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B2B Churn Rate: Don’t Be A Chump About Churn

B2B Churn Rate: Don’t Be A Chump About Churn

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Customer churn is a normal part of SaaS business models. Some analysts think an annual B2B churn rate of 15 percent is considered acceptable. But, you might be aiming for 10 or even 5 percent. In any case, a lot needs to go right for a customer to be happy with a new product or service, and it is impossible to please everyone. But if the churn rate gets too high, you need to quickly determine where the problem lies.

Your customer analytics can usually provide clues as to where users are struggling with your product. However, these datasets won’t tell you the whole story, such as the internal dynamics behind why a customer dropped you, or ways your solution fails to adequately address jobs-to-be-done. Worse still, your data may even be misleading you! Qualitative insights from customer conversations are the only way to understand the churn your customer analytics can’t explain.

Here are four reasons for a high B2B churn rate you may not have considered, based on conversations we’ve had with B2B buyers over the course of scores of 14+ years of market research projects.

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B2B Buyer's Journey

B2B Buyer’s Journey: 7 Reasons Prospects “Swipe Left” Instead of Reaching Out

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First impressions matter, especially in the B2B buyer’s journey. Buyers identify the problem or need their company is experiencing and begin exploring their vendor options. They swipe left or right on potential matches based on nothing more than what they see on vendors’ websites.

The amount of time a prospect spends on all of that content you’ve produced is minuscule compared to the time you spent developing it. For example, Google Analytics data suggests that a reasonable target for average session duration on a B2B website is two minutes.

So much like a social media or dating profile, your site needs to be engaging right from the start.

Finally, buyers spend nearly half of their B2B buyer’s journey flying solo. A 2019 study from Gartner shows that buyers spend nearly half (45 percent) of their time in the journey doing independent research. Many potential leads are lost in this phase—without sales or marketing even realizing it. Why? Because something makes that prospect swipe left before they ever fill out a contact form, send an email or pick up the phone.

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Customer Experience Research

B2B Customer Experience Research: Because The Whole Company Needs Voice of the Customer Data

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Let’s face it, most departments, in most organizations, aren’t super familiar with what their buyers perceive, expect, and want. Why? Because, other than sales, most teams aren’t in regular, direct contact with customers. Even sellers miss a big piece of the puzzle, because they aren’t hearing from would-be prospects that have never heard of them or were turned off early in the buyer’s journey before becoming a lead.

Well-executed B2B customer experience research provides a holistic understanding of the voice of the customer (VOC). That is, current, potential, and competitors’ customers. This understanding is necessary to dodge common pitfalls in sales, marketing, product, and business leadership.

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Know Before You Go (To Market)

Know Before You Go (To Market): Key Go-To-Market Research Questions

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You’re going to market with a new product or service. You know you need a product roadmap, a sales plan, and strong marketing. You need to understand your market segment(s) and generate a pricing strategy.

But have customer insights sufficiently informed your go-to-market strategy? If you can’t pinpoint how the voice of the customer shaped your strategy, you’re setting yourself up to fail. Go-to-market research can help you better align your plans with real world success.

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5 Clues Your Product Team Needs B2B Jobs-To-Be-Done Research

5 Clues Your Product Team Needs B2B Jobs-To-Be-Done Research

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If you’re a product person and you’re good at your job, you’re already listening to your customers. You might meet regularly with your sales team. Maybe you’ve even gotten a voice of the customer market research program implemented. But if you’re one of the 34% of product managers who frequently or always worries that you’re delivering features customers won’t use, you might need more granular customer input, like understanding customers’ jobs-to-be-done.
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Rebranding A Company: Dos & Don'ts

Rebranding A Company: Dos & Don’ts

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Rebranding a company sounds like an exciting project to most marketers. A rebrand promises a fresh new look, maybe a new logo, perhaps even a new company name. But, rebrands are also expensive, and risk alienating or confusing current customers. In short, when they go wrong, rebrands can be career-enders.

So when to rebrand or not to rebrand? And if you decide to pull the trigger, what do you need to watch out for? Read on…

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No company size or industry is immune to disruption from COVID-19.

Nearly 80% of Business Activity Is Disrupted By Coronavirus

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A new study on coronavirus business disruption shows that while every industry has been gravely impacted, some, like tech, are faring better than others.

Cascade Insights’ survey reveals how the crisis is affecting business operations across company sizes, sectors, and job roles. (Hint: no business type, size, or function is immune.)
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Online Research Communities

Online Research Communities: Observe the B2B Buyer in their Natural Habitat

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How well do you know Singapore? That probably depends on how much time you’ve spent there. If you only spent a day in Singapore, you likely remember great things about it. You saw a few of the must-sees, sampled a highly-recommended restaurant, and enjoyed the frisson of excitement generated by being somewhere new. Maybe you got stuck in traffic or found the city’s layout confusing. Still, if I asked you to tell me about Singapore, I would probably get a highlights reel. The rosy lens of hindsight often blots out negative experiences.

But what if you lived in Singapore for work for three months and I asked you to email me every day? I’d get much more nuanced insight into the highs and lows of Singaporean expat life. I could ask about the experience of grocery shopping and what the biggest challenges are as you integrate into your new office. You could even send me some of your Slack conversations with your new coworkers. I could understand your experience as it unfolds and witness the intensity of your emotions along the way.

Online Research Communities: Real-Time Reporting, In-Depth Timeline

We see similar patterns in market research. An annoying login issue, needing to find a workaround for a clumsy UX, or challenging integration between two products might not get the full dramatic explanation from customers if you don’t ask about it until weeks later. Even if it significantly impacted customer experience at the time, they may not remember how annoyed they were when asked to recall how they felt after the fact.

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