Summary
This article covers how to track and analyze lost customers using the Churn model. You’ll learn how to configure fields that capture reasons for churn, organize exit interview data, and use filters to uncover patterns such as across periods of time and Customer Tier.
Who is this article for?
Planhat builders/admins who configure their tenant for their team (e.g. CS Ops).
This article is part of the Data Models Course.
Article Contents
Introduction
The Churn Model helps track lost customers and their reasons for leaving. Analyzing churn data helps you identify patterns and take action to reduce future churn.
Key System Fields
First, we have basic Churn Fields such as:
Reasons (multi-pick list) - e.g. Chance in Exec Sponsor, Product Performance, Functionality vs Expectations, Overselling, Competitors, Budget, etc.
Currency - currency of the Churn
ARR / MRR - ARR or MRR being churned
Products (multi-pick list) - product(s) being Churned
Only Downgrade – this is generally used, for example, when a customer has two of your products, and they downgrade by only renewing one of those products (i.e. they are downgrading / churning one of the products and you are not losing them as a customer).
Key Custom Fields
Most of the Custom Fields for Churn are typically used to conduct an Exit Interview. Common examples of Custom Fields include:
Customer Tier (list) - e.g. SMB, MM, Enterprise
Describe what happened (rich text) - to provide additional details / insight
How are you going to replace our product / platform? (rich text) - to provide more insight
Are you moving to a competitor? (list field) - to select competitor that they are moving to
When did you decide to cancel? (rich text) - for more insight into when they decided to cancel
Would you consider using us again in the future? (rich text) - to provide more context into whether or not they'd use us again and why
Field Groups
Now that you have an understanding of the Key Fields, you can set them up in Field Groups, which live in Profile > Profile Templates. This determines what shows in Previews and full-page profiles for Churn.
Let’s look at how to group them in a logical way. We recommend a set up as below:
For more information on Field Groups, take a look at Help Center Article: Field Groups.
Create Form
To ensure your data stays clean, it’s important you make fields mandatory for creation. We recommend the following at a minimum to enable you to manage your Churn in the best way.
For an in-depth breakdown on all things Profile related, take a look at our Help Center Article: An introduction to Profiles / Previews, the How-To Library in app, or check out the Dojo course related to Profiles.
Common Global Filters
You may want to create some standard views for your Churn, to ensure everyone has the same definition.
Here are some of the most commonly used Global Filters:
Churn by year - e.g. Churn 2023, Churn 2024, Churn 2025
Churn by Customer Tier - e.g. SMB Churn, Mid-Market Churn, Enterprise Churn
Churn by Reasons - e.g. Budget, Competitors, etc.