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Customer Success Guide

Identify Churn Risks
Zendesk + Product Events

Predict customer churn by combining support ticket patterns with product usage data. Build early warning systems with SQL queries, predictive models, and intervention workflows.

85%
Churn Prediction Accuracy
60
Days Early Warning
10+
Risk Indicators
40%
Retention Improvement

Introduction

Customer churn is the silent killer of SaaS growth. By the time you notice a customer has churned, it's already too late. The key to reducing churn is predicting it before it happens—giving your customer success team time to intervene and save at-risk accounts.

Churn Prevention Impact: Companies with proactive churn prediction reduce customer churn by 15-30% and increase customer lifetime value by 25-40% compared to reactive retention strategies.

Tools You'll Need

Zendesk

What it provides: Support tickets, customer satisfaction scores, agent interactions, and response time metrics

Airbook

What it provides: Data integration, predictive modeling, real-time monitoring, and automated alerts without engineering

Step-by-Step: Set It Up in Airbook

1

Connect Your Data Sources

First, connect Zendesk and your product analytics tool to Airbook:

  • Zendesk: Support tickets, satisfaction scores, agent data
  • Product Analytics: User events, session data, feature usage
  • Customer Database: Account info, subscription data, contact details
2

Create Customer Unification Tables

Build tables that connect customer identities across all systems:

SQL
-- Customer Master Table
CREATE TABLE customer_master AS
SELECT DISTINCT
    c.customer_id,
    c.email,
    c.company_name,
    c.subscription_tier,
    c.mrr,
    c.signup_date,
    z.organization_id as zendesk_org_id,
    p.user_id as product_user_id
FROM customers c
LEFT JOIN zendesk_organizations z ON c.email = z.external_id
LEFT JOIN product_users p ON c.email = p.email;
3

Set Up Automated Data Pipelines

Configure daily data syncs to keep your churn prediction model current with fresh data from all sources.

4

Build Risk Scoring Models

Create predictive models that combine support and usage patterns to identify at-risk customers before they churn.

Data Integration Strategy

Successful churn prediction requires combining behavioral data from multiple touchpoints. Here's how to structure and unify your data for maximum predictive power.

Support Data (Zendesk)

  • • Ticket volume and frequency trends
  • • Customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores
  • • Response and resolution times
  • • Escalation patterns
  • • Agent interaction quality

Usage Data (Product Analytics)

  • • Login frequency and session duration
  • • Feature adoption and usage depth
  • • Time-to-value achievement
  • • User journey completion rates
  • • Platform engagement trends
Identity Resolution: The key to effective churn prediction is accurately matching customers across systems. Use email addresses as primary keys, but also implement fuzzy matching for company names and domains to catch variations.

Key Churn Risk Indicators

These behavioral patterns and support interactions are strong predictors of customer churn. Monitor these indicators to identify at-risk accounts early.

Support-Based Risk Indicators

Critical Risk (Score: 80-100)

  • • 3+ escalated tickets in 30 days
  • • CSAT score drops below 2/5
  • • Multiple "cancel subscription" inquiries
  • • Unresolved critical issues >7 days

High Risk (Score: 50-79)

  • • Increased ticket frequency (3x baseline)
  • • CSAT declining over 60 days
  • • Requests for competitor comparisons
  • • Extended response time complaints

Usage-Based Risk Indicators

Critical Usage Decline

  • • 70% drop in daily active usage
  • • No logins for 14+ days
  • • Core feature usage down 80%
  • • Session duration <2 minutes

Moderate Usage Decline

  • • 40-70% drop in monthly usage
  • • Reduced feature exploration
  • • Decreased time-to-completion
  • • Lower engagement with new features
Combined Risk Amplification: When support and usage indicators align, churn risk increases exponentially. A customer with declining usage AND increasing support tickets has an 85% higher chance of churning within 60 days.

