Is Customer Churn Your Silent Killer?

Customer success |

Like kryptonite is to Superman, customer churn is a pervasive and insidious problem facing many tech companies today. It is the silent killer that eats away at revenue, consumes sales capacity, and leaves companies struggling to survive. Despite this, only a few select companies are calling out that Net Revenue Retention (NRR) is a problem, many are leaving this unchecked. 

During the latest February reporting period we observe some worrying numbers and a significant rise in commentary from founder’s, CEO’s, CRO’s and CFO’s using terms like “Churn continues to be elevated”, “saw expansion slow”, “our net retention fell in Q4”. 

These are all early warning signs or what is around the corner in 2023, but what is worrying more is that many companies are not commenting on it and many aren’t reporting it. It is absolutely crucial for all tech companies, regardless of size, to measure and track NRR with many in churn nightmare land.

What’s the hype around NRR? 

NRR is all important, as it indicates a company’s ability to retain customers and grow revenue from them over time. High NRR indicates that the company has a strong customer base, one that is loyal and one that is willing to spend more money with the company. This is particularly important for companies that operate on a subscription or recurring revenue model, as customer retention is critical to the company’s success.

So why aren’t all CFO’s presenting and disclosing NRR metrics?

  1. Is it due to a lack of understanding or prioritization? Some might not fully understand the importance of NRR metrics, or the board doesn’t prioritize it as a key metric in their financial reporting and prefer to focus on more traditional financial metrics. 
  2. Measuring NRR requires a deep understanding of customer behavior and the ability to track changes in customer spending patterns over time. This can be a complex and time-consuming process, given data inaccuracies, data silos in the channel and account structure and normalisation.  
  3. Potential fear of negative perception? Lack of industry standards? Unlike traditional financial metrics, there are no established industry standards for NRR metrics.  

Does tracking NRR solve all your problems, no way – Gross Renewal Rate (GRR), Renewal Rate, and Gross Churn are also critical preceding indicators that help assess the health of the customer base quantifiably and unemotionally. How they are performing and how likely they are to retain customers, which ultimately affects the NRR. Many companies are attempting to measure customer health score cards, however these are fought with danger given that close to 50% of the score is controlled by the Customer Success team, who are also often compensated on the growth of customer health scores (conflicted much). 

  1. Gross Renewal Rate (GRR) measures the percentage of customers who renew their subscriptions or contracts without making any changes. A high GRR indicates that customers are satisfied with the product or service and are more likely to renew their subscriptions. If the GRR is low, it could indicate that customers are not finding the product or service valuable, which could lead to higher churn rates and lower NRR.
  2. Renewal Rate measures the percentage of customers who renew their subscriptions or contracts, regardless of whether or not they make changes. A high renewal rate indicates that customers are satisfied with the product or service and are more likely to renew. If the renewal rate is low, it can indicate that customers are not finding value from the product or service, which could in turn lead to higher churn rates and lower NRR.
  3. Gross Churn measures the percentage of customers who cancel or do not renew their subscriptions or contracts. A high churn rate indicates that customers are leaving the company, which could result in lower NRR. By understanding the reasons for churn and taking steps to address them, companies can reduce churn and improve NRR.

In our opinion, the realisation that many technology business’s existing customer bases are in a non-healthily decline is unacceptable and throwing more sales staff at the problem will not solve the root cause. Sales team inefficiency is a growing time bomb, and the need to measure NRR and free up sales teams, is higher than ever before. 

A select few companies have started to calling out the impact of a “continued elongation of sales cycles” and the fact that this impacting their team’s ability to sell more seats and more data into their install base.

Here are some steps, processes, and techniques we have observed from successful companies bucking the trend consistently and repeatably to grow NRR and Gross Margin. 

1.     Automate the renewal process: Use a software solution that automates the renewal process, from generating renewal quotes to sending out reminders and notifications. This will help reduce the workload on your sales, renewals, customer success and operations team and ensure that renewals are not overlooked.

2.     Implement automated price quotes: Use a software solution that automatically generates priced quotes based on the customer’s current product/service and any changes they have made since their last renewal. In addition to quoting like-for-like renewals, you should also leverage the data you have on the customer to identify upsell and cross-sell opportunities and quote and present these at the time of renewal. This will make it easier for your customers to understand their renewal options and make an informed decision without potential human intervention. Not to be confused with a CPQ that only generates “Like for Like” quote and requires human intervention for all others.

3.     Send automated notifications: Set up automated notifications to notify customers about upcoming renewals opportunities and any changes to their product/service. This will help keep your customers informed, notified and engaged with your product at critical stages of the lifecycle.

