the differences between Behavioral vs Attitudinal reasons for churn.
Today on the show we have Paul Harwood, a Co-founder of Useristics
In this episode, Paul shares why dealing with churn in different markets can vary wildly whilst the blended metric may look the same across them.
We then discussed how to define user segments for your research and we wrapped up by talking through the differences between behaviour vs attitudinal reasons for churn.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me 1directly at Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Jul 20, 2022
EP 174 | Luka Kankaras (Usersnap) - The systematic approach Usersnap took to increase customer retention
Today on the show we have Luka Kankaras, a Product Specialist at Usersnap
In this episode, Luka shares an overview of the framework Usersnap used to increase retention. How they collected feedback to diagnose their challenges and prioritized what to tackle first.
We then discussed how Usersnap reduced churn by expanding the use cases of their product and we wrapped up by discussing how the team used OKRs to align and focus their attention on churn.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly at Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Jul 6, 2022
EP 173 | Jamie Shanks (Pipeline Signals) - Monitoring and growing customer champions to crush churn and drive acquisition
Today on the show we have Jamie Shanks, CEO and Founder of Pipeline Signals.
In this episode, Jamie shares how his experience building Sales for life rolled into Pipeline Signals.
We then discussed why social monitoring your accounts is critical in reducing churn and we wrapped up by discussing some key metrics identified through growing Pipeline Signals and why 3% of your CRM contacts become obsolete each month.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly at Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Jun 29, 2022
EP 172 | Greg Daines (Total Customer Strategy) - Customer Satisfaction has no correlation with Customer Retention
Today on the show we have Greg Daines, CEO and Founder of Total Customer Strategy
In this episode, Greg shares lessons learned consulting hundreds of companies on churn and retention and why so many companies focus on asking the wrong questions when getting started.
We then discussed why customer satisfaction has no correlation with retention and why you need to focus on customer results instead and we wrapped up by discussing why it all comes back to alignment if you want to see meaningful results in reducing churn.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly at Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Jun 22, 2022
EP 171 | Baxter Lanius (Alternative) - How alternative financing options can be used to drive growth and reduce churn.
Today on the show we have Baxter Lanius, CEO and Founder of Alternative.
In this episode, Baxter shares his biggest lesson moving from an investor to an entrepreneur and the struggles he has overcome in the process.
We then discussed the similarities between lead scoring and churn prediction with underwriting for approvals on loan applications and we finished off discussing how alternative financing options can be used to drive growth and reduce churn for your business.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly at Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Jun 15, 2022
EP 170 | Trey Hoffman (Fleetio) - How to set up a monthly churn insights meeting and how it helps drive retention
Today on the show we have Trey Hoffman, VP of Customer Experience at Fleetio.
In this episode, Trey shares insights into their monthly churn insights meeting, and the key KPIs shared during this meeting.
We then discussed why SMB-focused Customer Success reps are called SMB Analysts, and how Fleetio’s Customer Success service differs between their customer segments.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly at Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Jun 8, 2022
EP 169 | Farzad Rashidi (Respona) - How Visme went from 0 to 3million in organic traffic, and how they productized the process.
Today on the show we have Farzad Rashidi, Lead Innovator at Respona.
In this episode, Farzad shares how Visme went from 0 to 3million in organic traffic, and how they took that strategy and turned it into a new product.
We then discussed why organic and paid search traffic impact retention differently, and how customers that are actively searching to solve a problem have significantly higher retention.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly at Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Jun 1, 2022
EP 168 | Ziv Peled (AppsFlyer) - How a Customer Success org of 240 strong delivers an impactful and consistent experience for their customers
Today on the show we have Ziv Peled, Chief Customer Officer of AppsFlyer.
In this episode, Ziv shared his experience trying to gain balance between in-office and remote work post-covid for his team and the functions of their Customer Success Operations team that makes it all happen that supports over 240 CS team members across the world.
We then discussed the sophisticated custom data and analytics setup AppsFlyer have between Salesforce and Looker for the Customer Success team and we finished off by discussing the learnings from aligning Customer Success compensation with engagement metrics.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly at Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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May 25, 2022
EP 167 | Firaas Rashid (Hook) - Understanding the buyers and sellers side in an enterprise software deal
Today on the show we have Firaas Rashid, CEO, and co-founder of hook.
In this episode, Firaas shared his experience both from a buyer and seller's side regarding enterprise software.
We then discussed how companies could best implement new software to gain ROI immediately, why you should stop selling features and start selling transformations, and how you can use user acquisition tactics post-acquisition to impact retention.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly at Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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May 18, 2022
EP 166 | Claudiu Murariu (InnerTrends) - Setting up your data stack for impactful retention analysis.
Today on the show we have Claudiu Murariu, CEO, and co-founder of InnerTrends.
In this episode, Claudiu shared best practices on how to get started setting up data analytics tracking, metrics and properties to consider, and why a tracking plan is essential.
We then discussed how to identify and select your onboarding and activation metrics for companies at different stages in their growth cycle and we finished off by discussing how to effectively analyze churn and retention with your data.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly at Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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May 11, 2022
EP 165 | Lowell Ricklefs (Traction Advising) - New business VS retention: Which metric influences a company’s acquisition.
Today on the show we have Lowell Ricklefs, CEO, and co-founder of Traction Advising.
In this episode, Lowell shared his experience from a buyer’s perspective of SaaS businesses, the reasons to acquire vs buy, and how they evaluate potential acquisition targets.
We then approached acquisitions from the seller side and talked about when the right time is for Founders to start to think about an acquisition, the steps they should take before they begin the process, and the key metrics that influence the valuation they get.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly at Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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May 4, 2022
EP 164 | You Mon Tsang (ChurnZero) - The evolution of focus on net revenue retention
Today on the show we have You Mon Tsang, CEO, and co-founder of ChurnZero.
In this episode, You Mon shared his experience building and exiting 3 companies and the lessons he bought with him when starting ChurnZero.
We also touched on his pragmatic approach to entrepreneurship and the naming of his company. We finished off with a discussion on net revenue retention and how the market's perception has changed of this metric over time.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly at Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Apr 27, 2022
EP 163 | Michael Winnick (Dscout) - Creating human relationship capital to reduce churn
Today on the show we have Michael Winnick, founder, and CEO of Dscout.
In this episode, Michael talked about how user research has changed over the years, and how data analytics and research teams should work together to get the maximum ROI.
Michael then dove into how to fight your internal bias when it comes to user research, how Dscout drives growth by doubling down on creating a human relationship capital, and what they do to prevent champion departure churn.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly at Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Apr 20, 2022
EP 162 | Romaric Philogéne (Qovery) - Building empathy by hiring your customers to run customer success.
Today on the show we have Romaric Philogéne, Co-founder and CEO of Qovery.
In this episode, Romaric shared why his previous start-up didn’t work out and how they pivoted into Qovery, we then talked about the challenges of being a customer-centric company, and their unique approach to building their customer success team by hiring their customer personas as Customer Success representatives.
We then dove into why Qovery has minimal churn, and how they build trust with potential customers at every touchpoint by delivering upfront value.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly at Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Apr 13, 2022
EP 161 | James Mayes (Mind The Product) - Transitioning to a subscription-based business.
Today on the show we have James Mayes, CEO, and co-founder of Mind The Product.
In this episode, James shared a couple of lessons from his first failed startup and why he decided to join a growing startup after.
We then dove into how James and the team at Mind The Product pivoted the business to a subscription-based model during Covid, the research they conducted to identify what should be a part of the offering, and how they expanded the offering over time.
We finished off with James sharing about the acquisition by Pendo and what’s next for Mind The Product.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly at Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Apr 6, 2022
EP 160 | Andrew Peterson and Spencer Dent (Clozd) - Qualitative churn analysis.
Today on the show we have Andrew Peterson and Spencer Dent, Founders of Clozd.
In this episode, they shared how they came up with the idea to build Clozd, and how they help their clients uncover the qualitative pieces of the puzzle they need to really understand all the nuances that went into their customer’s decision to churn.
We then dove into why you should interview the decision-makers of companies that have churned, the benefits of recruiting a third party to conduct the interviews, and they also shared some of the key questions you should be asking in order to get the most out of the calls.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly at Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Mar 30, 2022
EP 159 | Steffen Hedebrandt (Dreamdata) - How turning customers away increases retention.
Today on the show we have Steffen Hedebrandt, Co-founder and CMO of Dreamdata.
In this episode, Steffen shared how documenting quality content and sharing it on social opened many doors for him, he also what Dreamdata does and how they offer multitouch account-based attribution.
We then dove into the power of positioning and understanding who your ideal customer profile is on churn and retention, how Steffen and the team orient all their marketing and sales efforts around their ICP for healthier retention, and he explains why they turn customers away that don’t fit their ICP.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly at Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Mar 23, 2022
EP 158 | Jonathan Widawski (Maze) - How Maze Segments Churn Based On Their Products Vision
Today on the show we have Jonathan Widawski, Founder and CEO of Maze.
In this episode, Jo shared how Maze emerged out of a need to validate assumptions fast about a previous startup he founded. He continued to share how the prototype evolved into the company we know today.
We then dove into how Jo and the team are introducing a sales motion on top of their existing product-led strategy and the challenges that come with it. Finally, we discussed how they segment and analyze their churn and retention, and how they use this segmentation to prioritize their product roadmap.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly at Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Mar 16, 2022
EP 157 | David Darmanin (Hotjar) - Understanding the difference between acceptable and worrying churn
Today on the show we have David Darmanin, Founder and previous CEO of Hotjar.
In this episode, David shared what he misses most about being the CEO of Hotjar, and what led him to realize it was time to step down and hand over the role.
We then dove into the importance of giving your people the freedom to fail, how Hotjar reduced churn by doubling down on their ICP in their go-to-market strategy, and the differences between acceptable and worrying churn. David then explains the Hotjar ethos and the impact it has had on the company.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly at Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Mar 9, 2022
EP 156 | Kyle Pursell (Shopify) - Leveraging email to increase engagement & retention
Today on the show we have Kyle Pursell, Senior Lead of Growth Marketing at Shopify.
In this episode, Kyle shared his biggest lesson upon joining Shopify on how they effectively enable collaboration across the various cross-functional functions and how they maintain alignment through a powerful company mission.
We then dove into how Kyle and the team measured PMF at Inman when switching to a subscription business for their content. We dove deep into how you can leverage email to increase engagement and retention and the tradeoffs you need to consider with email frequency to mitigate churn.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Mar 2, 2022
EP 155 | Maranda Dziekonski (Swiftly) - Building out a high-touch Customer Success team
Today on the show we have Maranda Dziekonski, Chief Customer Officer at Swiftly.
In this episode, Maranda shared her early career experience and how she made a move from the factory production line to an office role and later into Customer Success.
We then dove into Maranda’s framework for assessing the Customer Success function when joining a new company, how she went about splitting out the high-touch customer success function at Swiftly, and we closed off with some tips and hiring advice for Customer Leaders building new teams.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Feb 23, 2022
EP 154 | Bryan Plaster (CompleteCSM) - Creating true customer evangelists with workshops and success days
Today on the show we have Bryan Plaster, CEO, and Co-founder of CompleteCSM.
In this episode, Brain shared his experience starting customer Success from scratch at multiple organizations and helping Informatica and Talend move from on-premise software sales to a cloud subscription business.
We then talked about the evolution of Customer Success over the last 15 years followed by how to create customer evangelists using workshops and success days. We wrapped up the episode with Bryan sharing the motivations for starting CompleteCSM and how they help their customers uncover the customer signals throughout their lifecycle.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Feb 16, 2022
EP 153 | Aggelos Mouzakitis (Glofox) - Taking a more human approach to diagnosing churn and retention.
Today on the show we have Aggelos Mouzakitis, Product-led growth Lead at Glofox.
In this episode, Aggelos shared his take on product-led growth followed by the biggest misconceptions and mistakes companies make when they think about adopting a product-led strategy.
We then discussed why companies need to forget the data and analytics and take a more human approach to diagnose churn and retention. We dove into methods, tactics, and stages of the user journey that you can focus on to extract meaningful insights and help you truly understand the reasons for churn and not just the surface-level response we typically get in exit surveys.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Feb 9, 2022
EP 152 | Diana De Jesus (Catalyst) - How to break into Customer Success and tips to thrive in the role
Today on the show we have Diana De Jesus, Customer Success Manager Strategist at Catalyst.
In this episode, Diana shared her advice on how to break into and land a role in customer success, sharing tips she took personally to do so. We then talked about support-driven growth, what it is, where it works best, and how you can apply it.
We also discussed how customer support and customer success can best work together and why Catalyst has customer support as a part of their customer success team.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Feb 2, 2022
EP 151 | Christian Wiklund (unitQ) - How unstructured user feedback can impact churn & retention.
Today on the show we have Christian Wiklund, founder, and CEO at unitQ.