Sample SQL Queries

1. Support Ticket Escalation Pattern Analysis

Identify customers with increasing ticket complexity and escalation rates:

SQL
-- Ticket Escalation Risk Analysis
WITH ticket_metrics AS (
  SELECT 
    cm.customer_id,
    cm.company_name,
    COUNT(*) as total_tickets,
    COUNT(CASE WHEN t.priority = 'urgent' THEN 1 END) as urgent_tickets,
    COUNT(CASE WHEN t.status = 'escalated' THEN 1 END) as escalated_tickets,
    AVG(t.satisfaction_rating) as avg_csat,
    AVG(EXTRACT(EPOCH FROM (t.solved_at - t.created_at))/3600) as avg_resolution_hours
  FROM customer_master cm
  JOIN zendesk_tickets t ON cm.zendesk_org_id = t.organization_id
  WHERE t.created_at >= CURRENT_DATE - INTERVAL '60 days'
  GROUP BY cm.customer_id, cm.company_name
),
risk_scores AS (
  SELECT *,
    CASE 
      WHEN escalated_tickets >= 3 OR avg_csat < 2 THEN 'Critical'
      WHEN urgent_tickets >= 5 OR avg_csat < 3 THEN 'High'  
      WHEN total_tickets > 10 OR avg_resolution_hours > 48 THEN 'Medium'
      ELSE 'Low'
    END as support_risk_level,
    (escalated_tickets * 20 + urgent_tickets * 10 + 
     CASE WHEN avg_csat < 2 THEN 40 WHEN avg_csat < 3 THEN 20 ELSE 0 END +
     CASE WHEN avg_resolution_hours > 48 THEN 15 ELSE 0 END) as support_risk_score
  FROM ticket_metrics
)
SELECT 
  customer_id,
  company_name,
  total_tickets,
  escalated_tickets,
  avg_csat,
  support_risk_level,
  support_risk_score
FROM risk_scores
WHERE support_risk_level IN ('Critical', 'High')
ORDER BY support_risk_score DESC;

2. Product Usage Decline Detection

Track customers showing significant drops in product engagement:

SQL
-- Usage Decline Analysis
WITH usage_trends AS (
  SELECT 
    cm.customer_id,
    cm.company_name,
    DATE_TRUNC('week', pe.event_date) as week,
    COUNT(DISTINCT pe.session_id) as weekly_sessions,
    COUNT(*) as weekly_events,
    COUNT(DISTINCT DATE(pe.event_date)) as active_days,
    AVG(pe.session_duration_minutes) as avg_session_duration
  FROM customer_master cm
  JOIN product_events pe ON cm.product_user_id = pe.user_id
  WHERE pe.event_date >= CURRENT_DATE - INTERVAL '12 weeks'
  GROUP BY cm.customer_id, cm.company_name, DATE_TRUNC('week', pe.event_date)
),
baseline_vs_recent AS (
  SELECT 
    customer_id,
    company_name,
    -- Baseline (weeks 5-12)
    AVG(CASE WHEN week <= CURRENT_DATE - INTERVAL '4 weeks' 
        THEN weekly_sessions END) as baseline_sessions,
    AVG(CASE WHEN week <= CURRENT_DATE - INTERVAL '4 weeks' 
        THEN weekly_events END) as baseline_events,
    -- Recent (last 4 weeks)  
    AVG(CASE WHEN week > CURRENT_DATE - INTERVAL '4 weeks' 
        THEN weekly_sessions END) as recent_sessions,
    AVG(CASE WHEN week > CURRENT_DATE - INTERVAL '4 weeks' 
        THEN weekly_events END) as recent_events
  FROM usage_trends
  GROUP BY customer_id, company_name
  HAVING COUNT(*) >= 8 -- Ensure sufficient data
)
SELECT 
  customer_id,
  company_name,
  baseline_sessions,
  recent_sessions,
  ROUND((recent_sessions - baseline_sessions) / baseline_sessions * 100, 1) as session_change_pct,
  ROUND((recent_events - baseline_events) / baseline_events * 100, 1) as event_change_pct,
  CASE 
    WHEN recent_sessions < baseline_sessions * 0.3 THEN 'Critical'
    WHEN recent_sessions < baseline_sessions * 0.6 THEN 'High'
    WHEN recent_sessions < baseline_sessions * 0.8 THEN 'Medium'
    ELSE 'Low'
  END as usage_risk_level
FROM baseline_vs_recent
WHERE recent_sessions < baseline_sessions * 0.8
ORDER BY session_change_pct ASC;