4.     Use automated reminders: Set up automated reminders to automatically touch, communicate and follow up with customers who have not yet renewed their product/service. This goes a long way to reducing churn and improving On Time Rates (OTR) 

5.     Implement self-service quoting and workflows: Create self-service, interactive quotes and workflows that allow customers to make changes to their own product/service terms without having to go through a sales/renewals/customers success representative. This will make it easier for customers to manage their subscription and reduce the workload on your own teams. 

By at least assessing and reviewing these strategies against what these companies are utilising today, they can improve their renewal process, increase customer engagement, identify upsell and cross-sell opportunities earlier, and free up their costly sales, renewals & customer success teams to focus on high-touch sales activities that will ultimately materialise into NRR improvements and reduce churn. 

Mat Cagney – CEO @ Renewtrak

PRIVACY POLICY

 

Renewtrak is committed to providing quality services to you and this policy outlines our ongoing obligations to you in respect of how we manage your Personal Information.

This Privacy Policy outlines the policy of Renewtrak and its related companies for maintaining your privacy and handling your personal information, and applies to personal information we handle about our clients, visitors to our websites and other members of the public. If you work for Renewtrak, you can contact our human resources team for more information about how your privacy is handled internally.

In this Privacy Policy, we use the terms, “we”, “us”, “our” or “Renewtrak” to refer to RENEWTRAK GLOBAL SERVICES PTY LTD and its related companies.

Renewtrak have adopted the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). The APPs govern the way in which we collect, use, disclose, store, secure and dispose of your Personal Information.

In addition, where Renewtrak provide services globally, Renewtrak comply with the requirements of regional privacy legislation and guidelines, such as GDPR.

 

1. What is Personal Information and why do we collect it?

Personal Information is information or an opinion that identifies an individual.

Renewtrak collects your Personal Information for the primary purpose of providing our services to you, providing services to our clients and marketing. We may also use your Personal Information for secondary purposes closely related to the primary purpose, in circumstances where you would reasonably expect such use or disclosure. You may unsubscribe from our mailing/marketing lists at any time by contacting us in writing.

The personal information that we collect about you includes your name, postal and street address, email address, telephone number, profession/role, place of work, information relating to the complaints you have made to us and various personal preferences. We also collect your payment information, such as your credit card or direct debit information and ABN, when you purchase a product or service from us.

Personal Information processed by our Renewals platform is provided to Renewtrak by our clients under contract, and also collected directly when updated via our website and white label services. We don’t guarantee website links or policy of authorised third parties.

When we collect Personal Information directly we will explain to you why we are collecting the information and how we plan to use it.

 

2. How we collect Personal Information

a) Information you provide voluntarily

This is personal information that you choose to provide to us voluntarily, for example when interacting with our websites or using our products and Services. It includes details such as your name, email address, residential address, or other information permitting your identity to be directly or indirectly inferred. We will tell you at the time that you provide your information what information is requested, why, and whether the provision of the information is optional or mandatory.

Examples of when you provide information to us:

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b) Personal information we collect automatically

This is information that we collect from the devices of visitors to our websites or users of our Services. We will explain what information we require and ask for your consent. This type of information is collected for analytics and reporting purposes, and to maintain the security of our products, Services, and websites.

The following are examples of information we collect:

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Please note that some parts of Renewtrak websites may not function fully if you disallow cookies.

In addition, in some cases we or third parties may use cookies and other technologies such as web beacons and JavaScript on our websites in connection with online services like banner advertising, website analytics and surveys. These technologies enable information to be collected about your use of our websites which may be stored in the European Economic Area, Australia and the United States. The information collected by these technologies give us and third-party collectors the ability to deliver customised content, measure advertising effectiveness, evaluate the use of Renewtrak websites and other websites and provide other services relating to website activity and internet usage.

We and third parties may also transfer collected information to others if required by law, or where those other parties process the information on our behalf. Transfers to third-parties will only be undertaken with your upfront consent. Third-parties we use may include Microsoft Azure, SendGrid, Tableau and Google Analytics.

c) Information we receive from third parties

  • Sales leads from our joint initiative partners.
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  • Material including renewal data shared with Renewtrak to enable us to provide our services to you.
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3. Sensitive information

Sensitive information is defined in the Privacy Act to include information or opinion about such things as an individual’s racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, membership of a political association, religious or philosophical beliefs, membership of a trade union or other professional body, criminal record or health information.

Renewtrak currently does not collect or process sensitive information except in the case of Employee background checks.