In this episode, we talked about the huge importance of monitoring the quality of your product, what lead Christian to build unitQ, and how they help companies improve retention, growth, and engagement.
We also discussed how data silos across departments slow things down, and how companies need cross-functional data on demand. Christian then talks about million-dollar bugs, how we measure product quality, and how online reviews can make or break your business.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Jan 26, 2022
EP 150 | Chris O’Neil (Glean) - The importance of alignment, clarity, and cohesion across a team to reduce churn, and how to achieve it.
Today on the show we have Chris O’Neil, Chief Bussiness Officer at Glean.
In this episode, we talked about how joining Google and being around great mentors helped Chris with his career track and where he is today. Chris then shares what you need to get started as a leader to set yourself up for success in the long run.
We also discussed the importance of alignment, clarity, and cohesion across a team and how to achieve it, followed by examples on how Google, Slack, and Evernote successfully put their vision statements to use with clarity. Finally, Chris explains what Glean is, and what his role as CBO includes.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Jan 19, 2022
EP 149 | John Zeratsky (Character) - Using Design Sprints to increase retention.
Today on the show we have John Zeratsky, Co-Founder of Character, and the best-selling co-author of Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days.
In this episode, we talked about John’s time at Google Ventures, and how they helped hundreds of early-stage startups find product-market-fit using Design Sprints. John then talked about how they first came up with the idea for Design Sprints and why they followed on to develop the process further and productize it into a book.
We then went over the different stages of a design sprint and discussed how using this model can help companies increase retention.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Jan 12, 2022
EP 148 | Mohammad Nasrullah (Integry) - The impact of integrations on churn and retention.
Today on the show we have Nash, founder, and CEO of Integry.
In this episode, Nash shares the hardest part of starting a company straight out of school, and the perks of naive optimism when starting a company.
We also discussed what is Integry and how the company was born, the impact of integrations on retention, and the main differences between B2C and B2B, when it comes to churn and retention.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Jan 5, 2022
EP 147 | Philipp Wolf (Custify) - The importance of data hygiene when implementing a Customer Success tool.
Today on the show we have Philipp Wolf, founder of Custify.
In this episode, Philipp talks about what triggered his career shift from the security industry to customer success, what Custify does, and how it helps its customers with churn, retention, and growth.
We also discussed the evolution of the customer success software market, the importance of data hygiene when moving to a Customer Success platform, and how Custify helps its customers build their customer health score systems.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Dec 29, 2021
EP 146 | Tomer Suarez - How to convert your customer service from a “cost-center” into a profit driver
Today on the show we have Tomer Suarez, Co-Founder and CEO of Interai.
In this episode, we talked about Interai’s mission to bring consumer technology to enterprise companies, and how they use visual data mapping to bring together an organization’s legacy tools without a single integration.
Tomer then explains the process B2C enterprise companies need to take in order to achieve a 360 customer view, the problems they may face, and ultimately how it impacts retention. Finally, we discussed how customer service can shift from being cost center to a profit center.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Dec 22, 2021
EP 145 | Sonciary Pérez (Quala) - Engagement is not always a clear prediction of retention
Today on the show we have Sonciary Pérez , co-founder of Quala.
In this episode, Sonciary explains what exactly is Frontline Intelligence, and how Quala helps Customer Success practitioners to be seen as customer intelligence leaders that help drive growth within an organization.
We also discussed what you need to look out for when building a Customer Success team from the get-go, why Quala’s Product Marketing team strategically comes from Sales and Customer Experience, and finally shares why their highly engaged customers at Promoboxx churned.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Dec 15, 2021
EP 144 | Kevan Lee (Oyster HR) - How and why churn and retention differs at Buffer, Polly, and Oyster HR.
Today on the show we have Kevan Lee, Head of Marketing at Oyster HR.
In this episode, we talked about Kevin’s experience with churn and retention at Buffer, Polly, and Oyster HR, and how the main reasons for churn differed at each company due to their business models and customer segments, and we then discussed the role marketing played in each case to reduce churn.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Dec 8, 2021
EP 143 | Lou Rosenfeld - How Rosenfeld Media built an engaged community driving long term retention for their business
Today on the show we have Louis Rosenfeld, publisher and founder at Rosenfeld media.
In this episode, we talked about what information architecture is and how it led to the formation of Rosenfeld Media, how the UX Design space is evolving, and the importance of understanding your customers' needs when building out your product’s information architecture.
We also discussed Lou’s plans to introduce Memberships and Subscriptions at Rosenfeld Media and how introducing Attendee Cohorts at their conferences, increased retention, and engagement of their community.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Dec 1, 2021
EP 142 | Dave Jackson (TheCustomer.Co) The 7 principles of Customer Success
Today on the show we have Dave Jackson, founder, and CEO of TheCustomer.Co, and author of the book Customer-led growth.
In this episode, we talked about customer success as a company-wide capability, the motivation behind his recent book Customer-led growth, and Dave explains why you should purposefully design your organization around customer value.
We also discussed why you should screw best practices, and dove into the 7 principles of customer success to deliver maximum customer value.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Nov 24, 2021
EP 141 | Ryan Glasgow (Sprig) - Why churn and retention always comes back to your user onboarding experience and how to improve it
Today on the show we have Ryan Glasgow, CEO and founder of Sprig.
In this episode, we talked about the pros and cons of the different stages of company growth, how Ryan took his experience at the 0 to 1 stage to build out Sprig and how Sprig solves the tension between user research and the speed at which product teams move today.
We also discussed why churn and retention always comes back to user onboarding, how you can determine which action to focus on for your onboarding experience and the considerations to be made between single-player mode and multiplayer mode during onboarding.
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Nov 17, 2021
EP 140 | Puneet Kataria (CustomerSuccessBox) - The moving pieces of a successful customer success stack.
Today on the show we have Puneet Kataria, founder of CustomerSuccessBox.
In this episode, we talked about what made Puneet make the switch from engineering to sales, the importance of selling to the right customers to avoid churn, and we debated whether “customer success” is the right job title for the job.
We also discussed the building blocks a customer success team needs, the five different animals of SaaS and the type of customer success model to use for each animal, and finally Puneet dove deep into the moving pieces of a successful customer success stack.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Nov 10, 2021
EP 139 | Harini Gokul (AWS) - Baking Customer Success into your company’s DNA from day 1.
Today on the show we have Harini Gokul, Chief Customer Officer at AWS.
In this episode, we talked about the challenges of building and scaling customer success teams at companies like Amazon and Microsoft, and how they bake their customers’ customer perspectives into their work, to deliver true value for their customers.
We also discussed the importance of being proactive and knowing what your customers might be wanting next, the characteristics and traits Harini looks for when hiring for customer success and why she invites different department colleagues to be part of the hiring process.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Nov 3, 2021
EP 138 | Gareth Drabble - How Contentsquare use Health Scoring to predict adoption and retention
Today on the show we have Gareth Drabble, Director of Customer Success, Northern Europe at Contentsquare
In this episode, we talked about what led Gareth to Contentsquare, the recent acquisition of Hotjar, and what it means for Contentsquare, we then talked about how they plan to structure their customer success team as they scale, and what fuels its growth.
We also discussed how rushing into a tech touch model wobbled Contentsquare’s retention rates, and dove into how they use health scoring to predict adoption and retention, and how you can replicate the model for your company too.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Oct 27, 2021
EP 137 | Suresh Shankar (Crayon Data) - How to prevent churn with your enterprise customers
Today on the show we have Suresh Sankar, Founder & CEO of Crayon Data.
In this episode, Suresh shares how he connects the dots looking back going from an account director to marketing, and then to founder. We then touched on what Crayon data is and how it helps it’s enterprise customers with personalization.
We also discussed Crayon data’s process in identifying the gap in the market and the inspiration behind it, their different strategies on how to validate or invalidate markets, and then Suresh shares his views on churn and retention when it comes to enterprise SaaS models.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Oct 20, 2021
EP 136 | Scott Singerman - Inside Mixpanel’s retention driving partnerships programs.
Today on the show we have Scott Singerman, VP of Global Partnerships at Mixpanel.
In this episode, we talked about Scott’s role as a VP of Global Partnerships and his responsibilities, how Mixpanel is giving back to the startup community with their Startup Program, but also the benefits a program like this has for any company in general.
We then dove into the different partnership categories at Mixpanel, their impact on the business as a whole, and how these partnerships are tied to customer retention.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter
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Oct 13, 2021
EP 135 | Shreesha Ramdas (Strikedeck) - Transform your company’s customer success mindset from a cost centre to a growth centre
Today on the show we have Shreesha Ramdas, SVP & GM at Strikedeck.
Having lived through a couple of acquisitions, Sri shares his #1 learning and why he believes that founders should roll up their sleeves and work alongside the sales team, post-acquisition, as early as possible.
We also discussed the motivation behind Strikedeck, how to assess your customer success maturity cycle, and then dove into how to jumpstart a customer success program.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Oct 6, 2021
EP 134 | Ryanne Doumet - How PandaDoc scaled their high touch customer success model as the company scaled.
Today on the show we have Ryanne Doumet, Customer Success Manager at PandaDoc.
In this episode, we talked about what drove Ryanne to make the switch from media & advertising to customer success, how PandaDoc scaled their customer facing approach as the company scaled, and how they put together Customer Success decks to bring value to client conversions, using their own tool.
We also discussed the upsides and downsides of a Matrix organization, setting, tracking and measuring KPI’s, and we then dove into PandaDoc’s WISE framework, and why and how they build it.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Sep 29, 2021
EP 133 | Basel Fakhoury (User Interviews) - Transitioning from a transactional to a subscription pricing model: How it affects customer retention.
Today on the show we have Basel Fakhoury, CEO & Co-founder of User Interviews.
In this episode, we talked about what drove Basel to user research and why research participant recruiting specifically, how the team validated that "User Interviews" was the biggest pain point, and then Basel shared their process of idea exploration and how they invalidated their ideas, before reaching that AHA moment.
We also discussed the importance of marrying qualitative research with data analysis, how moving from a transactional to a subscription model affected churn, and we then dove into their pricing research strategy and their decision to focus on expansion.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Sep 22, 2021
EP 132 | Kris Rudeegraap - 3 changes Sendoso made to achieve a net dollar retention close to 120% with their mid-market and enterprise customers.
Today on the show we have Kris Rudeegraap, co-founder and CEO of Sendoso.
In this episode, we talked about how Sendoso helps it’s customers retain and delight their customers, the different ways a sales team can help avoid or decrease churn, and how to make sure you’re selling to the right ICP.
We also discussed Sendoso's sales strategy when they first got started and how it evolved, their ups and downs when it comes to churn and retention, and the changes they made in order to hit a net dollar retention close to 120% today.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Sep 15, 2021
EP 131 | Marty Cagan (svpg) - How the best leaders empower their product teams and set them up for success.
Today on the show we have Marty Cagan, partner at Silicon Valley Product Group, and author of INSPIRED: How To Create Tech Products Customers Love, and Co-author of newly published EMPOWERED: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products.
In this episode, we talk about the tremendous gap between how the best companies operate and how the rest work, what they do differently and why, and then dove into Marty’s new book EMPOWERED and the motivation behind it.
We also discussed how the best leaders empower their teams, how real product discovery and product work happens, and then talked about how alignment is a consequence of a good product strategy.
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Sep 8, 2021
EP 130 | Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia (Product School) - How a strong community can add value to your business and ensure long term retention.
Today on the show we have Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia, Founder and CEO at Product School.
In this episode, we talked about the evolution and future of product management, the motivation and story behind building Product School, and why Carlos believes retention is the future for sustainable growth.
Carlos also then shares how they retain their students, how he set out to build such an amazing community, and how it adds value to their business and keeps students coming back.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter
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Sep 1, 2021
EP 129 | Christoph Janz (Point Nine Capital) - The evolving SaaS industry and the impact on churn and retention
Today on the show we have Christoph Janz, Managing Partner at Point Nine Capital.
In this episode, we talked about what Christoph loves the most about being an investor and what he misses as an entrepreneur, we also discussed how back in the day companies were flying blind when it came to churn and retention, and we then dove into the inspiration behind the infamous “Five ways to build a hundred million dollar business” post.
Finally, Christoph shared how much churn and retention come into the evaluation of companies he looks at and what are some of the best companies doing when it comes to actually retaining customers.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Aug 25, 2021
EP 128 | Babis Makrynikolas (Blueground) - Pricing and packaging strategies from Amazon and Blueground
Today on the show we have Babis Makrynikolas, VP of Product and Pricing at Blueground.
In this episode, Babis explains what Blueground is and what his role is responsible for as the VP of Product and Pricing, we then dove into his experience at Amazon with pricing and packaging strategies, their methodology, customer interviews and more.
