How to Get Your Customers to Stay FOREVER
In a Nutshell
Treat churn like a leaky bucket by tracking monthly joins vs. cancels and aiming for 90%+ retention (under 10% churn), which doubles LTV; focus on getting users past day 90 (churn halves) and month 6 (drops to ~2%) via onboarding, outcomes, and community ties. Combat top churn reasons—price (add low tiers for non-ideals), overwhelm (delete non-essentials, prioritize 1-2 high-value items weekly), and inactivity—by surveying cancelers/stayers, frontloading quick wins, showing daily owner presence, running weekly calls, offering annual plans, and building belonging through 10 core regulars and 1:1 intros. Implement one tactic at a time for consistent, compounding retention over acquisition.
These notes were generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies.
22,265,736 total users on School as of today. Retention learnings come from communities on the platform. Video breaks down learnings for retaining customers in any recurring revenue business. Shout out to School and Sam for School news learnings made public.
Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) grows when new members > churn members. Example: Sell 5, lose 4 → MRR grows. Sell 5, lose 5 → flat. Fewer new than churn → declining. Track joins vs. cancels monthly. Label business as growing, flat, or declining based on that.
School platform averages for online consumer services like weight loss or remote services: 80% monthly retention (20% churn). Best groups: <10% churn (90%+ retention). Not good: <70% retention (30%+ churn). If <7/10 stay monthly, prioritize retention—highest ROI lever.
Context: Reducing churn from 20% to 10% (80% to 90% retention) doubles LTV per customer—customers stay twice as long. Small percentage changes in small numbers have big impacts.
Real quick, I'm going to show you the exact 10-stage roadmap from zero to 100 million plus... acquisition.com/roadmap (free, covers 8 business functions, constraints, steps across software, physical products, services, brick-and-mortar).
Cohorts show churn varies by tenure. School platform averages:
- Months 1-3: 20%+ churn.
- Past 90 days: Drops to ~10% or less (halves).
- By month 6: ~2% churn (5x decrease, 5x LTV increase).
Focus on getting users past day 90 and month 6 rather than obsessing over average monthly churn. New businesses (<90 days) have inflated churn—normal unless everyone leaves. Same for <6 months.
Specific strategies:
- First month: Activation, onboarding, expectation setting, right promises, daily content.
- Day 90: Deliver outcome/behavior change.
- Month 6: Community connections.
Message cancelers: "Hey, why are you canceling?" Don't react to singles—collect patterns. Sam's head of customer support sits next to him for tight feedback loop.
Tactical: DM script, tag reasons in Excel (price, overwhelm, not using, missing feature, not expected). Review top 1-2 reasons every 20 cancels, fix them.
Identify longest-tenured/most engaged. Ask: "What made you stay? #1 value?" Repeat patterns become your retention engine—everything else optional.
Fix via subtraction/amplification, not addition. Fulfill original promise, remove friction. Winning products make achieving the good thing frictionless (e.g., School optimizes ease of starting online).
School response to "too expensive": Added $9/mo tier (1/11th of $99/mo) for hobbyists/getting started, kept premium for advanced (unique URLs, no sidebars/competitor ads).
Tactical: If ideal customers cite price, add lower/standard tier. If non-ideal, ignore—price filters well (e.g., for $1M+ business owners).
"I don't have time/can't keep up/utilize it" = too much stuff. Doing less retains more.
Planet Fitness example: $10/mo gym in crowded market. Surveyed: People paid $59/mo for full facilities but used only cardio/weights (10-15%). Planet Fitness offered just that, cheaper. Feels like 100% value vs. 20% in bloated gyms → lower churn.
Community example: Deleted content, churn from 30% to 5% mo/mo (6x LTV).
Tactics:
- Ask: "If I delete everything, what one thing would you fight for?" / "If keep everything, remove one—what wouldn't you miss?"
- Chart for #1-2 valuables—focus there.
Value per second, not seconds of value. Weekly: 1 valuable post/call/recording/action suffices.
Busy path for dabblers (value from distance, weekly cadence, "start here" flow). Power user depth (optional side quests).
Snakes and ladders: Remove snakes (friction/confusion/overwhelm) early. Frontload ladders (sticky elements: calls, replays, pin posts). Pin fastest win upfront—hit value in 24 hours. Works for any recurring business (e.g., teach selling/leads/pickling).
Communities with daily owner presence have higher retention. Members leave if owner seems inactive/uncaring.
Tactical minimum: Daily routine—clear notifications/DMs, handle reports, read complaints mornings. Encourage good behavior (reviews/testimonials: "Good job"). Delete bad stuff/people ("cancers").
Live voice/face deepens relationships; recordings for busy people. Weekly podcasts/TV shows retain well—one big thing/week + best-of post. Default: Weekly call + weekly post.
Annual churn < monthly (one decision vs. 12; more committed/qualified; can't cancel effect). Common: 16-17% discount (buy 10 get 2). Implement immediately—stabilizes retention.
Foster 1:1s (pair similars)—one work friend = 5x longer employee stay (applies to customers). Introduce regulars to new members (e.g., gyms/parties: "John, meet Tina—John's great at X").
Digital: Anchor with 10 regulars (top/model citizens, best avatars). DM goals, spotlight/kudos, invite contributions, publicly recognize, introduce newbies (matchmaking).
Don't implement all at once. Pick one, consistent → add next. Mastering retention = 100 small things consistently long-term. Growth = flat retention curve + compounding.
Keep crushing.
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