Been digging into user behavior patterns lately and wondering if anyone’s cracked the code on spotting churn signals before the obvious stuff kicks in.
What behavioral indicators actually work for early detection?
Look for users who change their habits. If someone who used to engage daily suddenly stops for a few days, that’s a sign of potential churn.
Also, watch for users who start using fewer features after being active. They might be preparing to leave.
Support ticket spikes are huge red flags. Someone who never contacts support then opens 2-3 tickets in a week? They’re probably about to bail.
Payment method changes are another big one. Sounds random, but when users update or remove their cards (not expirations), they usually leave within 30 days. We trigger retention campaigns now and save about 20% of them.
Time on competitor comparison pages too, if you’ve got tracking. That one’s pretty obvious though.
Users spend more time in settings before quitting.
User engagement tends to drop before churn. Look for decreased session frequency and reduced feature interaction.
Monitor push notification response rates. A drop of 30-40% usually happens two weeks before churn. Look at workflow completion too. If users who complete your 3-step process start dropping off at step 2, it signals a mental check-out. Changes in search behavior are also key. If users shift from exploring to only searching for specific items and then stop altogether, that indicates potential churn.