Churn Prevention Emails: Save At-Risk Customers

Every customer you save from churning is revenue you've already earned. Churn prevention email identifies at-risk customers early and intervenes before they leave. Done well, it can reduce churn by 5-15% - significant for SaaS unit economics.

Identifying At-Risk Customers

Churn prevention starts with identifying risk signals:

Usage-based signals

• Declining login frequency
• Reduced feature usage
• No activity for X days
• Decreasing session duration

Payment signals

• Failed payment attempts
• Credit card expiration approaching
• Downgrade requests
• Cancellation page visits

Support signals

• Increased support tickets
• Negative feedback
• Feature complaints

Churn Prevention Sequences

Re-engagement Sequence

Trigger: Declining usage or inactivity

Email 1: "We noticed you haven't logged in"

• Acknowledge their absence without guilt
• Share what's new since they were active
• Offer help if they're stuck

Email 2: "Here's what you're missing"

• Highlight specific value they could be getting
• Show what similar customers achieve
• Provide easy re-entry point

Email 3: "Can we help?"

• Direct offer of assistance
• Ask for feedback on what's not working
• Provide calendar link for call

Dunning Sequence (Failed Payments)

Trigger: Payment failure

Dunning sequences recover 30-50% of failed payments. Critical timing:

Email 1 (Immediate): "Payment didn't go through"

• Clear, factual notification
• Link to update payment method
• No drama - just helpful

Email 2 (Day 3): "Update needed to keep your account active"

• Reminder with urgency
• What they'll lose access to
• Easy update path

Email 3 (Day 7): "Last chance before account suspension"

• Final warning
• Clear deadline
• Offer to help if there's an issue

Cancellation Prevention

Trigger: Cancellation initiated

When users cancel, you often have a grace period:

Email 1: "We're sorry to see you go"

• Acknowledge without begging
• Ask for feedback
• Mention access continues until end of period

Email 2: "Did you know about [feature]?"

• Highlight underused features that might address their reason for leaving
• Offer help getting more value

Email 3: "Special offer to stay"

• Incentive (use carefully)
• Discount, free months, or downgrade option
• Time-limited

Billing Integration for Churn Prevention

Effective churn prevention requires knowing:

• Payment status and failure history
• Subscription status (active, canceling, churned)
• Billing period end date
• Customer MRR value

Sequenzy syncs this data automatically from Stripe, enabling sophisticated dunning and cancellation sequences without custom webhooks.

Personalization Matters

Generic churn prevention underperforms. Personalize based on:

• Plan level: Enterprise customers get different treatment than free trials
• Usage patterns: Reference specific features they've used
• Tenure: Long-time customers vs recent signups
• Revenue: Prioritize high-MRR accounts

Measuring Success

Track these metrics:

• Churn rate: Overall and by segment
• Save rate: % of at-risk users retained
• Payment recovery: % of failed payments recovered
• MRR saved: Revenue attributed to churn prevention

Revenue attribution connects email to MRR impact. Sequenzy tracks this natively.

Build Your Churn Prevention System

Churn prevention is revenue insurance. Every save compounds into higher LTV and better unit economics. Start with dunning (highest recovery rate) and expand to behavioral churn prevention.