3 builders who never spoke to each other

Keep the customers you have rather than replacing them

Operators fill seats and never check whether last year's signups are still there, so track retention next to growth and stop describing departures as people graduating. At a low price point new signups are simply cancelled out by leavers, which makes onboarding, activation and annual commitments a better use of effort than the top of the funnel, and strong retention is what earns you permission to grow slowly and hand-hold every arrival.

The method

1. 01

   Operators pour effort into filling seats and never check whether the people who signed up are still around, so track retention beside growth instead of celebrating signups alone.

2. 02

   Keeping value flowing to a larger share of the customers you already have beats adding new ones, and calling churn graduation is an excuse rather than a result.

3. 03

   At a low price point, new signups get cancelled out by departures, so put the effort into onboarding, activation and annual commitments rather than the top of the funnel.

4. 04

   Strong retention buys you permission to grow slowly and to give every new signup hands-on concierge onboarding, because that effort is unlikely to be wasted.

5. 05

   Treat growth as a by-product of keeping current customers happy rather than as the thing you aim at.

What it returned

• 2010

  Written in 2010 when a few new coworking spaces were opening weekly and Hillman was seeing spaces fail to reach break-even between dues and expenses.

• 2020

  By mid-2020 Fathom paid both cofounders a full-time salary plus expenses, without paid acquisition.

• The author's argument is that without retention you are pouring new customers into a leaky bucket and are under constant pressure to add more

Sources

• Coworking Churn RatesAlex Hillman · dangerouslyawesome.com · Retention . · 2010-01-01
• The ultimate guide to structuring your coworking space membershipsAlex Hillman · dangerouslyawesome.com · Were we crazy? Maybe, but the language and positioning has worked amazingly well. · 2015-10-01
• Understanding ConvertKit’s open metricsNathan Barry · nathanbarry.com · Total customers · 2019-01-14
• Micro-SaaS Ebook: Retention & SupportTyler Tringas · tylertringas.com · Why retention is so important · 2017-07-31
• 20 years to overnight success - Fathom AnalyticsPaul Jarvis · usefathom.com · 20 years to overnight success · 2020-06-18