When the user wants to reduce churn, improve customer retention, or plan lifecycle marketing. Also use when the user mentions "retention," "churn," "customer lifecycle," "churn prevention," "at-risk customers," or "loyalty program." For lifecycle, use growth-funnel.
Guides customer retention and churn prevention. Acquiring new customers costs 5–25× more than retaining; 5% retention improvement can increase profitability 25–95%. Use this skill when reducing churn, building retention programs, or identifying at-risk customers.
When invoking: On first use, if helpful, open with 1–2 sentences on what this skill covers and why it matters, then provide the main output. On subsequent use or when the user asks to skip, go directly to the main output.
Check for project context first: If .claude/project-context.md or .cursor/project-context.md exists, read Sections 4 (Audience), 9 (Documentation).
Identify:
| Type | Share | Causes |
|---|---|---|
| Voluntary | 60–80% | Pricing, missing features, poor onboarding, relationship |
| Involuntary | 20–40% | Payment failures, expired cards, billing |
Predictability: Most churn is predictable 30–90 days before cancellation via behavioral signals.
| Approach | Conversion |
|---|---|
| Reactive (after cancel) | 15–20% |
| Proactive (before decision) | 60–80% |
Move from lagging indicator to early warning systems.
| Strategy | Use |
|---|---|
| Health scoring | Behavioral + transactional + relationship signals |
| Loyalty programs | 5–15 percentage point retention lift |
| Segmentation | Predictive modeling for at-risk |
| Onboarding | Prevent low value realization early |
| Dunning | Retry logic; pre-expiry card updates for involuntary |
| Dimension | Use |
|---|---|
| Product value | Registration; feature usage; payment |
| Marketing value | Testimonials; customer stories; webinar guests; feedback, bug reports, feature requests |
| Feedback analysis | Email, community, reviews—AI-assisted analysis; prioritize by impact; route to product vs ops |
Avoid: Treating users only as MAU/registration denominators. See creator-program for creator ecosystem.
Retention occurs after conversion; ongoing investment in customer success, not isolated campaigns. Map touchpoints: onboarding → adoption → expansion → renewal.