We also discussed Babi’s challenges moving from a data-driven company like Amazon, to a fast-growing startup, and how their Business Intelligence team at Blueground operates.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Aug 18, 2021
EP 127 | Jeff Heckler - How Pipedrive built a Customer Success team at scale that helped drastically decrease churn
Today on the show we have Jeff Heckler, global head of customer success at Pipedrive.
In this episode, we talked about how Jeff went from being a numbers guy to a career in customer success, how Pipedrive’s CS team scaled from 15 to 55 people in just 18 months, and how the team is now structured.
We also discussed the functions of a Customer Success operations team, the engagement and growth team within customer success, and the populations they serve. We then dove into KPI’s, key metrics, and how their team is empowered to drive success.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Aug 11, 2021
EP 126 | How SentiSum helps brands leverage their customer conversation data to increase retention.
Today on the show we have Sharad Khandelwal, co-founder, and CEO at SentiSum.
In this episode, we talked about what motivated Sharad to build SentiSum, how brands leverage their customer conversation data to help increase retention, and how many customer conversations companies have to have before a platform like Sentisum really makes a difference.
We also discussed the different challenges organizations face when it comes to utilizing customer support data, how the market has evolved, and we then briefly chatted about how frustrating customer support bots can be, and their differences with automations.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter
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Aug 4, 2021
EP 125 | Alfie Marsh - How Spendesk built a sales and revenue model that eliminates churn
Today on the show we have Alfie Marsh, Head of US GTM at Spendesk.
In this episode, we talked about Alfie’s responsibilities as Head of US GTM, the differences between the go-to-market strategies launching in the US vs the UK, and the different ways their sales team contributes to retention.
We also discussed the positive impact on churn by knowing exactly who your ideal customer profile is when sourcing outbound leads, identifying and reaching out to outbound prospects and how product positioning has the power to transform your company.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Jul 28, 2021
EP 124 | Srikrishnan Ganesa (Rocketlane) - How revisiting your target market can help accelerate growth.
Today on the show we have Srikrishnan Ganesa, co-founder and CEO of Rocketlane.
In this episode, Shri shares his experience navigating through a couple of acquisitions and how trust is the main component that ensures a smooth integration between the companies, Shri also shared what Konotor (his first startup) did prior to being acquired by FreshWorks and what their growth looked like leading to the acquisition.
We then discussed how Freshchat changed their target customer by taking a step back and taking a look at the overall market, how that decision accelerated its growth, which then inspired Shri to take the leap once again and build a new product, Rocketlane.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Jul 21, 2021
EP 123 | Paul Lynch (Chargify) - The only silver bullet to mitigate churn is value
Today on the show we have Paul Lynch, CEO at Chargify.
In this episode with Paul, as a venture partner at Scaleworks we talked about their focus on investing in companies and operating them to drive growth, how they decide which companies to invest in and the enormous impact churn and retention has on making their investment decisions.
We also discussed how Chargify sets targets and the metrics they need to focus on, why a data analyst should be one of your first hires, or not, and lastly... is there such a thing as acceptable churn.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Jul 14, 2021
EP 122 | A major milestone for Churn FM and an exciting investment announcement - Special guest: Panos Papadopoulos (Marathon VC)
Today on the show we have an extremely exciting announcement to make and I am joined by a special guest, Panos Papadopoulos, partner at Marathon Venture Capital.
In this episode, we talked about what Panos misses the most about being an entrepreneur having made his move into venture capital.
We also discussed why every VP or C Level of a company should spend time on support and dove into why communication and alignment within a team is critical when it comes to combating churn and increasing retention.
We then discussed why Panos and team have decided to invest in a new startup I’m launching called Avrio. I’m extremely excited to share the news with you first on Churn FM as for those that don’t know, I started the show to build an audience before building a product, and after 2 years and 120+ episodes later, today is the day we’re launching. If you’re eager to find out what we’re building you can jump straight to the announcement at 25:00 minutes in.
As always, and more…
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Jul 7, 2021
EP 121 | Wayne McCulloch (Google Cloud) - How to build a churn crushing Customer Success team, like Salesforce and Google Cloud.
Today on the show we have Wayne McCulloch, Global Head of Customer Success at Google Cloud (SaaS).
In this episode, we talked about the evolution of Customer Success at Salesforce, the greatest challenge Customer Success reps face and Wayne then shared his biggest learning moving into the Customer Success industry.
We also discussed the importance of data when it comes to customer success at Salesforce, and dove into how to build a CS framework to reach a Salesforce or Google Cloud level of sophistication.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Jun 30, 2021
EP 120 | Etie Hertz (Loris.ai) - How customer support conversations with your customers can help reduce churn.
Today on the show we have Etie Hertz, co-founder and CEO of Loris.ai.
In this episode, we talked about why Etie decided to double down on support and build Loris.ai, how it works, and how their customers use it to reduce churn.
We then dove into Etie’s experience building his previous company Payment Revolution. How they prevented churn at the very beginning and how they made sure to stay top of mind. Etie then shared how they dealt with the customer transition between Payment Revolution and ShopKeep when they got acquired.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Jun 23, 2021
EP 119 | Jeremey Donovan - How SalesLoft delight and retain customers by building fun, useful tools they give away.
Today on the show we have Jeremey Donovan, SVP of Revenue Strategy at SalesLoft.
In this episode, Jeremey talks about his responsibilities as the SVP of Revenue Strategy at SalesLoft, what the word “Strategy” means to him and how he goes about implementing one.
We also discussed how building free tools helps SalesLoft with lead gen, customer delight and ultimately retention, and Jeremey then shared some ideas he and his sales team implemented throughout the years to boost retention.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Jun 16, 2021
EP 118 | Fletcher Richman (Atlassian) - Halp’s effortless and unique land and expand strategy that boosts retention.
Today on the show we have Fletcher Richman, co-founder of Halp who now serves as the head of Product for Halp after the recent acquisition by Atlassian.
In this episode, we talked about the role churn and retention rate when it comes to evaluating an investment opportunity. We then moved on to discuss what Halp is, the motivation behind building it, and how they made the decision to pivot from building an integration tool, to a standalone ticketing solution built on top of Slack and Microsoft teams.
We also discussed how keeping it simple helps Halp measure churn and retention, and then dove into their unique and effortless land and expand strategy. We also chatted about how starting with small teams makes their sales process easier and gives them more opportunity for expansion.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Jun 9, 2021
EP 117 | Esben Friis-Jensen (Userflow) - How sale incentives drive net retention in customer success.
Today on the show we have Esben Friis-Jensen, co-founder and Chief Growth Officer at Userflow.
In this episode, we talked about Esben’s experience building out the sales team at Cobalt and how they kicked their sales motion off the ground, what triggered the need for customer success 3 years in, and what the benefits are of having sales incentives as a customer success manager.
We also discussed how customer video interviews keep the Cobalt team on the same page when it comes to their ideal customer profile, why product led growth led Esben to join Userflow, and we dove into how being late in the market helped differentiate Userflow from its competition.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Jun 2, 2021
EP 116 | Teresa Anania - How Zendesk is adapting best practices in product to customer success, and how it impacts churn and retention.
Today on the show we have Teresa Anania, VP of Global Customer Success and Renewals at Zendesk.
In this episode, we talked about effective ways to measure the impact of Customer Success, how Zendesk runs “experimentation programs” within their CS team, and Teresa also explains why time to value is their go-to metric.
We also discussed the role of a Practise Manager and their function within the team, how CS and sales work together in upsells and renewals, and how Zendesk makes sure to mitigate customer frustrations when being juggled between teams.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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May 26, 2021
EP 115 | Eric Keating - How Appcues customize their onboarding flow based on a “product adoption score” to increase retention.
Today on the show we have Eric Keating, VP of Marketing at Appcues.
In this episode, we talked about how Appcues differentiate themselves from the pack operating in such a competitive market, how they use their own service and why their marketing team owns customer onboarding.
We also discussed how big successful companies got away with shitty customer onboarding experiences and why you cannot afford to do it now. We then dove into the importance of continuous onboarding, and talked about how Appcues uses a “product adoption score” to customize their onboarding flow to set up their customers for success.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter
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May 19, 2021
EP 114 | Cactus Raazi (EXOS) - How to increase customer retention through personalized pricing
Today on the show we have Cactus Raazi, author of Price.
In this episode, we talked about what drove Cactus to write Price, his theory on; should pricing be personalized to individual customers, and the different building blocks to create a more personalized pricing approach.
We also discussed the starting point of the pricing conversation within a company, why pricing is often a guesstimation, and why that’s a problem, and lastly Cactus shares different ways to drive expansion revenue from existing customers, by rewarding loyalty.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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May 12, 2021
EP 113 | Harini Karthik (Loom) - How to build a data team to uncover retention drivers & fuel growth for your business
Today on the show we have Harini Karthik, Head of data at Loom.
In this episode, we talked about the ideal data setup at a company, where to start and how to build a data team that influences strategy and drives growth for the company.
We also discussed why you should prioritize understanding the LTV of your customers as one of your first big data challenges and broke down a step by step guide on how to do it. We dove into how to identify where your users are coming from, the tech stack you’ll need, and lastly how to set up your historical revenue tables for analysis and building out dashboards.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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May 5, 2021
EP 112 - Louis Grenier (Everyone Hates Marketers) - How to Stand the F*ck Out with Louis Grenier.
Today on the show we have Louis Grenier, podcast host of Everyone Hates Marketers and the creator of the 8 week course called Stand the fuck out.
In this episode, we talked about how the course can help you and your business STFO and why you need to. We also chatted about the motivations that led him to create it in the beginning.
We also discussed why Louis hates the idea of category creation and what he believes you should aim for instead, and then dove straight into the different steps you need to take to achieve radical differentiation. Finally we discussed why big brands and market leaders can afford not to be different.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Apr 28, 2021
EP 111 - Nick Fogle (Churnkey) - How Wavve optimized their offboarding flow for retention, and productized their process to help other companies reduce churn.
Today on the show we have Nick Fogle, co-founder of Churnkey.
In this episode we talked about what Nick hated about being a lawyer so much that he decided to take a job as a shuttle driver, and learn how to code between rides.
We also discussed the moment he realized his first startup was about to hit it’s growth ceiling due to extreme high churn, how they optimized their offboarding flow for retention and finally how this experience motivated him to launch Churnkey and help other companies with churn.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Apr 21, 2021
EP 110 - Tadas Labudis (Prodsight) - Why you should rethink churn exit surveys and what to do instead.
Today on the show we have Tadas Labudis, co-founder and CEO of Prodsight.
In this episode, we talked about how multiple channels and siloed feedback can be a company’s biggest customer feedback analysis challenge, and how good data hygiene is the foundation of data collaboration across teams.
We also dove into why you should rethink your churn exit survey and what you can do instead. Lastly we discussed the different ways you can analyze churn against support tickets and feature requests.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Apr 14, 2021
EP 109 | Julien Codorniou - How Workplace from Facebook scaled to over 5 million users with near-zero customer churn.
Today on the show we have Julien Codorniou, VP of Workplace from Facebook.
In this episode we talked about Facebook’s obsession with user satisfaction, adoption and retention, how Workplace first started as an internal tool for facebook employees and why they decided to turn it into a business.
We also discussed Workplace’s superpower and how they differentiate from their competition, we also dove into their top-down and wall to wall growth and go-to market strategy, and finally discussed their biggest churn risk and how demand dictated the products’ direction.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Apr 7, 2021
EP 108 | Chris Hicken ('nuffsaid) - How to crush churn before it even starts with user testing.
Today on the show we have Chris Hicken, CEO at 'nuffsaid.
In this episode, we talked about what drove Chris to build 'nuffsaid, and how it helps Customer Success teams. How userstesting.com conducts user testing to mitigate churn, and he also shares the 3 most common user testing mistakes that companies make.
We also discussed the fundamentals of building an effective low-touch customer success model, how to level up it’s maturity and the skill sets needed to do so at each level.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Mar 31, 2021
EP 107 | Ashvin Vaidyanathan - How Gainsight’s Customer Success and Product teams work together towards a common north star metric.
Today on the show we have Ashvin Vaidyanathan, author and CCO at Gainsight.
In this episode, we talked about the power and impact that Customer Success and Product teams have when joining forces, why Ashvin created a Customer Experience position to act as a liaison between the two teams and how they have a common north star metric they focus on.
We also discussed how the CS team determines which pain points are important to act upon, what that process looks like, how they measure the impact of multiple teams sharing one metric, and how a customer success team of over 150 professionals is structured.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Mar 24, 2021
EP 106 | Rav Dhaliwal (Crane Venture Partners) - The evolution of Customer Success and what CS teams are still getting wrong in 2021
Today on the show we have Rav Dhaliwa, Investor and Venture Partner at Crane Venture Partners.
In this episode, we talked about Rav’s impressive career heading up CS at some of the top hyper-growth SaaS companies, how he’s seen the industry evolve over the past 15 years, and why CS leaders have two customers: the ones they serve externally and the teams they need to sell their value to internally.