 

4. Information provided by Third Parties

Where reasonable and practicable to do so, we will collect your Personal Information only from you. However, in some circumstances we may be provided with information by third parties, primarily in relation to the use of our Renewals Automation Platform. Our platform provides a white-label renewals service, and in many instances we will be provided order and contact “renewal” information by third parties. In such a case our clients providing this information will take reasonable steps to ensure that you consent to being contacted by the renewals service, and Renewtrak will abide by the terms of the confidentiality and legitimate use clauses this renewal data is provided under.

 

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Renewtrak may disclose your personal information to the following categories of recipients:

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EU/EEA data subjects may exercise the rights provided them under the provisions of the GDPR by requesting in writing to the email or physical address provided in section 14.

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Renewtrak will review each request on a case-by-case basis and respond in accordance with the applicable data protection law.

 

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Your Personal Information is stored in a manner that reasonably protects it from misuse and loss and from unauthorized access, modification or disclosure.

When your Personal Information is no longer needed for the purpose for which it was obtained, we will take reasonable steps to destroy or permanently de-identify your Personal Information.

 

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Renewtrak have legitimate business needs to retain certain data.

This information is retained to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, protect rights and enforce our agreements

Customer names, addresses and order history are maintained for a retention period agreed with clients of the Renewtrak platform unless required as part of accounting records.

Accounting records including invoices, purchase orders and other historical financial records are stored for 7 years for legislated accounting purposes.

Our backup media is protected using security measures including encryption and is disposed of securely when retired.

 

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Renewtrak does not knowingly collect personal information relating to children under the statutory age of majority.

If you believe Renewtrak have recorded children’s personal information, please contact us and we will delete this information on request. We encourage you to talk with your children about communicating with strangers and disclosing personal information online.

 

10. Collection and Use of Data relating to Minors

You may access the Personal Information we hold about you and to update and/or correct it, subject to certain exceptions. If you wish to access your Personal Information, please contact us in writing.

Renewtrak will not charge any fee for your access request, but may charge an administrative fee for providing a copy of your Personal Information.

In order to protect your Personal Information, we may require further identification from you before releasing the requested information.

If you do not want us to use your personal information for direct marketing, you can let us know at any time through the contact details provided below.

 

11. International Transfers

Renewtrak use facilities in locations globally including the European Economic Area, United Kingdom, USA and Australia to process information in these regions.

If you are an individual from the European Union or European Economic Area (EEA), the information that we collect from you, including personal information relating to you or Customer Relationship Information that we process in providing a Service, may be transferred to, and processed by, Renewtrak service providers outside the EEA for the purposes described in this Policy.

These affiliates and service providers may be based in territories whose data protection laws are different from those of the country or region in which you are based, but we will always protect your personal information in accordance with this Policy. In addition, we will protect transfers to countries outside the EEA with appropriate safeguards, such as using standard contractual clauses adopted or approved by the European Commission.

Further details can be provided upon request to the address provided below.

 

12. Transferring Data to Renewtrak

It is an important to us that your Personal Information is up to date. We will take reasonable steps to make sure that your Personal Information is accurate, complete and up-to-date. If you find that the information we have is not up to date or is inaccurate, please advise us as soon as practicable so we can update our records and ensure we can continue to provide quality services to you.

Renewtrak have a range of security measures in place to protect the personal information that we hold. For example, those of our web pages that request sensitive information employ encryption technologies such as Transport Layer Security (TLS 1.2+).

You can confirm that a data-entry page uses encryption by checking that:

The page address in the web browser’s tool bar or status bar begins with https://; and

The padlock icon in the web browser’s tool bar or status bar is locked.

If you are considering sending us any personal information by standard email, please be aware that the information may be less secure in transit. We are required by law to take steps to protect the security of personal information once it comes into our possession. Contact Renewtrak stating the nature of the communication and we will provide a secure upload facility to use.

 

13. Policy Updates

This Policy may change from time to time and is available on our website.

You can also obtain a copy of the most current Renewtrak Privacy Policy by either emailing or writing to the Data Protection Officer using the contact details set out below.

This policy was revised on the 21st Oct 2021

 

14. Enquiries, concerns and complaints

Renewtrak welcome any queries, comments or requests about our Privacy Policy.

If you want to make a complaint about a breach of your privacy by Renewtrak, you can contact us using the contact details at the bottom of this web page. All complaints will be investigated by an appropriately qualified representative. We will endeavour to resolve your complaint as quickly as possible, and in any event within 30 days. If your complaint takes longer to resolve, we will keep you informed of our progress with the investigation. We will let you know the outcome of the investigation, including how we propose to resolve your complaint and what, if any, corrective measures will be put in place.

 

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