Reduce customer churn using the 5W's Tool

My love for the 5Ws was professed (or at least implied) in a prior post, proving that I am not afraid to express my deep affection for abstract concepts - luckily I have a very understanding wife. So here we go again, another ode to the 5Ws, one of the simplest yet most powerful ways to generate ideas to improve your business.

Let's kick things off with a marketing poem that's all about reducing customer churn... or as I like to put it, fixing those darn leaks in your bucket 'o customers:

There's a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza...
Then fix it dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry...
With what should I fix it, dear Liza, dear Liza?...
With the 5Ws dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry
With the 5Ws dear Henry, dear Henry, with the 5Ws...

How to use the 5Ws to reduce customer churn

1. Use the 5Ws churn matrix to generate ideas. Use the 5Ws Customer Churn Matrix (see it below) to generate as many ideas as possible for why customers might cancel or reduce the use of your product or service. You will be amazed at how rich & vivid your perspective on your customers will become (no, I didn't borrow this line from an infomercial).
   
2. Validate your ideas. Which of your ideas actually result in customer churn? There are a number of ways to validate your ideas, from surveying canceled customers to bouncing them off customer service reps.*
   
3. Find the biggest leaks. Of the cancellation reasons you have validated, which ones account for the largest % of customer attrition? You want to make sure you focus your attention on the biggest chunks to maximize the business impact of your efforts.
   
4. Design ways to plug the holes. How can you reduce or eliminate the biggest drivers of customer churn? Common strategies include making enhancements to your product or service, creating promotional or loyalty programs, retraining your sales & service reps, altering your approach to distribution, and developing new partnerships.
5. Plug away! Unfortunately it's not enough to simply think up cool & innovative ways to reduce customer attrition... you have to execute, execute, execute...
   
6. Measure & adjust. What's working? What's not working? What could work if you made a few minor tweaks? At this point you're looking to optimize your strategies through ongoing measurement & adjustments.
   

Click here to download matrix in PowerPoint

Please share your experiences!
Enough about the 5Ws and my curious fascination with matrices! How do you go about identifying why your customers cancel your service? What have you found to be most effective? Please share your experiences - good, bad or ugly.





Additional posts on using the 5Ws to improve your business

• Marketing & the 5 W's: why every marketer should take a journalism class
• Marketing & the 5 W's: a framework for marketing innovation

Check out my favorite business books

*While you should always be surveying canceled customers and speaking with service reps, arming yourself with the ideas generated from the matrix will significantly enhance the value you derive from these activities.

read more

Using the 5Ws to reduce customer churn

My love for the 5Ws was professed (or at least implied) in a prior post, proving that I am not afraid to express my deep affection for abstract concepts - luckily I have a very understanding wife. So here we go again, another ode to the 5Ws, one of the simplest yet most powerful ways to generate ideas to improve your business.

Let's kick things off with a marketing poem that's all about reducing customer churn... or as I like to put it, fixing those darn leaks in your bucket 'o customers:

There's a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza...
Then fix it dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry...
With what should I fix it, dear Liza, dear Liza?...
With the 5Ws dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry
With the 5Ws dear Henry, dear Henry, with the 5Ws...

How to use the 5Ws to reduce customer churn

1. Use the 5Ws churn matrix to generate ideas. Use the 5Ws Customer Churn Matrix (see it below) to generate as many ideas as possible for why customers might cancel or reduce the use of your product or service. You will be amazed at how rich & vivid your perspective on your customers will become (no, I didn't borrow this line from an infomercial).
   
2. Validate your ideas. Which of your ideas actually result in customer churn? There are a number of ways to validate your ideas, from surveying canceled customers to bouncing them off customer service reps.*
   
3. Find the biggest leaks. Of the cancellation reasons you have validated, which ones account for the largest % of customer attrition? You want to make sure you focus your attention on the biggest chunks to maximize the business impact of your efforts.
   
4. Design ways to plug the holes. How can you reduce or eliminate the biggest drivers of customer churn? Common strategies include making enhancements to your product or service, creating promotional or loyalty programs, retraining your sales & service reps, altering your approach to distribution, and developing new partnerships.
5. Plug away! Unfortunately it's not enough to simply think up cool & innovative ways to reduce customer attrition... you have to execute, execute, execute...
   