Rav also shared tips on how to get started when setting up customer success and the one thing CS teams are getting wrong all around and how to improve it.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Mar 17, 2021
EP 105 | Mayor Francis X. Suarez - City as a Service (CaaS): How the best cities retain their citizens.
Today on the show we have Francis Suarez, Mayor of Miami.
In this episode, we talked about the mass migration of startups and talent from places like San Francisco and New York to Miami. How Mayor Suarez retains his citizens by treating them as his customers, and what his citizen success team looks like.
We also discussed how the Mayor attracts VC’s to the city, how he onboards new citizens for success, Miami’s development roadmap, and how Miami is incentivising tech companies to make the move.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Mar 10, 2021
EP 104 | Erica Ayotte - How Privy doubled down on a cross functional CS team, and what this means for retention.
Today on the show we have Erica Ayotte, VP of Customer Success at Privy.
In this episode, we talked about the importance of having deep expertise in a Customer Success team and how every CS manager at Privy has their very own unique superpower. Erica also explains how Privy successfully manages to provide a high-touch model feel to their customers at scale.
Erica also shares the tactics she uses to grab her customer’s attention when sharing helpful advice, how Customer Success, Product, and Marketing collaborate and share responsibility around customer communication at Privy, to avoid bombarding customers.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Mar 3, 2021
EP 103 | Brian LaFaille (Google) - Why Brian threw out the notion of customer journey maps and replaced it with a behaviour mapping exercise to increase retention.
Today on the show we have Brian LaFaille, Global Head, Customer Success Strategic Programs at Google.
In this episode, we talked about how Brian is navigating customer retention post the Google acquisition, how both Google and Looker benefited from joining forces, and how they managed and prepared their existing customers for the transition.
We also discussed Looker’s explosive growth since joining Google, and why Brian threw out the notion of customer journey maps and replaced it with a behaviour mapping exercise. Brian also shares the one thing he learned about churn and retention that he had a different perspective on before joining Google.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Feb 24, 2021
EP 102 | Harrison Rose (Paddle) - Crush churn by defining your product category and taking ownership.
Today on the show we have Harrison Rose, co-founder and Chief Customer Officer at Paddle.
In this episode, we talked about what it was like for Harrison to just finish school and dive straight into building a hyper growth company. We then chatted about category creation and how Paddle is defining their Revenue Delivery Platform that they are taking ownership of and working towards creating and becoming the category leader.
We also discussed the million dollar SaaS metric, how Paddle helps its customers with their retention challenges and helps untangle their Frankenstein revenue management stack. Harrison also shares some churn trends in the market and tips on how to deal with involuntary churn.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Feb 17, 2021
EP 101 | Mike Sasaki and Tyler Ramsey (Mitek) - How to strategically plan and successfully execute a user onboarding revamp
Today on the show we have Mike Sakaki VP of Customer Success & Support, and Tyler Ramsey, Senior Customer Success Manager at Mitek.
In this episode, we talked about what Mitek is and what they do, why Mike and Tyler made the decision to shift their onboarding flow, and the steps they took to implement their new onboarding program in order to mitigate churn.
We also discussed the single metric Mitek uses to measure the ROI CSM’s deliver to the business and how they decided on that specific metric, how their CSM reduces the time to value and Mike also explains why every CSM team should have their own data analyst.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Feb 10, 2021
EP 100 | Ziv Peled 💥 - How AppsFlyer flipped their focus on churn to retention & renewals and built growth predictability in the process.
Today is a BIG day as Churn FM turns 100 episodes old!
It’s been an amazing learning curve and I’ve been super lucky to speak to and learn from some of the brightest minds in the business.
For this special episode I wanted to give back to you, and all the other listeners of the show, who have helped shape and make it what it is today.
So to do that I turned to our amazing guests and asked for a big favour which they were super cool about and agreed to.
This week you can stand a chance to win a free 30-min coaching call with one of our guests participating, to experience the learnings first hand and get to ask that question you wish I had. We have over 20 guests participating and I’m sure more will follow this week which is awesome.
To stand a chance of winning a session all you need to do is subscribe to our newsletter on churn.fm, listen to an episode of the guest you’d love to meet and share it on Twitter or LinkedIn to qualify.
One of these amazing guests who’s agree…
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Feb 3, 2021
EP 99 | Emily González-Cebrián - How Froged retains customers by scaling a personal and human onboarding experience.
Today on the show we have Emily González-Cebrián, co-founder and CEO of Froged.
In this episode, we talked about why Emily decided to make the jump and start a SaaS business, how Froged was born, who their main customers are and how they help them with churn and retention.
We also discussed the importance of onboarding and activation, their unique personalized and human onboarding experience, and how Froged uses Froged to retain their customers.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Jan 27, 2021
EP 98 | David Sakamoto (GitLab) - Why customer success should be the orchestrators of your customer experience across the board
Today on the show we have David Sakamoto, VP of Customer Success at GitLab.
In this episode, we talked about how David remembers names leading a team of over 200 people, the biggest differences between company giants like Cisco and hyper-growth startups like GitLab, and what David’s vision is for Customer Success at GitLab.
We also discussed why a CS team should be orchestrating the customer experience across the board, the hiring process at GitLab, and how to maintain your company culture and values during rapid company scaling.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Jan 20, 2021
EP 97 | Mariah Hay - How Help Scout uses Support-Driven Growth to increase retention.
Today on the show we have Mariah Hay, VP of Product at Help Scout
In this episode, Mariah shares the product principles she lives by, and the importance of having a cross-functional group of teams working towards outcomes with an aligned goal to avoid building a Frankenstein product.
We also discussed how Help Scout’s product team uses OKR’s, what Support Driven Growth is and how you can implement it, and we dove deep into Product Specialists at Help Scout, who they are, what they do, and the role they play in the support team.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Jan 13, 2021
EP 96 | Derek Steer - How Mode’s hyper-focus on a specific customer persona increases retention and crushes the competition
Today on the show we have Derek Steer, Co-founder, and CEO of Mode.
In this episode, we talked about what drove Derek as an analyst to start Mode, what they do, and who their typical customers are.
We also discussed how Mode nudged competitors out of their customer’s workflow by having a hyper-focus on technical analysts and what differentiates them in the data analysis market. Derek also shares how analysts at Mode analyze churn and retention and why you should also investigate churn even if it’s not a problem
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Jan 6, 2021
EP 95 | Shanta Bodhan (SupplyShift) - Why Customer Success at SupplyShift is involved early in the sales process and how this impacts churn.
Today on the show we have Shanta Bodhan, Director of Customer Success at SupplyShift.
In this episode, we talked about what drove Shanta to make the switch from HR to customer success, the different parallels between employee retention and customer retention, and how SupplyShift adapts and aligns their product roadmap to their customer’s current needs.
We also discussed the relationship between Customer Success and Sales at SupplyShift and how they work together towards common goals and we also dove into how they retain customers with their company mission.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Dec 30, 2020
Ep 94 | Dan Burcaw (Nami ML) - Unique churn challenges for mobile subscription businesses and how to tackle them.
Today on the show we have Dan Burcaw, co-founder and CEO of Nami ML.
In this episode, we talked about what drove Dan to build Nami ML, the unique involuntary churn scenarios with mobile apps on iTunes and Google Play stores.
We also discussed the different risks and concerns that companies like Spotify and Netflix might face by charging their customers outside the mobile app ecosystem, and what role churn and retention played during the acquisition of Dan’s previous company.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Dec 23, 2020
EP 93 | Sydney Strader (Catalyst) - How InVision’s hyper-growth masked churn and retention rates and what was the turning point.
Today on the show we have Sydney Strader, Head of Customer Success at Catalyst.
In this episode, we talked about what motivated Sydney to make the switch from a career in marketing to customer success, how you can align compensation between sales and customer success.
We also discussed her time at Invision and how they maximized value for their customers by taking renewals off the CS team’s plate and how their hyper-growth masked churn and retention. Sydney also shared her number one challenge working at Catalyst and what a customer success team of customer success platform looks like.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Dec 16, 2020
EP 92 | Javier Suarez (Oliva) - How TravelPerk reduced churn by building features that create superpowers for their users.
Today on the show we have Javier Suarez, co-founder of Oliva.
In this episode, we talked about what it feels like to start over again after building TravelPerk, a hyper-growth startup. Javier also shared how the anxiety that came with being a founder of a hyper-growth company motivated him to start Oliva just a few years later.
We also discussed how TravelPerk viewed churn and retention and what they did to solve it in the early days, we then dove into the evolution of their product team as their company scaled, why they focused their efforts on small to medium-sized businesses, how they made that decision, and how it influenced their product strategy.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Dec 9, 2020
EP 91 | Kristi Faltorusso - Why IntelliShift ditched their churn risk score and now start all their customers off in the red zone.
Today on the show we have Kristi Faltorusso, VP of Customer Success at IntelliShift.
In this episode, we talked about how Kristi moved from a career in marketing to customer success and why it was the best decision she ever made. Kristi also shared what she focused on to get up to speed with the industry 12 years ago, and how previously being a power user of the product she worked for helped in launching her career in customer success.
We also discussed the common churn and retention challenges across the companies Kristi has worked at, how you can best understand what is valuable for your customer and how you can help them achieve it, how to define customer product outcomes vs business outcomes, and how you can get creative with contracts to help reduce churn.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Dec 2, 2020
EP 90 | Dave Blake (ClientSuccess) - How Adobe managed the transition from selling compact discs to cloud subscriptions.
Today on the show we have Dave Blake, founder, and CEO of ClientSuccess
In this episode, we talked about what motivated Dave to start ClientSuccess and how their service helps their customers drive expansion and reduce churn, he also shares what it was like being at Adobe when they made the big switch from selling compact discs to a cloud-based subscription service business.
We also discussed how Adobe became an extension of their customer’s team by physically working at their offices’ building deep relationships, how Dave is applying his learnings to his own company, and the evolution of a customer success team as a company scales.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Nov 25, 2020
EP 89 | Luke Diaz (Clearbit) - How Optimizely, AppsFlyer and Clearbit approach their unique churn challenges.
Today on the show we have Luke Diaz, VP of Customer Success at Clearbit.
In this episode, we talked about why Luke made a career switch from working at a Hedge Fund to diving into Customer Success, and how Optimizely shifted their go-to-market strategy to fix churn and retention.
We also discussed how AppsFlyer identifies strategic opportunities to drive expansion revenue, how you can show the impact of a team that doesn't own revenue, and how Clearbit approaches their churn and retention challenges.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter
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Nov 18, 2020
EP 88 | Megan Murphy - How Hotjar’s VP of Product took the “Jobs To Be Done” framework to the next level, to build a customer value driven product strategy.
Today on the show we have Megan Murphy, VP of Product at Hotjar.
In this episode, we talked about the importance of delighting customers in small ways no matter the stage or size of a company, how Megan took the “Jobs To Be Done” framework to the next level, and how she’s trying to build a more human product strategy at Hotjar.
We also discussed why growth at all costs can set you up for failure, how today’s product managers can keep up with change, and make sure they’re building for their customers today but at the same time future-proofing for tomorrow.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Nov 11, 2020
EP 87 | Ryan Robinson (ryrob.com) - How content can be leveraged to increase retention and grow customer advocacy
Today on the show we have Ryan Robinson, founder, and blogger of ryrob.com
In this episode, we talked about how Ryan conducts revenue-generating keyword research, why revenue is his number one content metric to track, and how he helps companies with their overall content strategy.
We also discussed how Ryan tracks and measures results for his customers, how he uses content marketing as an educational tool to fuel long-term growth, his content generation process, and easy content production hacks you can apply in your own business.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Nov 4, 2020
EP 86 | Megan Bowen (RefineLabs) - How Grubhub successfully retains customers during mergers and acquisitions.
Today on the show we have Megan Bowen, Chief Customer Officer at RefineLabs
In this episode, we talked about what a revenue engine optimization agency does and how they help their customers grow with their demand generation framework.
We also discussed how to measure churn and retention for technology software products that have a service delivery component and how Grubhub successfully retains customers during the mergers and acquisitions they undertake.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Oct 28, 2020
EP 85 | Derek Skaletsky (Sherlock) - How to develop a customer engagement score and increase retention in the process
Today on the show we have Derek Skaletsky, Founder and CEO of Sherlock.
In this episode, we talked about how Derek came up with the idea to build Sherlock and why now, how Sherlock determines an engagement score, and how CS, Sales, and Marketing teams can use it.
We also discussed how Derek’s Head of Customer Success self was arguing with his Head of Product self back at Kissmetrics whilst leading these two teams, and we dove into Kissmetric’s #1 reason for churn and how Derek and his team halved their churn rate in just 12 months with a scorecard.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Oct 21, 2020
EP 84 | Sançar Sahin (Oliva) - Sançar’s secret weapon to nailing a retention driving product positioning
Today on the show we have Sançar Sahin, co-founder of Oliva.
