Preventable churn costs United States companies $136 billion a year.
That’s according to data gathered by customer management company Gravy. While not all churn is avoidable — due to economic factors or changes to business strategies — a good customer experience goes a long way toward customer retention. If a customer’s needs are met and their problems are fixed, they’re much more likely to keep using a company’s services.
That’s easier said than done, though. Not all customers are going to voice their issues through feedback; according to the same Gravy article, only 1 in 26 customers will complain when they’re not satisfied. As such, explicit feedback isn’t enough — and that’s where data comes in.
ActionIQ and NS1 both track metrics to address customer needs — without hearing those needs said out loud. Measuring data like engagement, campaign velocity and product utilization helps these companies monitor customer health without needing to hear from them directly, so they can address issues preemptively.
Built In NYC sat down with ActionIQ Customer Success Manager Mark Stroessler and NS1 Senior CSM Bridgett Feehan to learn more about the metrics they track and how they reduce customer churn.
ActionIQ is equipped to handle customer experience since its platform is designed to make CX easier to manage for other businesses. Stroessler discusses not only what his team measures but the context of what that data might mean — and that nuance is the key to their 95 percent retention rate.
What are the key metrics you track when it comes to your customers? Are there any “outside-the-box” metrics you track?
The metrics we most commonly track fall into two groups. The first is traditional KPIs and engagement associated with use cases that are developed and delivered from our platform; the second revolves around process improvements, including the velocity of campaigns, streamlining process flow, automation and optimizing the overall martech stack. These often carry more weight as they are areas we can directly impact versus being part of the equation.
ActionIQ is seeing this success across verticals. Some specific customer examples include a 65 percent decrease in campaign lead time, a 71 percent increase in conversion in existing campaigns, a 50 percent increase in return on ad spend and decrease in cost per acquisition, and a five-times increase in reach and accuracy through the implementation of ActionIQ Identity Solutions.
Press releases, competitor landscape, stock price and so on are outside-the-box metrics that we monitor; these elements help indicate the company’s health and what a customer experiences at the top of an organization. Whether conditions are favorable or experiencing headwinds, these factors will eventually filter down to the executive sponsor and the day-to-day relationship.
Which metrics do you prioritize when identifying accounts that might be in danger of churning?
In addition to the previously mentioned metrics, user adoption carries a disproportionate weight when identifying customers who might be looking for alternative solutions. However, this is not just a numbers game. One of my clients just broke over 100 active users, but that is not practical for organizations with a centralized operating model, where one team acts as a shared resource across the organization.
The key is continually working with our partners to identify individuals or teams that could benefit from ActionIQ, even if they will only take advantage of part of the platform. Pairing adoption with overall growth in use cases is the primary indicator to understand how deeply ingrained ActionIQ is within a customer and one of the reasons we maintain a 95 percent retention rate.
Customer success is as much an art as it is a science.”
Give an example of how you used this data to tailor your reengagement strategy or otherwise improve and nurture customer relationships.
Customer success is as much an art as it is a science. Ultimately, customers need to trust you — and with that, they are more likely to be internal advocates. Each client will weigh various aspects of our relationship differently; some might be focused on architecture and product roadmap while others value our audience and journey management capabilities. Trust, unfortunately, is only usually extended to actively engaged team members. When expanding reach within an organization or working with procurement on renewals, having specific data and metrics that show irrefutable value is crucial.
The key is to identify what will make them successful within their organization and lean into those areas without losing sight of the other elements where we can deepen the relationship. Each customer is unique, and that is where being a partner versus a vendor comes into play; understanding their needs and tailoring a plan will make them successful today and in the future.
NS1 provides DNS and traffic management software for companies like Salesforce, LinkedIn and Dropbox. The nature of their product means that no news is good news, so Feehan pays special attention to support tickets.
What are the key metrics you track when it comes to your customers? Are there any “outside-the-box” metrics you track?
We tend to look at four key metrics. First, we look at engagements — whether that’s a customer responding to an email, attending a meeting or participating in an event like a webinar. Secondly, we track what we call “pulse scores,” which are measured by a confirmed renewal and definitive feedback gathered from communication or comments provided with a CSAT or NPS score. We also focus on the creation of support tickets and utilization of account limits. The combination of these four metrics is a really good indicator of how healthy and solid our relationship is with each customer.
Our out-of-the-box approach to monitoring our customers’ happiness is not relying heavily on NPS and CSAT scores. We find that these scores only represent a small percentage of our customer base; additionally, many of the scores are submitted as specific product feedback and are not representative of the customer’s overall health. Other companies place a massive significance on those scores — and while still helpful, we get much more valuable insights from the metrics I mentioned earlier.
Which metrics do you prioritize when identifying accounts that might be in danger of churning?
We prioritize support tickets and utilization of contracted limits.
Due to the nature of our business, it’s not uncommon for a customer to lack engagement with us once they complete onboarding. So when a customer writes into support with an issue, it provides the opportunity to gauge the customer’s satisfaction. We use support tickets to track how many issues have impacted a customer and their likelihood of renewing.
Ensuring that customers are utilizing what they pay for is also important. If a customer’s account is over-provisioned or we notice a decrease in utilization, that can be a red flag that the account is in danger of some level of churn.
Ensuring that customers are utilizing what they pay for is important.”
Give an example of how you used this data to tailor your reengagement strategy or otherwise improve and nurture customer relationships.
We use support tickets as a lead-in to follow up with customers on the topic of their ticket. Sometimes this means developing a creative workaround to solve a problem or championing a feature request on the customer’s behalf. These types of engagements not only nurture the relationship but also aid in building a partnership. We’re mutually working toward the same goal: customer success.
If we notice a customer isn’t fully utilizing their contract, we’ll reach out to schedule a meeting to better understand their use case. This can lead to training sessions and providing additional resources, such as implementation guides, that ensure the customer successfully expands utilization of their current contract.
