The 3 Vs to Reduce Membership Site Customer Churn

A high customer churn rate is the Achilles heel of every membership site.

If it’s not managed well, you lose more and more members. Profits dwindle and you may eventually shut down a once-thriving community.

Studies show the average churn rate of a healthy subscription-based business is 6.7%. Anything higher hurts your business. Most businesses try to reduce their churn rate using surface-level tactics like being on the lookout for expiring credit cards and having smart analytics tools to keep track of members’ activities.

While these tactics work, you can get better results by going deeper and addressing underlying approaches.

In this article, we will go beyond tactics and explore 3 strategies you can use to reduce membership site customer churn.

Let’s jump right in.

#1. Validation

What if I told you the reason people pull out of your subscription site started before you even launched your site?

Surprising I know but it’s true.

Without a solid process of testing your membership site ideas, you are doomed before you start. You are building on a cracked foundation. You’ll go with an idea that won’t appeal to your audience in the long-run.

The result?

Customers drop out in droves after an initial frenzy of activity. A poor process of testing ideas is one of the many membership site mistakes people often make when building a paid online community.

How do you validate your membership site ideas so you come up with a profitable and sustainable idea?

Here are some quick tips:

• Survey your audience to determine their needs.
• Talk to prospective members on the phone and hear their preferences.
• Run a beta group with interested future customers.
• Do competitor research and see what’s working for them.
• Run a face-to-face focus group to gauge interest.

A properly tested idea ensures that you keep customers in your community happy and loyal for longer.

#2. Value

If your site doesn’t provide the value customers expected, they’ll leave.

It’s that simple.

This happens because of two major reasons.

First, hype-filled sales tactics blow up prospects’ expectations. People arrive on the site with unreasonable expectations. They receive anything but the heaven they were promised.

They feel:

Shortchanged. Deflated. Cheated.

And when customers feel that way they vamoose-never to return.

Secondly, poor quality content kills member interest fast. At the base of every successful online community is valuable content people can’t get enough of. If that’s missing, members scramble for the exit.

Here’s how to fix these two problems:

• Desist from over-the-top yellow highlighter marketing.
• Promote your site using authentic marketing strategies.
• Don’t promise what you cannot deliver.
• Prioritize quality content-do everything in your power to produce stellar content for your site even if it means outsourcing the task at a premium.
• Support members and provide them with all the tools they need to achieve the promised results.

When you keep stacking up value, community members stick around longer.

#3. Vibe

A community site with no vibe is like a party with no cocktails.

Dry. Dull. Dead.

Vibe means the emotional state of a place as communicated and felt by others.

Membership sites are all about shared values and a strong emotional connection. Positive emotional experience is the invisible cement that holds the group together. Without a good vibe, customers won’t stay for long.

How do you build strong vibes?

• Let people with warm personalities who connect easily with individual group members lead the group.
• Identify and promote active group members so they help build the site as volunteers or even paid staff members.
• Encourage members to share their successes and struggles-these act as bonding moments.
• Promptly respond to questions so customers feel valued.
• Listen to your members and act on their suggestions.
• Reach out to members who haven’t been active for a while.
• Roll out the red carpet for new members- go out of your way to make them feel at home.

No member dumps an exciting community.

Bring Customer Churn Under Control And Boost Profits

Don’t leave money on the table because of a wayward churn rate.

According to research by CallMiner, avoidable customer churn is costing U.S. businesses $ 136 billion a year. That’s a lot of money going down the drain.

With a bit of work, you can avoid great loss.

Thoroughly validate your idea beforehand. Provide awesome value to members. Build strong vibes of a thrilling community. You’ll drastically reduce your churn rate and increase profits.

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