In this episode, we talked about the necessary elements you need to build a world-class marketing team, the impact a company’s go-to market strategy has on choosing the right team members, and the inspiration behind Oliva.
We also discussed Sançar’s move from building teams as a VP, back to the scrappy stage of a one-man marketing team, the importance of getting deep insights and feedback at the very start of building a product, and how those insights helped clarify Oliva’s positioning.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Oct 14, 2020
EP 83 | Patrick Thompson (Iteratively) - How Atlassian mastered their land and expand strategy with experimentation.
Today on the show we have Patrick Thompson, co-founder, and CEO of Iteratively.
In this episode, we talked about why Patrick made the leap to start his own business, how 200 interviews over 6 months of customer discovery helped them find the biggest data-related pain point software teams have, and how Iteratively helps solve it.
We also discussed what it was like to work in the growth team at Atlassian in the early days, the difference Patrick sees in picking and prioritising quick wins vs long-term bets to work on at a later stage company vs an early-stage startup, and how partnerships and tool integrations can help increase long-term retention.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Oct 7, 2020
EP 82 | Adelina Peltea - How Holded improves longterm retention with a “Constant Onboarding” approach.
Today on the show we have Adelina Peltea, VP of Growth at Holded.
In this episode, we talked about the biggest differences between different growth stages of a startup, why you should always stay true to your startup’s DNA, how to iterate your way to product-market fit at the Seed stage and why Adelina believes you should never get feedback from free users.
We also discussed Adelina’s responsibilities as VP of Growth at Holded, how she reshuffled her team to be more cross-functional and structured around each stage of the user journey, and how the growth team at Holded works together to improve activation rates.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Sep 30, 2020
EP 81 | Mark Tanner (Qwirl) - The pros and cons of a freemium plan and how it impacts churn
Today on the show we have Mark Tanner, co-founder, and COO of Qwilr.
In this episode, we talked about what it was like for Mark taking the leap from a cushy job at Google to start his own business, why they built Qwilr, the motivation behind it, and what's the big plan for the future.
We also discussed Qwilr’s on and off relationship with a freemium plan of their product, how first impressions always matter, and churn and retention in the context of sales.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Sep 23, 2020
EP 80 | David Apple (Notion) - The evolving role of Customer Success in hyper-growth companies
Today on the show we have David Apple, Head of Customer Success at Notion.
In this episode, we talked about the conflict between Sales and Customer Success and how it can be avoided, what the leading indicators of retention are at Typeform VS Notion, and how Typeform’s CS team segments its customers based on their retention rate to help prioritize, appoint resources, and make decisions.
We also discussed why sooner is not always better, the low touch and high touch onboarding set up at Typeform & Notion, and why the two companies waited a long time to invest a single dollar in customer acquisition plus more.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter
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Sep 16, 2020
EP 79 | Angel Steger (Facebook) - More than numbers: How a “bad hookup face” helped Pinterest increase virality and retention.
Today on the show we have Angel Steger, Director Of Product Design at Facebook.
In this episode, we talked about what it’s like designing a building for over 2.7 billion users, how focusing on activation can increase retention, and how giving users a feeling of ownership had a big impact on Pinterest’s user activation.
We also discussed Qualitative research at Pinterest: How a bad hookup face helped increase their messaging response rate, and how Dropbox and Pinterest use internal experimentation systems to help avoid bad user experiences.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Sep 9, 2020
EP 78 | Francis Brero - Why MadKudu pivoted their company’s focus from churn risk detection to conversion prediction.
Today on the show we have Francis Brero, CRO, and Co-Founder of MadKudu.
In this episode, we talked about how Francis started out studying mechanical engineering and ended up founding a company now serving as the CFO, what MadKudu is and how they help their customers, and why starting off the company by helping companies predict churn didn’t work.
We also discussed how a typical customer uses Madkudu and what success looks like for them, how Madkudu predicts retention at different time horizons, and the three stages of a customer’s lifecycle every CS team should know about.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Sep 2, 2020
EP 77 | Ward Sandler (MemberSpace) - Reduce churn with these 3 cancelation alternatives in your exit flow.
Today on the show we have Ward Sandler, co-founder of MemberSpace.
In this episode, we talked about the biggest point of failure for first-time subscription business owners, the evolution of pricing and packaging at MemberSpace, and the importance of figuring out what customers are willing to pay before you build a product.
We also discussed how MemberSpace educates its customers on churn, how Ward maintains and keeps up with customer conversations as the company grows, and how you can decrease churn with cancelation alternatives.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Aug 26, 2020
EP 76 | How retention helped Drift’s VP of strategy, Adam Schoenfeld build and sell 2 companies
Today on the show we have Adam Schoenfeld, VP of Strategy at Drift, and GM of Drift Video.
In this episode, we talked about how a customer-centric approach helped him build and scale two successful businesses, why he talks to his customers every single day, and why everyone at Drift has chat duty.
We also discussed the importance of churn & retention when a company is being acquired, and how Adam views churn and retention now as VP of strategy at Drift vs his previous views as CEO of his own company.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Aug 19, 2020
EP 75 | Bozena Pieniazek (Maze) - How Product Marketing impacts churn & retention
Today on the show we have Bozena Pieniazek, Director of Marketing at Maze.
In this episode, we broke down the function of Product Marketing, discussed how it impacts churn and retention, shared views on where it should sit in a company, and dove into how product marketers help companies understand user personas and their different use cases.
We also discussed why Maze decided to rethink their positioning, how nailing your positioning & messaging, can help attract and bring in the right customers for your business, and how you can fill your marketing funnel by asking the right questions.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Aug 12, 2020
EP 74 | Mark Thompson - Why your customers churn involuntarily and how to prevent it.
Today on the show we have Mark Thompson, co-founder of PayKickstart.
In this episode, we talked about how an internal tool their team built ended up being their main product, affiliate programs as a channel for growth, and the challenges they face when it comes to churn & retention.
We also discussed how PayKickstart optimizes their onboarding to tackle churn, how they measure its impact, and how to avoid credit card failures by being proactive with your customers.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Aug 5, 2020
EP 73 | David Brice - Why Envato launched a subscription service alongside its 15-year-old transactional business.
Today on the show we have David Brice, General Manager & Executive of the Customer Group at Envato
In this episode, we talked about how David made the switch from a green tech business owner to a marketplace software business General Manager, why Envato launched a subscription service alongside its 15-year-old transactional business, and how the two business models are treated within the company.
We also discussed how they balance the supply and demand function to make sure their authors are earning a healthy income on both products, how they minimize churn and increase retention, their health metrics, and what David wished he knew about churn and retention when he first started out.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Jul 29, 2020
EP 72 | Panos Siozos - How crossing the chasm into the late majority impacts churn and how to avoid it
Today on the show we have Panos Siozos, co-founder and CEO of LearnWorlds.
In this episode, we talked about what it was like for Panos to take the leap from a job in education & parliament to starting his own company, how COVID-19 has impacted the eLearning industry & how LearnWorld’s funnel tripled in just one day.
We also discussed how LearnWorld is retaining its customers in this new breed of teachers, how they use their own product to onboard their customers & educate them on how to succeed, & more.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Jul 22, 2020
EP 71 | John Henwood - How productboard increased retention by scaling a handheld onboarding experience
Today on the show we have John Henwood, Director of Customer Success at Productboard.
In this episode, we talked about how customer success has evolved over the past 10 years, how Customer Success’s approach to increasing retention differs at a big organization VS an early-stage startup, and how John prioritized his focus when he first joined Productboard.
We also discussed why Productboard’s Customer Success team handhold their customers through their onboarding process, how they measure success, and what was John’s thought-process when building out and scaling the customer success team at Productboard.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Jul 15, 2020
EP 70 | Ryan Bonnici - How G2 structures its marketing team to accelerate growth and increase retention.
Today on the show we have Ryan Bonnici one of the World's Most Influential CMOs as named by Forbes currently leading the marketing team at G2.
In this episode, we talked about Ryan’s responsibilities as CMO at G2, how he and his team split their focus, and how G2’s Product team mirrors their marketing team’s structure.
We also discussed G2’s Buyer Intent and how it arms companies to predict churn, how their retention team measures success, and how they guide their free users into their paid funnel.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Jul 8, 2020
EP 69 | Samuel Hulick - How to improve user retention with a killer onboarding plan.
Today on the show we have Samuel Hulick, the person behind the infamous onboarding teardowns from UserOnboard.com
In this episode, we talked about the single biggest mistake that product companies keep repeating when it comes to user onboarding, how Samuel approaches building an onboarding experience, and the key metrics he believes are important to measure.
We also discussed where onboarding starts & ends, Slack & Duolingo’s onboarding experience & what makes them stand out, and last but not least we chatted about the relationship between retention & onboarding through Samuel’s lense.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Jul 1, 2020
EP 68 | Sjoerd Handgraaf - How to increase retention in a two-sided Marketplace Business
Today on the show we have Sjoerd Handgraaf, CMO at Sharetribe.
In this episode, we talked about why retention is key to tackling the supply vs demand problem in marketplace businesses, what liquidity is and why it is important, and the key things you need to be looking at when building a marketplace business.
We also discussed early churn at Sharetribe, why they built an entirely new product to tackle graduation churn, and how the Sharetribe’s marketing team operates around churn and retention.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Jun 24, 2020
EP 67 | Mark Roberge - How to drive revenue growth through customer retention
Today on the show we have Mark Roberge, Managing Director at Stage 2 Capital, and former Chief Revenue Officer at Hubspot.
In this episode, we talked about the strengths of a successful CRO, the growth phases of a company’s lifecycle, and why retention is the one metric that defines product-market fit.
We also discussed the pillars of a good go-to-market strategy, how Hubspot discovered their key leading indicators for customer retention in the early days, and more.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Jun 17, 2020
EP 66 | Georgiana Laudi - How to use Jobs To Be Done to create a laser-sharp SaaS growth Strategy
Today on the show we have Georgiana Laudi, Co-Founder of Forget the Funnel.
In this episode, we talked about how Georgiana decided to focus on SaaS and build Forget the Funnel, the type of work they do for their clients, and how they evaluate the health of their client’s business to identify where there’s an opportunity for growth.
We also discussed The “Jobs to be done” framework, their process, how they set up, and conduct surveys in order to pull out what the customer’s jobs to be done are, and lastly, we talked about customer experience mapping.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Jun 10, 2020
EP 65 | Rahul Vohra - How Superhuman avoids churn by systematically increasing product-market fit.
Today on the show we have Rahul Vohra, founder, and CEO of Superhuman.
In this episode, we talked about what motivated Rahul to build Superhuman, how they iterated their way towards product-market fit, and how they built the product-market fit engine.
We also discussed how the Superhuman team analyzes and segments the right feedback to focus on, why & how their onboarding process brought in Industry-leading metrics, and lastly, the right way to get people to talk about your product.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Jun 3, 2020
EP64 | Amaan Nathoo - How Later combine customer success and product-led growth to increase customer retention
Today on the show we have Amaan Nathoo, Head of Customer Success at Later.
In this episode, we talked about the moment Amaan decided to shift from Sales to Customer Success, how using a growth ceiling calculator helped him realize they had to double down on retention and how customer success fits in a product-led world.
We also discussed how Later’s Customer Success team makes up 8% of the entire company, what they focus on, their KPI’s, how it’s structured, and lastly the retention experiment mindset at Later.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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May 27, 2020
EP 63 | Jay Nathan & Jeff Breunsbach (Customer Imperative) How to set up Customer Success for churn shattering results.
Today on the show we have Jay Nathan & Jeff Breunsbach, managing partners at Customer Imperative.
In this episode, we talked about what they do at Customer Imperative, the biggest difference Jay and Jeff see between the way Customer Success teams operate, and how their quick Time to Value process helps their clients see tangible results in just 30 to 45 days.
We also discussed the process they use to put together a customer health score and what to avoid, why companies “push back” on customer success, and who should own customer retention within an organization.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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May 20, 2020
EP 62 | Bryant Chou (Webflow) Why churn and retention have taken the backseat at Webflow.
Today on the show we have Bryant Chou, Co-founder, CTO, and Head of Growth of Webflow.
In this episode, we talked about Webflow’s “no sugarcoating” product philosophy, the no-code movement, why churn & retention at Webflow have taken a backseat, and how they overcome their new users learning curve through total transparency.
We also discussed how Bryant and his team use customer segmentation to take their product to the next level, the rosetta stone of Webflow (databook), and how to eliminate bias when collecting and analyzing data.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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May 13, 2020
EP 61 | Robbie Kellman Baxter (Peninsula Strategies) How to cement trust with new customers in times of a crisis and uncertainty
Today on the show we have Robbie Kellman Baxter, author of the best-selling book “The Membership Economy” and the newly launched “The Forever Transaction”.
