

CHURN FM
Andrew Michael
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.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Feb 12, 2020 • 46min
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.Churn FM is sponsored by Vitally, the all-in-one Customer Success Platform.

Feb 5, 2020 • 31min
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.Churn FM is sponsored by Vitally, the all-in-one Customer Success Platform.

Jan 29, 2020 • 45min
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.Churn FM is sponsored by Vitally, the all-in-one Customer Success Platform.

Jan 22, 2020 • 42min
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.Churn FM is sponsored by Vitally, the all-in-one Customer Success Platform.

Jan 15, 2020 • 46min
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.Churn FM is sponsored by Vitally, the all-in-one Customer Success Platform.

Jan 8, 2020 • 43min
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.Churn FM is sponsored by Vitally, the all-in-one Customer Success Platform.

Jan 1, 2020 • 45min
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.Churn FM is sponsored by Vitally, the all-in-one Customer Success Platform.

Dec 25, 2019 • 51min
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.Churn FM is sponsored by Vitally, the all-in-one Customer Success Platform.

Dec 18, 2019 • 38min
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.Churn FM is sponsored by Vitally, the all-in-one Customer Success Platform.

Dec 11, 2019 • 44min
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.Churn FM is sponsored by Vitally, the all-in-one Customer Success Platform.


