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The Journey: #004 The Churn Autopsy

Writer's picture: Kristi FaltorussoKristi Faltorusso

Updated: Jan 31


Let’s face it—you’re going to lose customers. It’s inevitable. Even the best CS teams out there can’t keep ‘em all.


Over the years, I’ve seen customers churn for every reason under the sun—product gaps, poor adoption, bad fit, lack of value realization, M&A drama, budget cuts, new leadership… you name it. And while churn always stings, I believe this:

👉 Losing a customer isn’t the real loss—losing the lesson is.


I still remember the first customer I lost back in 2013—The Limited. (Yes, the retail brand that sold business casual chic - Flashback to my first interview outfit in 2002.)


I got the dreaded breakup email: “It’s not you, it’s me.” They were dissolving their digital marketing team—so poof, no need for our product. Nothing we could’ve done, right?


Wrong.


Even though this one wasn’t a “save,” I used the loss to get better. I reached out, asked key questions, and pulled insights that helped us improve future retention strategies. This was long before I had my go-to churn analysis frameworks (hello, Fishbone Diagrams!), but the principle was the same:

👉 If you’re not learning from churn, you’re doing it wrong.


(Also, don’t sleep on downsells—they’re a slow bleed that needs just as much attention. But that’s a topic for another day. And trust me, I have a lot to say on this topic.)

So how do you turn churn into a growth opportunity?


Here’s how I’ve made sure my teams don’t just track lost customers, but learn from them.

1️⃣ Track Churn Reason Codes (With Data, Not Feelings)


Gut feelings are cute, but data tells the real story. If you don’t have structured churn tracking, you’re just guessing.

✅ What to do:


Use a CS platform (like ClientSuccess) to tag churn reasons (product gap, low adoption, etc.)

Assign multiple reasons per churned account—because it’s usually more than one thing.

Look for trends across segments, tenure, CSMs, and industries to spot patterns.

💡 Pro tip: If one churn reason keeps popping up, it’s a business problem, not a one-off. Time to act.


2️⃣ Run Post-Mortems (Without the Blame Game)


Not every churn needs an autopsy, but for big ones? Dissect that loss like a true crime podcast.


✅ What to do:


Bring together CS, Sales, Product, and Support to retrace the customer journey.

Analyze the people, process, product, and customer experience that led to this outcome.

Focus on what we could have done differently—not who’s to blame.

💡 Mindset shift: You win as a team, lose as a team. If your team can’t discuss churn without finger-pointing, you have a leadership problem.



3️⃣ Review Customer Data Trends (Because Hindsight is 20/20)


Churn rarely happens overnight. The warning signs? They were there all along.


✅ What to do:

Dig into product usage and engagement data—did adoption drop? Were there feature gaps?

Look at support tickets and CSAT/NPS trends—did complaints increase? Did sentiment shift?

Check for leadership changes or budget cuts—external forces matter too.

💡 Actionable insight: If multiple churned customers followed the same pattern, it’s time to refine your health scoring model so you catch at-risk accounts sooner.



4️⃣ Share Your Learnings (Because Silence is a Retention Killer)


Churn data sitting in a spreadsheet does nothing. If your learnings aren’t shared, they’re wasted.

✅ What to do:


Create a #ChurnInsights Slack channel—short, punchy lessons in real-time.

Include key takeaways in a monthly CS newsletter to internal teams.

Make churn a standing leadership meeting topic—the whole company should care.

💡 Pro tip: Sales, Product, and Marketing should be as invested in churn insights as CS is. If they’re not, you have an alignment problem.


5️⃣ Put Insights into Action (Or Keep Losing the Same Way)


Knowing why customers churn is useless if you don’t do something about it.

✅ What to do:


Adjust onboarding if churned customers had weak adoption.

Refine engagement cadences to catch at-risk customers earlier.

Develop new training, content, or playbooks to address recurring gaps.

💡 The takeaway? Churn is only a loss if nothing changes because of it.


Final Thought: Stop Losing the Same Way Twice


Losing customers is part of the game. But losing customers for the same reasons, over and over?


That’s a leadership failure.


Do the work. Analyze the data. Share the insights. Make the changes.

And if you’re serious about reducing churn? Start by learning from it.


Looking for a Post-Mortem template to start with? Check this out.

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