I once had a client—let’s call him Alex— kept saying. “Customers love us.”
One day I asked if he’d ever called anyone who quietly bailed.
“Why would I?” he said. “They’re gone.”
Exactly, I told him. That’s why you ask.
So we pulled a list. Sent emails. Got two calls.
The first was awkward. The second was brutal.
One went for a quiet competitor. The other said the feature they cared most about was never worked, and support ghosted them.
None of this was in the CRM. No one had ever asked.
Here’s the thing: happy customers will tell you what they like. Lost ones will tell you what to fix. That’s the gold.
Talking to lost customers isn’t about winning them back. Most won’t return. It’s about earning the next one. And the one after that.
Your action plan:
- Quarterly: Interview 5-7 lost customers
- Product: Tag churn reasons in your CRM (e.g., “Gap in DDR coverage”)
- GTM: Arm sales with win-back scripts like “Since you left, we’ve added…”
Your happiest users write the testimonials. The ones who left write your product roadmap.
Read more: How to Conduct Churn Interviews Without Making Customers Defensive
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