Customer churn
Also called churn, customer attrition
Reviewed by Dasha ShakovVP Marketing, Proton
Updated
What is customer churn?
Customer churn is the loss of customers, or of their spending, over a period of time. In distribution, churn is mostly gradual: a customer rarely announces it is leaving and instead buys fewer product lines or orders less often as it moves purchases to a competitor.
How it works
Because churn in distribution is mostly partial, the early signs are in purchase history: a regular order that didn’t arrive, a product category that stopped, or fewer orders per month. Spotting them early gives a rep time to find out what changed while the customer is still buying.
Customer churn example
A plumbing contractor bought water heaters every month for two years and has bought none in the last 90 days, while its fittings orders carry on as before. That is partial churn.
Further reading
Related terms
- Wallet shareWallet share is the percentage of a customer’s total spending on the products you sell that goes to your company rather than to competitors.
- Reorder patternA reorder pattern is the rhythm in which a customer buys an item again, such as a case of gloves every two weeks or a filter every quarter.
- House accountA house account is a customer account that isn’t assigned to an individual sales rep and is managed by the company itself, often with no commission paid.