In this episode, we talked about what a Forever Transaction is and how to implement it in your business, what influenced Robbie to write her books, and how SaaS businesses’ have changed their view on retention over time.
We also discussed why Robbie thinks providing real value is key to cementing trust with your customers during a crisis and if you’re one of the few seeing an influx of new customers how to make sure they’re here to stay.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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May 6, 2020
EP60 | Alex Atkins (CXL Institute) Why CXL’s Head of Growth focuses on retention to drive growth
Today on the show we have Alex Atkins, Head of Growth at CXL Institute.
In this episode, we talked about the process Alex took to decide the key metrics to focus on during his early days at CXL, what motivated him to work more on churn & retention over acquisition, and how they saw an increase in customer retention within 3 months of the team's new focus.
We also discussed how the growth team at CXL is built, their efforts to put out the fire Covid19 is causing their business, and how they managed to persuade 37% of their customers at risk not to churn.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Apr 29, 2020
EP59 | Lauren Culbertson (LoopVOC) How to align feedback to understand your ideal customer profile and tackle churn
Today on the show we have Lauren Culbertson, CEO & Founder of LoopVOC.
In this episode, we talked about why Lauren decided to build LoopVOC and the important role leadership plays in ensuring the alignment of customer feedback across a company.
We also discussed the dos and don’ts when transitioning an on-premise product to the cloud, the importance of segmentation when it comes to making great product decisions, and the steps they take to identify their ideal customer profile at LoopVOC and why it is a constant evolution.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Apr 22, 2020
EP58 | Yahav Hartman (Madgicx) - How to use paid advertising to increase customer retention
Today on the show we have Yahav Hartman, CEO and founder of Madgicx!
In this episode, we talked about the current churn and retention status at Madgicx, how Yahav interviews churning customers, and how to gauge the quality of customer feedback.
We also dived deep into how you can use Facebook ads to increase retention, why customer development should be viewed as a profit center, and Yahav’s prediction on the future of the advertising landscape.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Apr 15, 2020
EP57 | JR Farr (Weav.com) - How to fight churn by automating your customer retention flow
Today on the show we have J.R. Farr, Co-founder and CEO of Weav.com
In this episode, we discussed what attracted J.R. to build a customer retention platform, how Weav automates your customer retention flow, and how it helps you analyze your customer experience with a holistic approach.
We also talked about J.R.’s experience in building a customer retention program from scratch, why he is focused on finding the right customers from day one, and when it’s the right time to fire a customer and why that means customers that use dark patterns in their product for Weav.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Apr 8, 2020
EP56 | Matt Barnett (Bonjoro) - How to use hyper-personalized videos to retain customers and reduce churn
Today on the show we have Matt Barnett, founder and Papa Bear of Bonjoro!
In this episode, we discussed how videos can help retain customers and reduce churn, how to craft a hyper-personalized video for your customers, and how to choose the right integration partnerships for your software.
We also discussed Bonjoro’s current journey in nailing their ideal customer profile, one thing that Matt wished he knew earlier when it comes to churn and retention, and why you should always foster genuine relationships with your customers.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Apr 1, 2020
EP55 | Brian Balfour (Reforge) - How to improve user activation by establishing the right product habits
Today is a very special episode as we are celebrating our first anniversary of Churn.FM. We have now published a new episode every week for 52 weeks straight and what better way to celebrate the anniversary than by having the guest of our very first episode back on the show!
This week we have Brian Balfour, Founder, and CEO of Reforge. Reforge have Career Development Programs for Experienced Tech Professionals in Product, Marketing, Data, Design, and Engineering co-authored by Brian Balfour, Andrew Chen, and Sean Clowes.
In this episode, Brian shared his new learnings on churn and retention since our last chat a year ago, why understanding your customer's habits are important to improving user activation, and a deep dive into the concept of survival analysis.
Brian also shared his insights on why you should focus on a specific user activation flow, the importance of a vendor-champion relationship, and why jumping into quantitative data too fast can be misleading.
It has been a year…
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Mar 25, 2020
EP54 | James Mulvany (Podcast.co) - How to resurrect churning customers in a non-pushy way
Today on the show we have James Mulvany, founder and CEO of Podcast.co and Radio.co
In this episode, we talked about what drives James to keep building new companies in the content and streaming space, why the podcast industry is still full of untapped potential, and the importance of a personal touch in customer retention.
We also discussed why James thinks world-class customer service is a key to resurrecting churned customers, why social media ads are underrated for retaining customers, and his biggest challenge in tackling Churn and retention.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Mar 18, 2020
EP53 | Emmanuel Straschnov - Why Bubble’s greatest success can lead to churn and how they’re tackling it
Today on the show we have Emmanuel Straschnov, co-founder and co-CEO of Bubble.
In this episode, we talked about the rise of no-code tools’ popularity, why Bubble decided to raise funding, and the challenges they face with churn due to the nature of their product.
We also dived into the challenges Bubble faced when designing their customer onboarding, how their pricing strategy has evolved over the years, and why Emmanuel believes that qualitative insights are more valuable than quantitative analysis.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Mar 11, 2020
EP52 | Nathan Barry - How ConvertKit acquires and keeps loyal customers by focusing on a specific niche
Today on the Churn FM we have Nathan Barry, founder, and CEO of ConvertKit!
In this episode, we talked about what drove Nathan to start ConvertKit, how switching to focus on a niche has impacted the company's product strategy and churn rate, and how it helped Nathan to focus on the right customer feedback.
We also discussed when it doesn't make sense to worry about churn, the concept of gradual engagement and how ConvertKit applied it in their product, and why Nathan thinks every company is doing onboarding wrong.
ConvertKit also publicly shares their revenue, churn numbers, and more at convertkit.baremetrics.com for you to check anytime.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Mar 4, 2020
EP51 | Olga Andrienko - How SEMrush uses gamification to engage users and increase retention
Today on the Churn.fm, we have Olga Andrienko, Head of Global Marketing at SEMrush.
In today's episode, we discussed SEMrush’s rapid growth and how it affected their churn rate, why they decided to switch their focus to customer retention, and how they use social media to identify their ideal customer profile.
Olga also shared how SEMrush used Easter Eggs to gamify user engagement and how they use the SEMrush community Facebook group to get users actively involved in product development.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Feb 26, 2020
EP50 | Ziv Peled - How AppsFlyer’s Customer Success team has generated over $100 million in expansion revenue
Today on Churn.fm, we have Ziv Peled, Chief Customer Officer at AppsFlyer
In today's episode, we discussed how Ziv built AppsFlyer’s customer success team from scratch, how he set the key metrics, and how the team evolved to generate over $100 million in expansion revenue in the last 20 months for the company.
Ziv also shared the three main things he looked for when hiring a new customer success manager at the start, why Annual Recurring Revenue churn is the most critical metric for a Customer Success team, and his future plans to prevent "customer champion churn".
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Feb 19, 2020
EP49 | Huw Slater - How Travelperk’s CFO prioritizes churn reduction to drive growth
Today on Churn.fm, we have Huw Slater, the Chief Financial Officer at Travelperk!
In today's episode, we discussed the importance of looking at cohorts when measuring retention, how Huw goes about measuring a customers' lifetime value, and whether or not word of mouth can be measured.
We also talked about the concept of a "growth ceiling" and how Huw evaluates opportunities that drive growth to allocate capital to.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Feb 12, 2020
EP48 | Aazar Shad (Userpilot) - How churn can be masked during rapid growth and how to identify it
Today on Churn.fm, we have Aazar Shad, Head of Growth at User Pilot!
In today's episode, we discussed how Aazar realized User Pilot had a churn issue as they were rapidly growing, the signals he uses to identify churn risk, and how he went about building the customer success team from nothing.
We also dived deep into the power of visualizing progress in the onboarding phase and how transparency can be a tool to keep your customers engaged.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Feb 5, 2020
EP47 | Arundhati Balachandran - How Chargebee’s Customer Success team increases expansion revenue with data
Today on Churn.fm, we have Arundhati Balachandran, Director of Customer Sucess at Chargebee.
In today's episode, we discussed about the role of Chargebee's customer success team in enabling expansion revenue, the specialization within the team, and the importance of cross-team collaboration in fighting churn.
We also dived deep into how data plays a role in deciding customer touchpoints, the customer onboarding process within Chargebee, and Arundhati's one piece of advice for any company battling with churn.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Jan 29, 2020
EP46 | Yuval Keshtcher (UX Writing Hub) - How UX writing can be a game-changer in fighting churn
Today on the Churn.fm, we have Yuval Keshtcher, the founder of UX Writing Hub.
In today's episode, we talked about the art and science of UX writing, and how it can be a game-changer when it comes to improving conversion, reducing churn and increasing revenue.
Yuval also shared how companies can use metaphors to maintain copywriting consistency, his step by step process in helping companies enhance their copy, and a real-life case study of a previous client of his.
Lastly, we also talked about how using shady tactics and dark patterns can damage your brand and customer retention, andy why copywriting is the first step of reducing churn.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Jan 22, 2020
EP45 | Chris Savage - How Wistia’s creative brand voice helps them retain their customers
Today on the Churn.fm, we have Chris Savage, the CEO and Co-founder of Wistia!
In today's episode, we talked about how having a creative brand can help retain loyal customers, how churn and retention have changed in Wistia over the years, and why qualitative data is irreplaceable.
Chris also shared the story of why he and his co-founder decided to take on $17M in debt, things he wished he realized earlier in regards to churn, and the ownership of churn metrics within Wistia.
We also talked about expansion revenue and its' importance, how Wistia uses their own product to improve customer retention, and Chris' pieces of advice on churn and retention for those who are just starting out.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Jan 15, 2020
EP44 | Emeric Ernoult (Agorapulse) - Challenges tackling SMB churn and how to overcome them
Today on Churn.fm we have Emeric Ernoult, CEO and Founder of Agorapulse.
In this episode, we talked about the role of communities in customer retention and using social media as a channel for customer support.
Emeric also shared his learnings about churn and retention in his entrepreneurial career. He dived deep into his past churn metrics, future goals, and how he plans to further tackle churn at Agorapulse.
We also talked about how to design your product roadmap based on customer feedback, and how you can package your product to appeal to new and different audiences.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Now enjoy the episode.
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Jan 8, 2020
EP43 | Bob Moore (Crossbeam) - How to create a stickier product with the right partnerships
Today on Churn.fm we have Bob Moore, serial entrepreneur and the co-founder and CEO of Crossbeam, a platform that helps companies find overlapping customers and prospects while keeping the rest of their data private and secure. Bob was also the founder of RJ Metrics and Stitch, two data analytics startups that got acquired by Magento and Talend respectively.
In this episode, Bob shared his experience on how his company’s churn rate affected their acquisition value, how partnerships can be a powerful tool to fight churn, and why he decided to build Crossbeam.
We also discussed why Bob considered RJ Metrics exit as a $2.6 Billion fail, how better product positioning helped them decrease churn, and how a change in your customer mindset can affect your product-market fit.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Now enjoy the episode.
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Jan 1, 2020
EP42 | Casey Graham (Gravy) - How to combat involuntary churn with a human-first approach
I wish you a happy new year, and hope you are having a great start of the year! Today on Churn.fm, we have Casey Graham, CEO and Founder of Gravy, a subscription payment recovery service that helps companies fight involuntary churn.
We talked about how Casey's experience with bad customer churn inspired him to start Gravy, the main reasons for failed payments in SaaS businesses, and why Casey thinks a hands-on, human approach is the best way to fight churn.
We also dived into the different kinds of buyer personas Gravy has identified for their business, why slowing down their onboarding process helped them increase their customer lifetime value, and the importance of having a champion within your customer's company.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Now enjoy the episode.
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Dec 25, 2019
EP41 | Carl Gold (Zuora) - Why fighting churn starts with finding the right metrics
Today on Churn.fm, we have Carl Gold, Chief Data Scientist at Zuora, and the author of the upcoming book, Fighting Churn with Data.
We talked about why Carl decided to write a book about fighting churn with data, why small companies need to determine the correct metrics in their journey to fight churn effectively, and how you can find the right metrics inside your product.
We also discussed why churn and retention should revolve around providing value, why using AI and machine learning to predict churn can be ineffective, and some case study examples of how companies fight churn by focusing on the right metrics.
Since it's the holiday season, we also have a special gift for this episode: we will choose five lucky listeners to get early access to the first four chapters of Carl's upcoming book and copy of it once it is completed. All you have to do is share this episode on Twitter, and we will do a random draw to choose the 5 winners.
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Dec 18, 2019
EP40 | Gen Furukawa (Retainable) - Retention is the key to successful marketing: why marketers should pay more attention to churn
Today on Churn .fm, we have Gen Furukawa, founder of Retainable and former VP of Marketing at Jungle Scout.
