Thought our retention was solid at 85% monthly. Did a deeper churn analysis and found something interesting.
Our best customers were actually churning faster than average users. The 85% was mostly low-value accounts sticking around.
Anyone else seen retention metrics that looked good on surface but told a different story underneath?
Had this exact issue with a productivity app. 78% retention looked great until I dug into the user behavior.
Our best users - the ones crushing tasks daily - were leaving after 3 months. They’d hit their goals and bail. The high retention? Just inactive users who forgot to cancel.
Switched to tracking retention by engagement instead of blanket numbers. Suddenly our real problem was crystal clear - we weren’t sticky enough for users who actually mattered.
Now I segment retention by value first thing. Overall numbers are usually BS.
Break down your users by revenue and how fast they hit their first key action. Heavy users probably get value quickly, then realize they don’t need the app anymore. That’s totally different from people who never really got into it. Track your week-one cohorts by usage patterns. Users who dive deep early either become your best customers or churn fast after they get what they want. Figure out which one you’re dealing with first.
Power users leave fast. Look at engagement.
It’s common. High retention can be misleading if valuable users leave while less engaged ones stay.
Your paying customers probably outgrow what you offer faster than free users who barely engage.
I track churn by revenue segments now instead of overall percentages. Makes it obvious when you’re losing money even if user count stays stable.
Worth checking if your best users leave because they succeed or because you fail them.