What is Churn Rate and how to calculate it?

Home

KPI examples

Churn Rate

What is a Churn Rate?

The churn rate measures the percentage of customers who stop using a company's product or service within a specific period. It's essential for assessing customer retention and satisfaction. A high churn rate often signals poor customer service, lack of engagement, or uncompetitive offerings. The churn rate analysis lets marketers identify at-risk customer segments. Therefore, they can implement targeted retention strategies. Optimizing churn involves improving product quality, enhancing customer support, and personalizing marketing efforts. All these will increase engagement and satisfaction and reduce churn. As a result, you get a boost in profitability and an increase in customer lifetime value. You should make churn rate a vital focus for sustained business growth.

How to calculate Churn Rate?

To calculate the churn rate, divide the number of customers who left your service during a specific period by the total number of customers you had at the beginning. Multiply the result by 100 to express it as a percentage.

(Number of Customers Lost / Total Customers at Start Period) * 100

What is bad Churn Rate?

A bad churn rate is significantly higher than industry averages. It indicates poor customer retention and potential issues in product or service quality. In SaaS, a churn rate above 10% annually is concerning. E-commerce companies facing over 7% monthly churn might be at risk. For telecommunications, rates exceeding 2% monthly suggest customer dissatisfaction. A high churn rate may stem from inadequate customer service, lack of value perception, or pricing issues. Continually high churn impacts revenue and growth sustainability. Businesses must understand industry benchmarks and strive for lower rates to enhance customer loyalty and business health.

What is good Churn Rate?

A good churn rate varies by industry but generally falls below 5-7% annually. For SaaS companies, an acceptable churn rate is around 5-7%. Meanwhile, in e-commerce, up to 3-5% monthly may be expected. Telecommunications and media often see higher monthly rates, around 1-2%. A good churn rate indicates effective customer retention strategies and a solid product-market fit.
Lower churn rates typically correlate with higher customer satisfaction and loyalty. Both are crucial for long-term business sustainability. The churn rate metric is vital for industries with subscription models. Companies must aim for the lowest churn rates possible to ensure recurring revenue.

Our key templates to track Churn Rate

PPC multi-channel dashboard in Looker Studio

Get a comprehensive PPC reporting tool to track the performance of your campaigns launched at multiple advertising platforms.

Web analytics dashboard in Looker Studio

Use the insights based on the data from GA4 to monitor your website traffic and discover which pages resonate most with your audience.

All-in-one marketing dashboard in Looker Studio

Monitor all your marketing channels with an all-in-one dashboard providing performance overviews of web analytics, ad campaigns, SEO, social media, and emails.

See all dashboards

How to improve Churn Rate?

Enhance Customer Service

Invest in training your support team and implementing responsive customer service practices. Quick, practical solutions to issues can significantly improve customer satisfaction and retention.

Personalize User Experience

Use data analytics to tailor experiences and offers to individual preferences. This will enhance relevancy and user engagement, reducing the likelihood of churn.

Regularly Gather Feedback

Actively solicit and analyze customer feedback to identify and address dissatisfaction areas promptly. Continuous improvement based on customer input can lead to better retention rates.