Data Talks, Episode 16
Data Talks is Exago’s podcast on all-things business intelligence, analytics, and application software. Did you know there are 43 different ways to calculate churn? This month, we get some much-needed guidance from CloudKPI co-founder Maeve Kneafsey on counting customers, measuring churn, and calculating customer acquisition cost (CAC) — it’s not as straightforward as it sounds. Should you count customers by contract, for example, or by logo? Should you keep your eye on both counts, and if so, to what end? We explore these and other nuances around summarizing SaaS performance.
Timestamps
Segment 1: Customer Count, Churn, and CAC
(2:00) How Maeve and her team researched KPI methods and best practices.
(4:13) A company’s metrics should serve the company first and foremost, not VCs.
(5:50) What is CloudKPI?
(8:30) The importance of calculating KPIs consistently.
(9:20) Counting customers.
(15:10) Calculating churn.
(18:20) Distinguishing churned customers from “limbo” customers.
(20:30) Analyzing churn rates through cohort analysis.
(23:50) Contract renewal grace periods and their impact on churn.
(31.30) Calculating CAC.
Segment 2: What We Are Nerding Out About
(42:40) Maeve: A mindful application of Slackbot.
(44:30) Nicole: SEMrush!
(46.00) Alex: a particular robot vacuum!