3. Combined Churn Risk Score

Comprehensive risk assessment combining support and usage patterns:

SQL
-- Combined Churn Risk Assessment
WITH support_risk AS (
  SELECT 
    cm.customer_id,
    COALESCE(COUNT(CASE WHEN t.priority = 'urgent' THEN 1 END) * 10, 0) +
    COALESCE(COUNT(CASE WHEN t.status = 'escalated' THEN 1 END) * 20, 0) +
    CASE WHEN AVG(t.satisfaction_rating) < 2 THEN 40 
         WHEN AVG(t.satisfaction_rating) < 3 THEN 20 ELSE 0 END as support_score
  FROM customer_master cm
  LEFT JOIN zendesk_tickets t ON cm.zendesk_org_id = t.organization_id 
    AND t.created_at >= CURRENT_DATE - INTERVAL '60 days'
  GROUP BY cm.customer_id
),
usage_risk AS (
  SELECT 
    cm.customer_id,
    CASE 
      WHEN COUNT(pe.event_id) = 0 THEN 60
      WHEN COUNT(DISTINCT DATE(pe.event_date)) < 5 THEN 40
      WHEN AVG(pe.session_duration_minutes) < 2 THEN 30
      WHEN COUNT(pe.event_id) < 50 THEN 20
      ELSE 0
    END as usage_score
  FROM customer_master cm
  LEFT JOIN product_events pe ON cm.product_user_id = pe.user_id 
    AND pe.event_date >= CURRENT_DATE - INTERVAL '30 days'
  GROUP BY cm.customer_id
),
account_risk AS (
  SELECT 
    cm.customer_id,
    CASE 
      WHEN cm.mrr < 100 THEN 15
      WHEN DATE_PART('day', CURRENT_DATE - cm.signup_date) < 90 THEN 10
      ELSE 0
    END as account_score
  FROM customer_master cm
)
SELECT 
  cm.customer_id,
  cm.company_name,
  cm.mrr,
  cm.subscription_tier,
  sr.support_score,
  ur.usage_score,
  ar.account_score,
  (sr.support_score + ur.usage_score + ar.account_score) as total_risk_score,
  CASE 
    WHEN (sr.support_score + ur.usage_score + ar.account_score) >= 80 THEN 'Critical'
    WHEN (sr.support_score + ur.usage_score + ar.account_score) >= 50 THEN 'High'
    WHEN (sr.support_score + ur.usage_score + ar.account_score) >= 25 THEN 'Medium'
    ELSE 'Low'
  END as risk_category,
  CASE 
    WHEN (sr.support_score + ur.usage_score + ar.account_score) >= 80 THEN 'Immediate intervention required'
    WHEN (sr.support_score + ur.usage_score + ar.account_score) >= 50 THEN 'Proactive outreach recommended'
    WHEN (sr.support_score + ur.usage_score + ar.account_score) >= 25 THEN 'Monitor closely'
    ELSE 'Healthy account'
  END as recommended_action
FROM customer_master cm
JOIN support_risk sr ON cm.customer_id = sr.customer_id
JOIN usage_risk ur ON cm.customer_id = ur.customer_id  
JOIN account_risk ar ON cm.customer_id = ar.customer_id
ORDER BY total_risk_score DESC;

Building Predictive Models

Move beyond reactive alerts to predictive churn modeling. Here are two approaches you can implement in Airbook.

Rule-Based Model

Accuracy: 65-75%
Setup Time: 1-2 weeks
Best For: Quick implementation, interpretable results

Uses weighted scoring based on predefined thresholds for support and usage metrics.

Machine Learning Model

Accuracy: 80-90%
Setup Time: 4-6 weeks
Best For: Maximum accuracy, complex patterns

Uses gradient boosting to learn complex interactions between features automatically.

Start Simple, Then Optimize: Begin with rule-based scoring to get immediate value and insights. Once you have 6+ months of data and validated your feature set, upgrade to ML models for higher accuracy.

Early Warning Dashboard

Design dashboards that surface critical insights when your team can still take action. Focus on alerting, trending, and prioritization.

