Retention strategy skill
When the user wants to reduce churn, improve customer retention, or plan lifecycle marketing.
by kostja94·MIT license·★ 1,006 Stars on the repo·GitHub ↗
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Files of Retention strategy
SKILL.md
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Strategies: Retention
Guides customer retention and churn prevention. Acquiring new customers costs 5–25× more than retaining; 5% retention improvement can increase profitability 25–95%. Use this skill when reducing churn, building retention programs, or identifying at-risk customers.
When invoking: On first use, if helpful, open with 1–2 sentences on what this skill covers and why it matters, then provide the main output. On subsequent use or when the user asks to skip, go directly to the main output.
Initial Assessment
Project context: Read root contextus.md when present and load only the modules relevant to this task. Without Contextus, use available project material or user-provided facts and ask for missing information; do not create a parallel context system.
Identify:
- Churn type: Voluntary (active cancel) vs involuntary (payment failure)
- Signals: Login frequency, feature usage, support tickets
- Stage: Onboarding, expansion, renewal
Churn Types
| Type | Share | Causes |
|---|---|---|
| Voluntary | 60–80% | Pricing, missing features, poor onboarding, relationship |
| Involuntary | 20–40% | Payment failures, expired cards, billing |
Predictability: Most churn is predictable 30–90 days before cancellation via behavioral signals.
Proactive vs Reactive
| Approach | Conversion |
|---|---|
| Reactive (after cancel) | 15–20% |
| Proactive (before decision) | 60–80% |
Move from lagging indicator to early warning systems.
Retention Strategies
| Strategy | Use |
|---|---|
| Health scoring | Behavioral + transactional + relationship signals |
| Loyalty programs | 5–15 percentage point retention lift |
| Segmentation | Predictive modeling for at-risk |
| Onboarding | Prevent low value realization early |
| Dunning | Retry logic; pre-expiry card updates for involuntary |
User Value & Feedback
| Dimension | Use |
|---|---|
| Product value | Registration; feature usage; payment |
| Marketing value | Testimonials; customer stories; webinar guests; feedback, bug reports, feature requests |
| Feedback analysis | Email, community, reviews—AI-assisted analysis; prioritize by impact; route to product vs ops |
Avoid: Treating users only as MAU/registration denominators. See creator-program for creator ecosystem.
Lifecycle Integration
Retention occurs after conversion; ongoing investment in customer success, not isolated campaigns. Map touchpoints: onboarding → adoption → expansion → renewal.
Output Format
- Churn analysis (voluntary vs involuntary; signals)
- Retention tactics (by stage)
- Health score framework (if applicable)
- Intervention playbook (at-risk triggers)
Related Skills
- email-marketing: Onboarding sequences; win-back campaigns
- pmf-strategy: Retention as PMF signal; churn as anti-signal
- cold-start-strategy: First users; differs from retention
- analytics-tracking: Usage data; churn signals
- traffic-analysis: Attribution; retention cohort analysis
| 1 | |
| 2 | name retention-strategy |
| 3 | description When the user wants to reduce churn, improve customer retention, or plan lifecycle marketing. Also use when the user mentions "retention," "churn," "customer lifecycle," "churn prevention," "at-risk customers," or "loyalty program." For lifecycle, use growth-funnel. |
| 4 | metadata |
| 5 | version 1.1.1 |
| 6 | |
| 7 | |
| 8 | # Strategies: Retention |
| 9 | |
| 10 | Guides customer retention and churn prevention. Acquiring new customers costs 5–25× more than retaining; 5% retention improvement can increase profitability 25–95%. Use this skill when reducing churn, building retention programs, or identifying at-risk customers. |
| 11 | |
| 12 | **When invoking**: On **first use**, if helpful, open with 1–2 sentences on what this skill covers and why it matters, then provide the main output. On **subsequent use** or when the user asks to skip, go directly to the main output. |
| 13 | |
| 14 | ## Initial Assessment |
| 15 | |
| 16 | **Project context:** Read root `contextus.md` when present and load only the modules relevant to this task. Without Contextus, use available project material or user-provided facts and ask for missing information; do not create a parallel context system. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | Identify: |
| 19 | **Churn type**: Voluntary (active cancel) vs involuntary (payment failure) |
| 20 | **Signals**: Login frequency, feature usage, support tickets |
| 21 | **Stage**: Onboarding, expansion, renewal |
| 22 | |
| 23 | ## Churn Types |
| 24 | |
| 25 | | Type | Share | Causes | |
| 26 | |------|-------|--------| |
| 27 | | **Voluntary** | 60–80% | Pricing, missing features, poor onboarding, relationship | |
| 28 | | **Involuntary** | 20–40% | Payment failures, expired cards, billing | |
| 29 | |
| 30 | **Predictability**: Most churn is predictable 30–90 days before cancellation via behavioral signals. |
| 31 | |
| 32 | ## Proactive vs Reactive |
| 33 | |
| 34 | | Approach | Conversion | |
| 35 | |----------|------------| |
| 36 | | **Reactive** (after cancel) | 15–20% | |
| 37 | | **Proactive** (before decision) | 60–80% | |
| 38 | |
| 39 | Move from lagging indicator to early warning systems. |
| 40 | |
| 41 | ## Retention Strategies |
| 42 | |
| 43 | | Strategy | Use | |
| 44 | |----------|-----| |
| 45 | | **Health scoring** | Behavioral + transactional + relationship signals | |
| 46 | | **Loyalty programs** | 5–15 percentage point retention lift | |
| 47 | | **Segmentation** | Predictive modeling for at-risk | |
| 48 | | **Onboarding** | Prevent low value realization early | |
| 49 | | **Dunning** | Retry logic; pre-expiry card updates for involuntary | |
| 50 | |
| 51 | ## User Value & Feedback |
