CHURN FM

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 to follow us on Twitter Churn FM is sponsored by Vitally, the all-in-one Customer Success Platform.

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 TwitterChurn FM is sponsored by Vitally, the all-in-one Customer Success Platform.

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 TwitterChurn FM is sponsored by Vitally, the all-in-one Customer Success Platform.

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 TwitterEnjoy the episode!Churn FM is sponsored by Vitally, the all-in-one Customer Success Platform.

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!Churn FM is sponsored by Vitally, the all-in-one Customer Success Platform.

Today on CHURN.FM we have John Gleeson, the Head of Customer Success for Upper SMB, Mid Market, and Enterprise of KeepTruckinWe 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 TwitterChurn FM is sponsored by Vitally, the all-in-one Customer Success Platform.

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.fmEnjoy the episode!Churn FM is sponsored by Vitally, the all-in-one Customer Success Platform.

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.fmEnjoy the episode!Churn FM is sponsored by Vitally, the all-in-one Customer Success Platform.

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.fmEnjoy the episode!Churn FM is sponsored by Vitally, the all-in-one Customer Success Platform.

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! Churn FM is sponsored by Vitally, the all-in-one Customer Success Platform.