Critical Alerts Section

🚨 Immediate Action Required

Critical Risk Accounts
12
Risk Score > 80
Revenue at Risk
$47K
MRR from critical accounts
Days to Churn
18
Average prediction horizon

Risk Trending Analysis

📈 Risk Score Trends (Last 30 Days)

Enterprise Accounts↓ 15% (Improving)
Mid-Market Accounts↑ 23% (Deteriorating)
SMB Accounts→ 2% (Stable)

Model Performance Monitoring

87%
Prediction Accuracy
62
Avg Days Early Warning
34%
False Positive Rate
73%
Intervention Success Rate

Intervention Strategies

Different risk levels require different intervention approaches. Here's how to systematically save at-risk accounts.

🚨 Critical Risk (Score 80-100)

Immediate Actions (Within 24 hours)

  • • Executive escalation to C-suite
  • • Emergency customer success call
  • • Dedicated technical support assignment
  • • Account review meeting scheduled

Recovery Tactics

  • • Product roadmap alignment session
  • • Temporary discount or credit offering
  • • Premium support tier upgrade
  • • Executive business review

⚠️ High Risk (Score 50-79)

Proactive Outreach (Within 3 days)

  • • Customer success manager check-in
  • • Product usage optimization session
  • • Support ticket priority increase
  • • Feature adoption coaching

Value Reinforcement

  • • ROI calculation and sharing
  • • Success story case study
  • • Advanced feature training
  • • Quarterly business review

⚡ Medium Risk (Score 25-49)

Gentle Engagement (Within 1 week)

  • • Automated email nurture sequence
  • • Webinar invitation for best practices
  • • Product update newsletter
  • • Community engagement invitation

Continuous Value

  • • Regular usage insights sharing
  • • Industry benchmark comparisons
  • • Feature spotlight communications
  • • Educational content delivery
Intervention Success Metrics: Track the effectiveness of each intervention type. Companies that implement systematic intervention strategies see 40-60% improvement in customer retention rates.

Measuring Success

Track both model performance and business impact to continuously improve your churn prediction system.

Model Performance Metrics

Prediction Accuracy

True Positive Rate85%
False Positive Rate32%

Timing Precision

Average Early Warning58 days
Prediction Confidence79%

Business Impact Metrics

Revenue Impact

Revenue Saved$280K/month
Churn Rate Reduction-42%

Operational Efficiency

Intervention Success Rate67%
CS Team Productivity+38%

Best Practices

✅ Do This

Start with high-quality data

Clean, consistent customer identifiers across all systems are crucial for accurate predictions.

Combine multiple data sources

Support + usage + billing data provides the most comprehensive risk assessment.

Test intervention strategies

A/B test different approaches to find what works best for each risk segment.

Monitor model drift

Customer behavior changes over time. Retrain models quarterly to maintain accuracy.

❌ Avoid This

Don't rely on single metrics

Support tickets alone or usage data alone won't give you the full picture.

Don't ignore false positives

Too many false alarms will cause alert fatigue and reduce team responsiveness.

Don't wait for perfect data

Start with available data and improve incrementally. Perfect is the enemy of good.

Don't automate interventions blindly

High-risk accounts need human touch. Use automation for monitoring, not for customer communications.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you identify churn risks using Zendesk support data?

Answer: Identify churn risks in Zendesk by tracking support ticket escalation patterns, declining CSAT scores, increasing ticket volume per customer, longer resolution times, and recurring technical issues. Combine these signals with product usage decline to predict churn 60+ days early.

Key Zendesk Risk Signals:

  • Escalated tickets involving management or C-level executives
  • CSAT scores consistently below 3/5 over 30+ days
  • Ticket frequency increase (3+ tickets per month vs. historical average)
  • Unresolved technical issues spanning multiple weeks
  • Support requests mentioning competitors or alternatives

What are the key churn risk indicators in support data?

Answer: Key churn risk indicators in support data include escalated tickets from management, CSAT scores below 3/5, increased ticket frequency, unresolved technical issues, requests for product alternatives, billing inquiries, and declining sentiment in ticket content.