In this episode, Gen shared how he previously dealt with churn and retention as the VP of Marketing at Jungle Scout, and how it affected the marketing metrics his team needed to track.
We also talked about how to get buy-in and convince the leadership team to focus on reducing churn, who should own customer churn and retention within a company, and Gen's advice for a startup struggling with churn.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Dec 11, 2019
EP39 | Megan McMullin - How MeetEdgar reduces churn by scaling a personal onboarding experience and building a community
Today on the show, we have Megan McMullin, Outreach Lead at MeetEdgar.
In this episode, we discussed in-depth how MeetEdgar uses office hours, webinars and educational content as a channel to talk to customers at scale, gather feedback, build a robust community, and ultimately improve retention.
Megan also shares the exact formula MeetEdgar uses to measure the effectiveness of their efforts in reducing churn, how she passes the qualitative data collected to the product team, and how they use Facebook ads as an engagement and reactivation channel for their users.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Dec 4, 2019
EP38 | Marvin Liao (500 Startups) - Why customer retention is a key metric for seed-stage investments
Today on Churn.fm, we have Marvin Liao, an experienced startup advisor, and Partner at 500 Startups, specializing in seed-stage investments.
Marvin shared his thoughts on how churn and retention affect his investment decisions, how he helps early-stage startups identify their ideal customers, and why he thinks retention is super crucial for early-stage growth.
We also talked about why you shouldn’t blindly follow benchmark metrics without enough context, areas that most startups get wrong when it comes to churn and retention, and the one question Marvin wishes entrepreneurs would ask more.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Nov 27, 2019
EP37 | Josh Garofalo (Sway Copy) - Customer retention starts with copywriting: how to attract the right customers with your copy
Today on the Churn.fm, we have Josh Garofalo, expert SaaS copywriter and Founder of Sway Copy.
We talked about how Josh became a SaaS focused copywriter, his step-by-step process to create engaging copy, and his insights on why companies should focus on the one buyer segment that matters, and ignore the rest.
We also discussed how to identify your most valuable buyer persona, understanding your customer’s awareness stages in their buying journey, and the interview techniques Josh utilizes to help companies improve their product positioning.
Finally, Josh shared his insights on why he wishes companies spend more time thinking about churn, and why talking to customers is the key to better product positioning.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Nov 20, 2019
EP36 | Adam Dorrell (CustomerGauge) - You’re using Net Promoter Score (NPS) wrong! Segmentation is the 🔑 key to retention
Today on Churn.fm, we have Adam Dorrell, the CEO and Founder of CustomerGauge.
In today's episode, we talked about the importance of Net Promoter Score or otherwise know as NPS, why it's more than just a metric, and how companies can implement NPS results into their workflow.
We also discussed why customer feedback is an impactful growth lever, how to reach out to customers strategically, and how you can make feedback actionable.
Adam also shared the one question that he hopes more businesses ask, and his insights on things that worked at CustomerGauge while tackling churn.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from y
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Nov 13, 2019
EP35 | Corey Haines - How Baremetrics collects HONEST feedback from churning customers
Today on Churn.fm, we have Corey Haines, Head of Growth at Baremetrics
In this episode, we talked about the "dirty little secret" most companies have when it comes to their customer churn rate, what "dunning" is and why it’s important for any SaaS company to monitor it, and the most common reasons for delinquent churn.
We also discussed how to collect honest feedback from churning customers, how to recruit the right interviewee for customer research, and how to figure out the most meaningful feedback while ignoring the noise.
Corey also shared some insights about Baremetric's internal processes, including how he goes about balancing new customer acquisition with preventing existing customers from churning, and who owns churn and retention at Baremetrics.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Nov 6, 2019
EP34 | Val Geisler (Fix My Churn) - How a customer-centric email strategy can help you fix churn
Today on Churn.fm, we have Val Geisler, email marketing expert and CEO of Fix My Churn.
We talked about why Val decided to found Fix My Churn, her approach to helping customers set up a communication strategy, and why onboarding emails are one of the most crucial parts in improving customer retention
Val also shared her thoughts on why churn reduction is about doing things that don’t scale, how SaaS companies have started to concentrate more on customer retention, and why great email campaigns should not be time-based, but behavior-based
Val also shared examples of tactics you can apply to your email strategies, such as making use of transactional emails to grow customer love, methods to increase conversion, and more.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Oct 30, 2019
EP33 | Hiten Shah (FYI) - How to build a product with customer retention at the core
Today on Churn.FM, we have Hiten Shah, the founder and CEO of FYI, and other startups such as Kissmetrics, Crazy Egg, and Quick Sprout
We talked about the biggest shift in the product development landscape over the years, why it's harder than ever to build and grow a business today, and why Hiten still launched FYI despite it all.
We also talked about how Hiten categorizes customer retention into different buckets, why products should focus on targeting an already existing behavior instead of trying to invent a new one, and how Hiten goes about customer development.
Hiten also shared his biggest learning about churn and retention after years of product development experience, the top 3 things that companies should focus on to improve customer retention, and his #1 piece of advice for anyone who wants to build a new product today.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on An…
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Oct 23, 2019
EP32 | Emily Lonetto (Voiceflow) - How to build, scale, and engage a user community to prevent churn and increase retention
Today on Churn.fm we have Emily Lonetto. Emily is the Head of Growth at Voiceflow
In this episode, we talked about how Emily landed her role as Head of Growth at Voiceflow, Emily's experience in community building, and how she scaled the ambassador program at her previous job at Tilt.
We also talked about why community is vital when it comes to churn and retention, things early-stage startups need to get right to start building a community and how to manage the community effectively.
Emily also shared her insights on product onboarding, including her most successful onboarding project, her main inspiration in designing a new onboarding flow, and tips and tricks to design the perfect onboarding.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Oct 16, 2019
EP31 | Brian LaFaille (Looker) - How specialization within customer success will improve your retention
Today on Churn.fm, we have Brian LaFaille, Global Head of Customer Success Strategic Programs at Looker, and advisor at First Round Capital.
In this episode, we talked about the importance of specializations within a customer success team, at what stage you should look into hiring team members with specific skills, and actionable steps to bring your success team onto a specialized path.
We also discussed how customer success teams can start using data to decide their actions, why quantitative data is not enough, and how to assess and classify risks to set up the team for success.
Brian also shared how to conduct exit interviews with churning customers more effectively, how customer success should work closely with product teams, and who Brian thinks should own retention within a company.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on…
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Oct 9, 2019
EP30 | Ryan Singer - How Basecamp “interrogate” their customers to build a world-class product using the jobs-to-be-done framework
Today on Churn.fm, we have Ryan Singer, Head of Product Strategy at Basecamp and the author of Shape Up: Stop Running in Circles and Ship Work that Matters.
In this episode, we talked about how Basecamp utilizes the Jobs-to-be-done framework to gather customer feedback, framing it from a supply and demand angle, and how it helps Basecamp's product team to decide on which problems to tackle first.
We also discussed how Ryan goes about finding the right customers to interview, his interviewing methods, or in his own words, his “customer interrogation" style and why jobs-to-be-done interviews should never be specifically about your product.
Ryan also explained why the cost of running a business is parallel to customer happiness, and shared his number one piece of advice for anyone who wants to build a product today.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm.…
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Oct 2, 2019
EP29 | Nick Franklin (ChartMogul) - Why retention is your #1 weapon to drive expansion revenue and how to track it
Today on Churn.fm we have Nick Franklin, the CEO and Founder of ChartMogul
In this episode, we talked about why Nick founded ChartMogul, the most important thing Nick learned about churn and retention, and why onboarding problem equals churn problem.
We also talked about how companies use ChartMogul to track their churn and retention, unique ways Nick’s customers go about preventing churn, and the main customer metric ChartMogul always focuses on.
Nick also shared his insights on why customer retention is the #1 metric you should track if your revenue is based on expansion, why ChartMogul changed their revenue model and how ChartMogul thinks about the ownership of churn and retention metrics in the company.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Sep 25, 2019
EP 28 | Omid Razavi (ServiceNow) - Preventing churn by building out a product success team
Today on Churn.fm we have Omid Razavi, Global Head of Product Success at ServiceNow.
In this episode, we discussed the main difference between "customer success" and "product success", the 3 key aspects of the product success role, and how ServiceNow’s product success team handles and analyzes feedback to provide actionable insights for their product team.
We also discussed the importance of understanding your customer's level of maturity, how to prevent churn when your champions goals are shifting, and why you need to expand the number of "champions" you have inside your customer's companies.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter
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Sep 18, 2019
EP27 | Jenny Campbell (DiscoverOrg) - 3 crucial customer health metrics you should monitor to prevent churn
Today on Churn.fm we have Jenny Campbell, Vice President of Customer Experience at DiscoverOrg.
In this episode, we discussed the functions of customer marketing inside a customer success team; three essential things that move the customer retention needle; and how to define your customer segments.
We also talked about DiscoverOrg's systematic approach when it comes to customer onboarding, how they continuously iterate the onboarding process, and how they measure the impact and effectiveness.
Jenny also shared unique insights on the challenges she faced when DiscoverOrg acquired and merged with their competitors, and how DiscoverOrg "eats their own dog food" by using their own product for sales, marketing, and customer success.
As usual, I'm excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter.
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Sep 11, 2019
EP26 | Yu-Kai Chou - Gamification: 4 phases of a “Player’s Journey” and how it can help you improve retention
Today on Churn.FM we have Yu-Kai Chou, the author of Actionable Gamification and creator of the Octalysis framework.
We talked about the 4 phases of a player’s journey in the gamification framework, and how it can help make your product stickier, and prevent churn.
We also discussed examples of good gamification in SaaS, how much is too much, and how user onboarding can play a vital role in gamifying your retention.
Yu-Kai also talked about the importance of community in user retention, the role of personalization in gamification, and common mistakes companies make in implementing gamification principles.
As usual, I’m excited to hear what you think of this episode, and if you have any feedback, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.
Enjoy the episode!
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Sep 4, 2019
EP25 | Vinay Bhagat (TrustRadius) - How to increase customer retention by adapting to the modern buyer’s journey
Today on Churn.fm we have Vinay Bhagat, Founder and CEO of TrustRadius, and ex-founder and CEO of Convio.
In this episode, we talk briefly about Vinay’s unique educational background, the biggest takeaway he got from being a student at three of the most prestigious universities in the world, and the moment he realized he was destined to become an entrepreneur.
Vinay also shared how he prevents churn when a champion leaves his customer’s company, how he maintains retention by continuously educating customers, and how companies can adapt to the modern buying process.
We also discussed how to apply the “voice of customer” into your marketing and product development cycles, why transparency is the inevitable future of the buyer’s journey, and how you can drive more reviews from your customers.
As usual, I’m excited to hear what you think of this episode and if you have any feedback I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don’t forget t…
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Aug 28, 2019
EP24 | Guillaume Cabane - 4 Simple churn crushing tactics to unlock hyper-growth for your startup
Today on Churn.fm we have Guillaume Cabane, also known as “G”. G was the former VP of Growth at hyper-growth startups such as Drift and Segment, and now works as a growth advisor for a number of different startups.
In this episode we talk about forecasting churn, the most surprising factor G found that contributes to churn, and the simplest way to battle it.
We also discuss tracking and measuring your marketing efforts, the importance of understanding the “sales velocity” of your different marketing channels, and why you shouldn’t give up too quickly on a new marketing channel.
G also shared the craziest thing he had ever done with automation and emphasized how a slight advantage over your competitors can make a world of difference in the SaaS business world.
As usual, I’m excited to hear what you think of this episode and if you have any feedback I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter
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Aug 21, 2019
EP23 | Eleanor Dorfman - Faster is not always better: How Segment improved retention by adding friction to their onboarding process
Today on Churn.fm we have Eleanor Dorfman, Head of Customer Expansion at Segment.
We talked about Eleanor’s unique background and how she transitioned from a career in law to education and finally settled in the tech startup world.
Eleanor also gave us insight into how Segment planned their current onboarding process, how adding friction to their onboarding lead to higher retention, and the most surprising thing they found that caused churn.
We also discussed why customer retention is a team sport, and how customer success starts at the beginning of the sales process and not after a sale has been made.
As usual, I’m excited to hear what you think of this episode and if you have any feedback I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter
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Aug 14, 2019
EP22 | Michael Redbord - How HubSpot turns customers into marketers by creating a customer-driven culture
Today on Churn.fm we have Michael Redbord, the General Manager of Service Hub at HubSpot.
We talked about why you should proactively turn your customers into your best marketers, how customer success teams play an important role in doing it, and why you should keep talking to customers as you scale.
We also discussed why creating a mindset around churn and retention early on is important to an organization, and how to build a customer success team with that in mind.
Michael also shared the evolution of HubSpot’s customer success team during their key growth phases and the 3 key roles of a customer success team.