| 52 | |
| 53 | | Dimension | Use | |
| 54 | |-----------|-----| |
| 55 | | **Product value** | Registration; feature usage; payment | |
| 56 | | **Marketing value** | Testimonials; customer stories; webinar guests; feedback, bug reports, feature requests | |
| 57 | | **Feedback analysis** | Email, community, reviews—AI-assisted analysis; prioritize by impact; route to product vs ops | |
| 58 | |
| 59 | **Avoid**: Treating users only as MAU/registration denominators. See **creator-program** for creator ecosystem. |
| 60 | |
| 61 | ## Lifecycle Integration |
| 62 | |
| 63 | Retention occurs after conversion; ongoing investment in customer success, not isolated campaigns. Map touchpoints: onboarding → adoption → expansion → renewal. |
| 64 | |
| 65 | ## Output Format |
| 66 | |
| 67 | **Churn analysis** (voluntary vs involuntary; signals) |
| 68 | **Retention tactics** (by stage) |
| 69 | **Health score** framework (if applicable) |
| 70 | **Intervention** playbook (at-risk triggers) |
| 71 | |
| 72 | ## Related Skills |
| 73 | |
| 74 | **email-marketing**: Onboarding sequences; win-back campaigns |
| 75 | **pmf-strategy**: Retention as PMF signal; churn as anti-signal |
| 76 | **cold-start-strategy**: First users; differs from retention |
| 77 | **analytics-tracking**: Usage data; churn signals |
| 78 | **traffic-analysis**: Attribution; retention cohort analysis |
| 79 |
Discussion
Alternatives
Win back customers before they cancelTell us about your subscription business and why people quit. Get back a ready-to-use plan to keep more customers and recover failed payments.Customer success managerUse this agent when you need to assess customer health, develop retention strategies, identify upsell opportunities, or maximize customer lifetime value. Invoke this agent for account health analysis, churn prevention, product adoption optimization, and customer success planning. Specifically:\\n\\n<example>\\nContext: Customer success team notices a large enterprise customer has reduced usage frequency by 40% over the past month and hasn't engaged in quarterly business reviews.\\nuser: "We're concerned about TechCorp's engagement. Usage is down significantly. Can you assess what's happening and help us develop a retention strategy?"\\nassistant: "I'll analyze TechCorp's health metrics including usage patterns, feature adoption, support interactions, and engagement history. I'll identify specific churn risks, assess whether there are product fit issues or implementation gaps, and develop a targeted intervention plan with clear milestones and success metrics."\\n<commentary>\\nUse customer-success-manager when you need to evaluate at-risk accounts and create proactive retention strategies. This agent analyzes health signals holistically and prescribes specific interventions.\\n</commentary>\\n</example>\\n\\n<example>\\nContext: Product team is rolling out new features and customer success team wants to maximize adoption across the customer base while identifying expansion revenue opportunities.\\nuser: "We're launching three new features next month. How do we ensure our customers actually adopt them? And which customers might be willing to upgrade to higher tiers?"\\nassistant: "I'll segment your customer base by maturity level and current product usage patterns. I'll develop feature-specific adoption strategies for each segment, identify high-value customers ready for expansion conversations, and create a phased rollout plan with success metrics and training resources."\\n<commentary>\\nInvoke this agent when you need to drive adoption of new features or identify expansion opportunities. The agent analyzes customer readiness and creates tailored engagement strategies for different segments.\\n</commentary>\\n</example>\\n\\n<example>\\nContext: Quarterly renewal period is approaching and customer success team wants to prepare for renewal conversations with key accounts and identify which customers are at risk of non-renewal.\\nuser: "We have 40 accounts up for renewal in the next 90 days. Can you help us prepare renewal strategies and flag which ones might be at risk?"\\nassistant: "I'll assess each account's health indicators including NPS, usage trends, executive engagement, feature adoption, and any unresolved issues. I'll prioritize high-risk accounts for intervention, develop renewal talking points based on demonstrated value, and create a pre-renewal engagement plan for each tier of customer."\\n<commentary>\\nUse this agent when renewal periods are approaching or you need to forecast renewal risk. The agent quantifies customer health and develops specific pre-renewal strategies to maximize renewal rates.\\n</commentary>\\n</example>\\n\\nDoes not handle individual support tickets or FAQ/help-center content — hand those to customer-support. Does not own pre-sale technical POC/RFP work — hand that to sales-engineer. Does not finalize pricing or discount decisions — route to the account/deal team. Does not review or negotiate contract/legal terms — route to legal-advisor.
/cs:cco-review — CCO Forcing Questions/cs:cco-review <plan> — Retention-obsessed Chief Customer Officer interrogation of any plan that touches customer retention, segmentation, CS team sizing, or CS team hiring. Use when gross retention is slipping, before approving CSM headcount, or when deciding which customer segments to keep or fire.Churn preventionReduce voluntary and involuntary churn through cancel flow design, save offers, exit surveys, and dunning sequences. Use when designing or optimizing a cancel flow, building save offers, setting up dunning emails, or reducing failed-payment churn. Trigger keywords: cancel flow, churn reduction, save offers, dunning, exit survey, payment recovery, win-back, involuntary churn, failed payments, cancel page. NOT for customer health scoring or expansion revenue — use customer-success-manager for that.Browse more free Claude skills or everything in Customer support.