High-Risk Indicators:

  • • Executive escalation requests
  • • CSAT scores 1-2/5 consistently
  • • Mention of cancellation or alternatives
  • • Billing dispute or payment issues
  • • Repeated technical failures

Medium-Risk Indicators:

  • • Increasing ticket volume (50%+ increase)
  • • CSAT scores 3/5 with declining trend
  • • Longer resolution times
  • • Feature requests for competitive features
  • • Support agent escalations

How do you combine Zendesk data with product usage events for churn prediction?

Answer: Combine Zendesk data with product usage events by creating unified customer profiles using email addresses or customer IDs. Build risk scoring models that weight support indicators (40%) with usage decline patterns (60%) to predict churn probability.

Data Integration Steps:

  1. Create customer unification table linking Zendesk tickets to product users
  2. Build support risk scoring based on ticket patterns and CSAT trends
  3. Calculate product usage decline metrics (sessions, features, time-on-platform)
  4. Combine scores using weighted model (support 40%, usage 60%)
  5. Set risk thresholds and automated alert triggers

What is the best churn prediction model using support and usage data?

Answer: The best churn prediction model combines weighted support risk factors (40% weight) with product usage decline indicators (60% weight). Use logistic regression or machine learning models trained on historical churn data for accounts that canceled in the past 12 months.

Recommended Model: Weighted Risk Score
Risk Score = (Support Risk × 0.4) + (Usage Decline × 0.6) + (Contract Context × 0.2)
Advanced Option: Machine Learning
Random Forest or XGBoost models with 15+ features for higher accuracy

How early can you predict churn using Zendesk and product data?

Answer: You can predict churn 60-90 days early by combining Zendesk support patterns with product usage decline. Early warning signs include support ticket increase 3+ months before churn, CSAT decline over 60-day periods, and gradual usage reduction starting 90+ days before cancellation.

Early Warning Timeline:

90+ days early:Gradual usage decline detected
60-75 days early:Support ticket patterns change
30-45 days early:Combined risk score exceeds threshold
15-30 days early:High-confidence churn prediction

What intervention strategies work best for different churn risk levels?

Answer: Intervention strategies should match risk levels: Critical risk (80-100 score) requires executive escalation within 24 hours; High risk (50-79) needs CSM outreach within 3 days; Medium risk (25-49) uses gentle engagement within 1 week through automated sequences.

Critical Risk (80-100)

  • • Executive call within 24 hours
  • • Emergency technical support
  • • Account recovery meeting
  • • Temporary concessions if needed

High Risk (50-79)

  • • CSM outreach within 3 days
  • • Product usage optimization
  • • Priority support queue
  • • Quarterly business review

Medium Risk (25-49)

  • • Automated nurture sequence
  • • Educational content delivery
  • • Feature spotlight emails
  • • Community engagement invite

How do you measure churn prediction model effectiveness?

Answer: Measure churn prediction model effectiveness using precision (true positive rate of 85%+), recall (capturing 80%+ of actual churners), false positive rate (keep below 35%), early warning accuracy (60+ days average), and business impact metrics like retention improvement and revenue saved.

MetricTarget RangeMeasurement Method
Precision (True Positive Rate)85-95%Predicted churners who actually churned
Recall (Sensitivity)80-90%Actual churners correctly identified
False Positive Rate<35%Healthy accounts incorrectly flagged
Early Warning Days60+ daysAverage prediction lead time

Real-World Implementation Scenarios

Learn from real implementations of churn risk identification across different SaaS business models and team structures.

Scenario 1: B2B SaaS Platform - 500+ Enterprise Customers

Challenge:

Customer Success team was reactive to churn, only learning about at-risk accounts during quarterly business reviews or contract renewal conversations.

Implementation Approach:

  • • Connected Zendesk API to Airbook data warehouse
  • • Integrated Amplitude product usage events
  • • Built unified customer profiles using email domains
  • • Created weighted risk scoring model (support 40%, usage 60%)
  • • Set up daily dashboard with risk-based customer lists

Key Risk Indicators Tracked:

  • • Executive escalation in support tickets
  • • CSAT decline over 60-day rolling windows
  • • Feature usage breadth reduction
  • • Integration disconnections
  • • Support ticket volume spikes (3+ monthly)

Results After 6 Months:

67 days
Average early warning
31%
Churn reduction
$1.2M
ARR saved through interventions

Scenario 2: Freemium SaaS - High-Volume, Low-Touch Model

Challenge:

With 10,000+ customers and a small CS team, manual intervention wasn't scalable. Needed automated churn risk detection with tiered response strategies.