6. Measure & adjust. What's working? What's not working? What could work if you made a few minor tweaks? At this point you're looking to optimize your strategies through ongoing measurement & adjustments.
   

Click here to download matrix in PowerPoint

Please share your experiences!
Enough about the 5Ws and my curious fascination with matrices! How do you go about identifying why your customers cancel your service? What have you found to be most effective? Please share your experiences - good, bad or ugly.








 
Additional posts on using the 5Ws to improve your business

• Marketing & the 5 W's: why every marketer should take a journalism class
• Marketing & the 5 W's: a framework for marketing innovation

*While you should always be surveying canceled customers and speaking with service reps, arming yourself with the ideas generated from the matrix will significantly enhance the value you derive from these activities.

read more

Marketing & the 5 W's: a framework for marketing innovation

In my prior post I introduced the wonders of the 5 W's, and how you could benefit from utilizing this foundation of journalism in your efforts to innovate & develop potent marketing strategies. In this post I provide a peak into one of several dozen 5W's frameworks you can use to turbo-charge your marketing efforts.

5 W's Consumer Journey Framework
This framework provides you with a powerful tool for generating a rich inventory of ideas & insights with respect to the customer journey for your product or service.

	WHAT?	WHEN?	WHY?	WHERE?	WHO?	HOW?
Need / demand for product arises
Researching options
Decision-making process
Purchase & payment(s)
Delivery (& installation)
Product usage & maintenance
Product disposal
Repurchase & renewal

(click to download as PDF)


Using the tool couldn't be more straightforward:

1. Create a matrix like the one above, comprised of two dimensions - the 5W's dimension and the consumer journey dimension.

2. Take each customer journey dimension (e.g., demand, search, purchase, etc.) through each of the 5W's, one at a time. Note that some of the Ws will be less relevant to some of the journey dimensions. Within each journey/W box, write as many ideas & thoughts that come to mind.

3. Redo the exercise a few days later and see what additional thoughts pop out of your mind. A little incubation period can reap serious dividends.

4. Now, with your fully blown-out matrix in-front of you, ask yourself the following questions:

• What new channels should I test to increase product awareness, improve product search, selling, & servicing ?
• What additional consumer needs are generated at various points along the consumer journey and how might I meet them?  What complementary products can I offer?
• What new partnerships should I explore to provide greater value to customers at points along the journey?
• What marcom approaches should we test with certain customer segments, within certain contexts, or at different stages along the journey?
• What ways can I improve & influence the search & decision-making process for customers (specific customer segments)?
• What ways can I can improve the {purchase & payment, delivery & installation, usage & maintenance, disposal, repurchase & renewal} experience for customers / specific customer segments?

Use the tool & share your experience
So I'd like to ask each of you to try the tool out on a product or service that you currently sell or manage. After you have run through the tool and the battery of follow-up questions for improving your business, let me know what insights or ideas you were able to generate - I would love to hear about them, and have you share them with the rest of our marketing community.

And of course, please let me know if you have any questions along the way - I am more than happy to answer them.

Have fun, and I'm looking forward to hearing about the innovative ideas & insights you come up with!

-------

Related posts

• Innovation using analogous people, places & things (powerful tool)

• Using the 5W's for your marketing strategy

• Using the 5W's to reduce customer churn

read more

Marketing & the 5 W's: a framework for marketing innovation

In my prior post I introduced the wonders of the 5 W's, and how you could benefit from utilizing this foundation of journalism in your efforts to innovate & develop potent marketing strategies. In this post I provide a peak into one of several dozen 5W's frameworks you can use to turbo-charge your marketing efforts.

5 W's Consumer Journey Framework
This framework provides you with a powerful tool for generating a rich inventory of ideas & insights with respect to the customer journey for your product or service.

	WHAT?	WHEN?	WHY?	WHERE?	WHO?	HOW?
Need / demand for product arises
Researching options
Decision-making process
Purchase & payment(s)
Delivery (& installation)
Product usage & maintenance
Product disposal
Repurchase & renewal

(click to download as PDF)


Using the tool couldn't be more straightforward:

1. Create a matrix like the one above, comprised of two dimensions - the 5W's dimension and the consumer journey dimension.