As usual, I’m excited to hear what you think of this episode and if you have any feedback I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter
Enjoy the episode!
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Aug 7, 2019
EP21 | Jinny Oh (Wandr) - How product strategy and UX design impact churn
Today on CHURN.FM we have Jinny Oh, Founder of Wandr Studio, a product strategy and UX design firm.
We chatted about how Jinny built a multi-million dollar business as a digital nomad and her motivations to build a remote company.
We also discussed how Wandr helps SaaS companies tackle churn through product strategy and UX design, how to test your ideal customer personas before building a product, and the importance of having a solid information architecture to avoid build a Frankestein product.
Jinny also shared how product copy impacts product design, how to conduct a usability audit, and how to effectively roll out a product redesign without impacting the existing user's experience.
I’m excited to hear what you think of this episode and if you have any feedback I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.
Enjoy the episode!
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Jul 31, 2019
EP20 | John Gleeson - How KeepTruckin keeps a near-perfect customer retention rate
Today on CHURN.FM we have John Gleeson, the Head of Customer Success for Upper SMB, Mid Market, and Enterprise of KeepTruckin
We chatted about what it’s like building a customer success team in a fast-scaling startup and how they achieve a near-perfect customer retention rate.
John also shared the tool stack his Customer Success team uses, why their customer success team is set up into two different functions between onboarding and Customer Success, and how they proactively prepare for customer renewals.
We also discussed the importance of measuring a customer health score and how to utilize it, why closing new deals shouldn’t be the customer success manager’s responsibility, and how John would tackle churn and retention if he would join a new company and start from scratch.
As usual, I’m excited to hear what you think of this episode and if you have any feedback I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on andrew@churn.fm. Don’t forget to follow us on Twit…
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Jul 24, 2019
EP19 | Wes Bush (ProductLed Institute) - Product-led growth, a buzz word or just good business?
Today on CHURN.FM we have Wes Bush, Author of "Product-Led Growth" & host of the ProductLedSummit.com.
We chatted about what product-led growth is and why you should care. Why Wes started the Product-led Summit, and how you can get started with Product-led growth.
We also discussed the importance of striking a balance between educating and motivating your users during user onboarding, why optimizing the first 5 minutes of a users journey is make or break moment and he provided a methodology to do so.
Wes also shared how to pick between a freemium and trial model in a product-led strategy, A framework for pricing and packaging a freemium offering, and what he would do starting out at a new company trying to tackle churn.
I’m excited to hear what you think of this episode and if you have any feedback I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm
Enjoy the episode!
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Jul 17, 2019
EP18 | Tina Todorovic - How this early-stage startup used instructional videos to curb churn
Today on CHURN.FM we have Tina Todorovic, co-founder of Social Web Suite, a social media management platform for WordPress sites.
We chatted about why Social Web Suite built a product focused on WordPress and how they scratched their own itch in the process.
We also discussed the authentic process that Tina took to collect user feedback during their beta period and the tools she used to do so.
Tina also shared how they managed to reduce 80% of their support requests and increase retention using clear website copy and targeted contextual instructional videos.
I spoke to Tina today who is at a much earlier stage than all our previous guests and I’m interested to hear if you think I should be speaking to more early-stage startups. If you have any feedback I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm
Enjoy the episode!
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Jul 10, 2019
EP17 | Stephen Levin (Zapier) - Why churn cannot be measured with a single number
Today on churn.fm we have Stephen Levin, currently working on special projects for the CEO of Zapier and the owner of Think Analytically.
We chatted about why churn is not a metric that should be measured with one number, the difference between customer, user and revenue churn and when to use the three.
We also discussed the mistakes startups make when measuring churn, how contract length impacts retention, and why tracking cohorts is critical when measuring churn.
Stephen also shared how to track the impact of changes your company makes to processes and product on churn, how to determine the input metrics that impact churn, and the power of integrations when it comes to increasing customer retention.
I’m excited to hear what you think of this episode and if you have any feedback I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly on Andrew@churn.fm
Enjoy the episode!
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Jul 3, 2019
EP16 | David Skok (Matrix Partners) - Why churn is a critical metric for investors to understand when evaluating a startup
Today on CHURN.FM we have David Skok, a four-time founder, investor, and author of the blog For Entrepreneurs.
We chatted about how David evaluates startups to invest in, the definition of product market fit, and what he looks for after it.
We also discussed the importance of churn and retention in the investment evaluation process, the key characteristics that companies with great retention share, and the power of negative churn.
David also shared what a healthy LTV to CAC ratio should be, why the time to recover CAC is critical, and what attracted him to SaaS, to begin with.
I really enjoyed this conversation and I hope you do too!
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Jun 26, 2019
EP15 | April Dunford - How to develop a retention building product positioning
Today on CHURN.FM we have April Dunford, a product positioning consultant and author of Obviously Awesome. April helps startups position their products so that their customers get it, buy it, and love it.
We chatted about the definition of positioning and what it is and isn’t.
We also discussed how positioning impacts customer churn and the common mistakes startups make when positioning their products.
April also shared the 3 styles of positioning your product in a market, how positioning feeds your messaging, and how you can tell when you have a positioning problem.
I really enjoyed this conversation and I hope you do too!
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Jun 19, 2019
EP14 | Dennis Kayser - How Forecast uses predictive modelling to combat churn
In today's episode of CHURN.FM we have Dennis Kayser the Founder and CEO of Forecast. Forecast helps project-based companies automate operations, empower people and leverage insights to drive business performance and client success. Their goal is to eliminate all manual processes of resource & project management by using Artificial Intelligence to setup and manage projects automatically.
We chatted about why retention is Forecast’s biggest lever for growth with 80- 90% of new users coming from organic sources.
We also discussed how to set up a churn prediction model, what variables to include in a lead scoring model and how to use your ideal customer personas in your lead scoring and churn prediction models.
Dennis also shared the quantitative measures you can take to flesh out your ideal customer personas and how transitioning from a startup to scale up impacts your personas.
I hope you enjoy this episode!
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Jun 12, 2019
EP13 | Andrus Purde - How user acquisition impacts churn and how to measure it effectively
Today on the show we have Andrus Purde the Founder of Outfunnel. Outfunnel is a sales-centric marketing automation tool that tightly integrates with modern CRM’s like Pipedrive. You can automate email marketing campaigns, track email and website behavior from click to conversion and get useful insights for your business.
We chatted about the customer development process that took Andrus from idea to Outfunnel and how he created structured data from the in-person interviews.
We also discussed the role of user acquisition on churn and how you can’t do acquisition well without understanding the impacts on LTV.
Andrus also shared the attribution model used at Pipedrive that unlocked insights on their best-performing channels and campaigns by customer lifetime value.
I hope you enjoy this episode!
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Jun 5, 2019
EP12 | Patrick Campbell - How Profitwell increased their customer lifetime value from $6k to $150K
In today's episode of churn.fm, we have Patrick Campbell the Founder of Profitwell. ProfitWell provides free subscription metrics software to help you identify opportunities and then tools to help you reduce churn, optimize pricing, and grow your subscription business end-to-end.
We chatted about how Profitwell added a services layer on top of their software business that decreased churn and increased their customer lifetime value from $6,000 - $150,000.
We also discussed what companies get wrong when tackling churn, the steps required to nail your pricing strategy, the importance of value-based pricing and what your value metric should look like.
Patrick also shared what he would do to tackle churn when given the task starting at a new company.
This episode was priceless, I hope you enjoy it!
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May 29, 2019
EP11 | Mike Fiorillo - How Invision accidentally increased retention by focusing on virality
Today on churn.fm we have Mike Fiorillo the Founder of Optimology and previously a Growth Product Manager and Head of Optimization at Invision. Invision is a digital product design platform powering the world’s best user experiences.
We chatted about Mike’s experience at Invision and his journey transitioning from conversion rate optimisation to product growth when they realised they were hitting diminishing returns on the CRO experiments being run. We discussed how they calculated the sample size required for tests and the statistical significance, how they prioritised experiments to run, and their process of building context for these experiments through quantitative and qualitative research.
We also discussed how testing mitigates opinions and how Invision accidentally increased retention by focusing on virality.
I hope you enjoy this episode!
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May 22, 2019
EP10 | Julie Hogan (Drift) - Drift's focus on their customer's success and it's churn crushing effects
In today's episode of churn.fm, we have Julie Hogan, VP of the Customer team at Drift - a conversational marketing platform.
We chatted about Julie’s early days at both HubSpot and Drift and the challenges that come with building category-defining businesses. The impact that the stage of your business has on churn and retention, and the importance of focusing on your early adopters to convert them into lifelong customer evangelists.
We also discussed the 3 sins of customer success, how drawing inspiration from businesses outside your industry can improve your processes, and the importance of focusing on leading indicators as opposed to the final score.
Surprise, surprise this was a great conversation, enjoy the episode!
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May 15, 2019
EP9 | Steli Efti (Close) - How to build a sustainable sales model that drives long term retention
In today’s episode, I chatted to Steli Efti, the CEO & Co-founder of Close. A cloud-based CRM software optimized to help salespeople close more deals.
We talked about how Close aligns their sales, success, and company around long term retention.
We also touched on how to build a predictable, repeatable, and scalable sales process, how to define your ideal customer persona, the biggest mistake sales teams make, and why building up your sales teams confidence will reduce churn by aligning their pitch with the value your company delivers.
I hope you enjoy the show!
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May 8, 2019
EP8 | Shaun Clowes (Metromile) - Retention and engagement lessons learned building Atlassian’s growth team from 0 to 50 people strong 💪
In today’s episode, I chatted to Shaun Clowes, the Chief Product Officer at Metromile and previous Head of Growth at Atlassian.
We talked about how Atlassian measured success in the early days and their relentless focus on delivering value.
We also touched on why enterprise users are more similar to their SMB counterparts than you think, Atlassian’s land and grab strategy that fueled their expansion revenue and the differences in tackling churn between B2B and B2C companies.
This was one of my favorite interviews to date, I hope you enjoy the show.
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May 1, 2019
EP7 | Pulkit Agrawal (Chameleon) - How to build a churn busting user onboarding experience
On the show today we welcome Pulkit Agrawal, Co-founder & CEO at Chameleon, a platform that helps companies build user onboarding without writing a line code.
Tune in as we discuss why you should care about your user onboarding experience, its relationship to churn and retention, and user onboarding tests you can run in your business.
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Apr 24, 2019
EP6 | Nir Eyal (Hooked) - Frequency is the key to building habits into your product
In this episode, I share the mic with Nir Eyal, author of the best-selling book Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products.
Listen in as Nir explains the Hook Model, the role of frequency and why frequency is the number one reason your product is not going to become a habit, the ethical way to build habit-forming products, and his new book Indistractable.
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Apr 17, 2019
EP5 | Heidi Gibson (GoDaddy) - GoDaddy's magic metric for crushing churn
Today on CHURN.FM we have Heidi Gibson with us. Heidi is a Senior Director of Product Management at GoDaddy. Heidi was tasked with building a cross-functional growth team of product and marketing, focused on acquisition, retention, and engagement over the last 3 years at GoDaddy.
Tune in as Heidi explains how they measure retention across their different products, their magic metric to success, how they use support as a secret weapon, and how GoDaddy is transitioning themselves from a commodity service company to a software as a service business.
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Apr 10, 2019
EP4 | Pedro Magrico (Typeform) - Integrations are sticky
Today on CHURN.FM we’re featuring Pedro Magriço. Pedro was previously the Director of Product Growth at Typeform. In this episode, Pedro shares what he learned working at Typeform over the last 5 years.
We dive into the experiments they tried to reduce churn, their success with integrations, how to A/B test pricing and much more.
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Apr 3, 2019
EP3 | Janna Bastow (ProdPad) - Value-based pricing for the win
Janna Bastow is the Founder and CEO of ProdPad. On CHURN.FM today she shares their unique approach to gamifying onboarding and how experimenting with value-based pricing helped them cross over the magic threshold to negative churn.
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Mar 31, 2019
EP2 | Savvas Zortikis (Viral Loops) - Winning with customer success
Today on CHURN.FM our guest is Savvas Zortikis, the CEO & Founder of Viral Loops. Savvas talks about the importance of customer success at the very early stage and how they go about tackling churn and retention as a team.
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Mar 31, 2019
EP1 | Brian Balfour (Reforge) - Churn is the silent killer
Brian Balfour is the founder and CEO of Reforge, previously VP of Growth at HubSpot. Today on CHURN.FM we discussed his thoughts on why retention is the one metric that rules them all, why churn is the silent killer, and what metrics you should be tracking.
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Mar 31, 2019
EP0 | Andrew Michael (Churn.fm) - Intro
CHURN.FM is the podcast for subscription economy pros. Every Wednesday we hear how the world’s fastest growing companies are tackling churn and using retention & engagement to fuel their growth.
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