Implementation Approach:

  • • Built simplified risk model focusing on product usage
  • • Integrated Zendesk for paid account support patterns
  • • Created automated email intervention sequences
  • • Focused human intervention on high-value accounts only
  • • Used machine learning for pattern recognition

Automated Intervention Strategy:

  • • High-value accounts: Human CS outreach
  • • Mid-tier accounts: Automated email + knowledge base
  • • Freemium users: In-app messaging + educational content
  • • Risk-based feature recommendations
  • • Upgrade prompts for successful intervention patterns

Results After 4 Months:

18%
Churn reduction (paid accounts)
23%
Increase in upgrade conversions
4x
CS team efficiency improvement

Scenario 3: Technical Product - Developer-Focused SaaS

Challenge:

Developer customers rarely create support tickets, making traditional support-based churn prediction ineffective. Needed to focus heavily on product usage patterns and API usage.

Implementation Approach:

  • • Focused 80% weight on product usage vs. 20% support
  • • Tracked API call patterns and error rates
  • • Monitored GitHub integration activity
  • • Built developer engagement scoring (docs, community)
  • • Created technical health indicators

Developer-Specific Risk Signals:

  • • API rate limit approaches without upgrade inquiries
  • • High error rates in API responses
  • • Reduced commit frequency with integrations
  • • Documentation access decline
  • • Community forum engagement drops

Results After 3 Months:

45 days
Early churn detection
28%
Developer retention improvement
41%
Increase in plan upgrades

Scenario 4: Seasonal Business - E-commerce SaaS

Challenge:

Customer usage patterns varied dramatically by season (Black Friday spikes, January lulls), causing false positive churn alerts during natural low-usage periods.

Implementation Approach:

  • • Built seasonal adjustment factors into risk model
  • • Used year-over-year comparisons vs. month-over-month
  • • Segmented customers by business type (seasonal vs. evergreen)
  • • Created industry-specific risk thresholds
  • • Added external data sources (holiday calendars, economic indicators)

Seasonal Adjustments:

  • • Holiday retail: Adjust Q1 usage expectations down 60%
  • • B2B services: Lower August activity expected
  • • Fashion/apparel: Pre-season planning usage spikes
  • • Gift/novelty: Focus on Q4 performance indicators
  • • Home/garden: Weather-dependent pattern recognition

Results After 8 Months:

73%
False positive reduction
19%
Churn rate improvement
52%
CS team focus improvement

TL;DR / Summary

Quick Summary

This comprehensive guide for identifying churn risks using Zendesk and product events is being developed. Check back soon for the complete implementation with SQL examples, predictive models, and early warning systems.

🎯 Key Takeaways

Early Detection: Predict churn 60+ days early by combining support tickets with usage patterns
Risk Scoring: Use weighted models combining support escalations, CSAT, and usage decline
Targeted Interventions: Deploy risk-appropriate strategies from gentle engagement to executive escalation
Measurable Impact: Achieve 40-60% improvement in retention with systematic intervention

⏱️ Implementation Timeline

Week 1-2: Data Foundation
Connect Zendesk and product analytics, build customer unification tables
Week 3-4: Risk Scoring
Implement SQL queries for support and usage risk indicators
Week 5-6: Dashboard & Alerts
Build early warning dashboard with automated risk alerts
Week 7-8: Intervention Testing
Deploy intervention strategies and measure effectiveness

Critical Success Factors

Data Quality:

Clean customer identifiers across all systems ensure accurate risk assessment

Team Alignment:

CS and support teams must coordinate intervention strategies for maximum impact

Continuous Optimization:

Regular model retraining and intervention testing improve prediction accuracy

Ready to Build Your Churn Prediction System?

Combine Zendesk support data with product usage events to predict churn 60+ days early. Save more customers with data-driven early warning systems.

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