2. Take each customer journey dimension (e.g., demand, search, purchase, etc.) through each of the 5W's, one at a time. Note that some of the Ws will be less relevant to some of the journey dimensions. Within each journey/W box, write as many ideas & thoughts that come to mind.

3. Redo the exercise a few days later and see what additional thoughts pop out of your mind. A little incubation period can reap serious dividends.

4. Now, with your fully blown-out matrix in-front of you, ask yourself the following questions:

• What new channels should I test to increase product awareness, improve product search, selling, & servicing ?
• What additional consumer needs are generated at various points along the consumer journey and how might I meet them?  What complementary products can I offer?
• What new partnerships should I explore to provide greater value to customers at points along the journey?
• What marcom approaches should we test with certain customer segments, within certain contexts, or at different stages along the journey?
• What ways can I improve & influence the search & decision-making process for customers (specific customer segments)?
• What ways can I can improve the {purchase & payment, delivery & installation, usage & maintenance, disposal, repurchase & renewal} experience for customers / specific customer segments?

Use the tool & share your experience
So I'd like to ask each of you to try the tool out on a product or service that you currently sell or manage. After you have run through the tool and the battery of follow-up questions for improving your business, let me know what insights or ideas you were able to generate - I would love to hear about them, and have you share them with the rest of our marketing community.

And of course, please let me know if you have any questions along the way - I am more than happy to answer them.

Have fun, and I'm looking forward to hearing about the innovative ideas & insights you come up with!

-------

Related posts

• Innovation using analogous people, places & things (powerful tool)

• Using the 5W's for your marketing strategy

• Using the 5W's to reduce customer churn

read more

Marketing & the 5 W's: why every marketer should take a journalism class

Journalism 101. Who, what, when, where, why, how?... these key dimensions that are the foundation of journalism can also be used to design great marketing & segmentation strategies, and to turbo-charge your innovation efforts.

The 5 W's as they have been dubbed, can serve as a powerful tool for gaining deep insight into the contextual nature surrounding the need for and use of your product. I like to think of the 5W's as the marketing equivalent of an industrial-grade power shovel, allowing you to "dig deep" so you can get to those precious consumer gems that lay beneath your feet.

Context is king
Powering the 5W's is the essential notion that everything that we do is embedded in a context, and the better you, the marketer, understand the different contexts in which the need for/use of your product occurs, the better equipped you will be to develop marketing strategies or innovations that truly pop!

How do I use the 5 W's?
The simplest way to begin using the 5W's is to start with the most basic question and loop it through each W:

• {When/Where/Why/How/For whom} might the need for my product arise?

Spend at least 5-10 minutes on each W, making a list along the way. Allow your thoughts to percolate; don't be afraid to make assumptions - you can always validate them in the future. Do the exercise again a day or two later - often the most insightful thoughts will come after a period of incubation.

As you begin to use the 5W's, one thing that will become clear to you is that one or two of the Ws will often be more relevant to your product than others. You'll also notice that the Ws will frequently interact with each other in meaningful ways, and that you'll often want to drill down on a given insight using "follow-up" Ws. Note these interactions and drill-downs and allow them to generate further insight into the contextual nature of demand for your product. Often the deepest insights lay in these pockets.

Gatorade: a brief example of the 5 W's in action
Let's take Gatorade, that cold, refreshing beverage that most of us have purchased at some point in our lives. Reaching into our magic hat of W's, we come up with "Where?", leading us to ask, "Where might the need for Gatorade arise?"

Given that Gatorade is 'the ultimate thirst quencher', I begin to think of places where the need for thirst-quenching is likely to arise. A few examples that come to mind include basketball courts, hot climates (e.g., Phoenix, The Mojave Desert), marathons, and the Dead Sea.

Let's reach into the hat again... this time I pull out "When?", leading us to ask, "When might the need for Gatorade (thirst-quenching) arise?" Some initial thoughts that come to mind include summertime, playing sports, during a long hike, the morning following a night of drinking, a few hours after eating extremely salty food, and last but certainly not least, during a prolonged bout of diarrhea.

