“Churn Rate” is one of the metrics we usually don’t like to hear about. The higher the number, the more worried we will become about our business. And the bad news is, churn is not inevitable. BUT! There is also good news: We can reduce customer churn and increase user loyalty.

How to reduce customer churn?

 First Impressions Matter

It’s important to make the user onboarding process as smooth and seamless as possible, to reduce customer churn. Make it easy for them to see what exactly your product is and how it can help them. You can create a simple and short tutorial within the app and show them how it works.

Moreover, a long sign-up process is what throws most users out of the app. The app should have a quick and easy sign-up process. To simplify things, apps can allow login using Facebook, Twitter, or Google accounts.

Become Their Friend

You need to make your customers believe that you are providing them with values. Are you giving them what they want? If not, you need to reconsider your future plans.

You can become their friend by helping them out with what they need and answering the questions they might have. Create content for your blog and social media accounts that help your customers find answers to their questions. Send email newsletters with information that they might find useful, or how they can take more advantage of your app.

In addition, try to have a good customer care service, so that your users know you are available and there for them. The users that feel wanted will be loyal to you and your products. Whether it’s a chatbox on your website or a number they can call or an address they can send an email to, make sure to be available and help them.

If your product is an app, you can also capitalize on push notifications. This channel of messaging has proved to be very successful in engaging app users. You can send them different personalized messages based on what stage they’re in along with your app, and try to make them take an action.

Segmentation is Important

Messages should be related to the person who is receiving them. Why? Because it seems like you are caring about that special person and their behavior matters to you. It also makes your messages more related and useful, since you will be able to send different personalized messages to different segments based on their needs and behavior.

Segmentation can be done based on event triggers (or how users react within your app and what actions they have taken), their conversion rates and how far they are along with your business funnel, or their personal characteristics like sex or age.

Keep Meeting Expectations

One of the main reasons users churn from an app is that they find it useful no more. You need to ask for feedback from your customers and keep meeting their needs. Of course, here we are only talking about the reasonable needs of customers; because obviously if you try to satisfy anyone with any needs they might have, related or unrelated to you, your business will fail.

Be honest. Only make promises that you can keep. If you know some features cannot or should not be developed within your app, let your users know in an assertive manner. If you just give them an okay for what they want and don’t deliver it, this itself will result in customer churn. However, if what your users want from you and you go the extra mile to deliver it, it makes them feel special and they will stick with you.

New developments are happening so fast in today’s world, and you need to keep track of how they might affect your product. You need to know what is happening in order to react in time. If according to the recent findings you should change something in your product, you should do it fast and let the customers know you are always up-to-date for their sake. If something new is in the market that you can take advantage of in developing your product further, you should learn about it before your rivals and take action.

Focus on Your Key Values

Whether you are trying to acquire new users or retain the ones you already have, you should let them know about your key values. Why should they keep or use your app? Why should they sign-up for your service? Are you the best in the market? Let them know about what are the differences between you and your competitors. Although, you need to be careful about how you go at telling them you’re “the best.” Try to stick to the facts about you and your rival and don’t insult anyone.

Identify Your At-risk-customers

You need to do something before it’s too late. Usually, the customers that are most likely to churn are not using your product as much as before. You can use segmentation here and try to re-engage those customers, based on their persona and interests, and reduce customer churn.

Just remember user churn is an inevitable part of every business. You cannot make it go away completely, but you can do things that might reduce customer churn and increase retention and loyalty.