Case study: How we found out why customers failed to renew

Despite having customer feedback processes in place, our client struggled to get any tangible insights that helped them truly understand the real reasons why some customers chose not to renew their subscription.

The problem: high customer turnover

Our client sells curriculum resources into UK schools on a subscription basis. They had noticed that the proportion of customers who failed to renew was increasing, especially amongst some more recent customers, but their internal processes weren’t giving them much insight into the reasons why. They decided they needed independent market research to help them uncover the issues and identify what needed to change.

The research: in depth customer interviews

Insightful Research worked with the client to contact their list of lapsed customers. We invited them to take part in a market research interview and offered incentives to encourage participation. We carried out 18 depth interviews with lapsed customers. During these interviews we explored their full experience of being a customer - from their initial buying decision through to the decision not to renew.

At the end of the research, we gave the client a full written report and debrief presentation which outlined our findings, giving them a much deeper insight into their customers than they had been able to achieve alone.

The solution: improving customer satisfaction

We identified different client segments and showed how the reasons for the initial buying decision impacted on a customer’s expectations of the programme, and their subsequent satisfaction. We also identified four key areas for improvement in the product and service that the client needed to address and which could help improve customer retention in the future.

“I am absolutely blown away by the quality of this work and the insights they have offered us. Wow. It’s going to make a huge positive difference.”

In the months after the research, the client went on to make some changes to the product configuration to better meet the needs of customers and we helped them with another phase of research to further refine one particular aspect of their product offer.