Let's now drill down on one of the "When's" - during a prolonged bout of diarrhea - and ask, "Where might such bouts occur?" One thought that comes to mind is certain poor villages around the globe where outbreaks occur regularly. Gatorade could be used in such places to quickly rehydrate people, especially children, who can die from the dehydration caused by the outbreak. Needless to say the potential benefits to Gatorade, the Gatorade brand, and the people of such villages would be numerous.

5 W's Recap
How to use the 5W's for developing marketing strategies & for business innovation likely merits an entire book; perhaps we'll put one together in the near future. Hopefully in this post I've given you a little taste of how one of the bedrocks of journalism can also serve as a potent tool for marketers & innovators alike. Much more to come.





More posts on the 5 W's:

• 5 Ws innovation framework
• Using the 5Ws to reduce customer churn
  

Check out my favorite business books

read more

Marketing & the 5 W's: why every marketer should take a journalism class

Journalism 101. Who, what, when, where, why, how?... these key dimensions that are the foundation of journalism can also be used to design great marketing & segmentation strategies, and to turbo-charge your innovation efforts.

The 5 W's as they have been dubbed, can serve as a powerful tool for gaining deep insight into the contextual nature surrounding the need for and use of your product. I like to think of the 5W's as the marketing equivalent of an industrial-grade power shovel, allowing you to "dig deep" so you can get to those precious consumer gems that lay beneath your feet.

Context is king
Powering the 5W's is the essential notion that everything that we do is embedded in a context, and the better you, the marketer, understand the different contexts in which the need for/use of your product occurs, the better equipped you will be to develop marketing strategies or innovations that truly pop!

How do I use the 5 W's?
The simplest way to begin using the 5W's is to start with the most basic question and loop it through each W:

• {When/Where/Why/How/For whom} might the need for my product arise?

Spend at least 5-10 minutes on each W, making a list along the way. Allow your thoughts to percolate; don't be afraid to make assumptions - you can always validate them in the future. Do the exercise again a day or two later - often the most insightful thoughts will come after a period of incubation.

As you begin to use the 5W's, one thing that will become clear to you is that one or two of the Ws will often be more relevant to your product than others. You'll also notice that the Ws will frequently interact with each other in meaningful ways, and that you'll often want to drill down on a given insight using "follow-up" Ws. Note these interactions and drill-downs and allow them to generate further insight into the contextual nature of demand for your product. Often the deepest insights lay in these pockets.

Gatorade: a brief example of the 5 W's in action
Let's take Gatorade, that cold, refreshing beverage that most of us have purchased at some point in our lives. Reaching into our magic hat of W's, we come up with "Where?", leading us to ask, "Where might the need for Gatorade arise?"

Given that Gatorade is 'the ultimate thirst quencher', I begin to think of places where the need for thirst-quenching is likely to arise. A few examples that come to mind include basketball courts, hot climates (e.g., Phoenix, The Mojave Desert), marathons, and the Dead Sea.

Let's reach into the hat again... this time I pull out "When?", leading us to ask, "When might the need for Gatorade (thirst-quenching) arise?" Some initial thoughts that come to mind include summertime, playing sports, during a long hike, the morning following a night of drinking, a few hours after eating extremely salty food, and last but certainly not least, during a prolonged bout of diarrhea.

Let's now drill down on one of the "When's" - during a prolonged bout of diarrhea - and ask, "Where might such bouts occur?" One thought that comes to mind is certain poor villages around the globe where outbreaks occur regularly. Gatorade could be used in such places to quickly rehydrate people, especially children, who can die from the dehydration caused by the outbreak. Needless to say the potential benefits to Gatorade, the Gatorade brand, and the people of such villages would be numerous.

5 W's Recap
How to use the 5W's for developing marketing strategies & for business innovation likely merits an entire book; perhaps we'll put one together in the near future. Hopefully in this post I've given you a little taste of how one of the bedrocks of journalism can also serve as a potent tool for marketers & innovators alike. Much more to come.




More posts on the 5 W's:

• 5 Ws innovation framework
• Using the 5Ws to reduce customer churn
  

read more