The eight lifecycle plays we have covered so far outline the ideal path to customer growth and retention. However, the reality of Customer Success is that the journey rarely goes perfectly according to plan. The "messy middle" is full of unpredictable variables. Champions leave for new jobs, and despite your best efforts, some customers will inevitably decide to cancel.
When these disruptions occur, ad-hoc heroic efforts are not enough. Teams need standardized supporting processes that treat the customer experience as a predictable, whole-company endeavor. The two most critical supporting plays are the Key Contact Change Play and the Offboarding Play.
When your primary champion or executive sponsor leaves their role, your account immediately enters a state of high risk. However, a Key Contact Change is often a massive, missed opportunity. When managed correctly, you can engage the new contact seamlessly, manage their expectations, and turn them into your next powerful advocate for long-term loyalty.
Your previous champion held all the institutional knowledge of why your product was purchased, the value it provided, and the trust you had built. The new contact is stepping into a role with their own priorities, and if you do not proactively define the narrative, they may view your software as an unnecessary expense. A structured play ensures you act quickly to establish rapport and align your solution with their new goals.
To execute this play, modern CS teams rely on a highly structured transition meeting guided by the "You - We - Me" framework.
By the time you are ready to offboard a customer, there is only a small chance they will reconsider their decision. However, the primary objective of offboarding is to ensure you capture valuable learnings so your company can improve, while leaving the door open for future business.
When an account churns, it falls into one of two categories: unavoidable churn (churn over which your company has absolutely no control, like shutting down or being acquired) or avoidable churn (churn your company directly contributed to, such as poor communication or misalignment). We track both, but we are particularly interested in avoidable churn so we can learn and improve.
Offboarding relies heavily on the Peak-End Rule, a cognitive bias showing that people judge an experience largely based on how they felt at its peak and at its end. How you conclude the relationship minimizes negative word of mouth (which is critical, as 13% of dissatisfied customers will tell 15 or more people about a negative experience) and sets the stage for them to potentially become a customer again in the future.
An effective offboarding play consists of a survey, a meeting, and a final thank you.
By implementing these supporting plays, you ensure that even when the customer journey goes off script, your team handles it with the same strategic rigor, empathy, and professionalism that drives your core post-sale pipeline.
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