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Automation Squad
Hand to your teamWritten for Claude

Run a post-mortem on a customer who churned

Robert MacKelfresh

By Robert MacKelfresh

Founder, Automation Squad

Churn post-mortems usually turn into either finger-pointing or false comfort — this prompt explicitly permits 'not preventable' as a real answer, which most people are afraid to write themselves. Separating stated reason from likely real reason catches the common case where the exit interview answer is polite, not accurate.

The prompt

A customer just churned and I want an honest post-mortem, not a blame exercise. Paste everything you have: the account history, support tickets, any exit interview or cancellation reason they gave, usage data if you have it, and the last few emails or call notes with them.

Structure the analysis as:
1. Timeline — the 3-5 moments that actually mattered, in order, each in one line (first sign of trouble, escalation point, the moment it became unrecoverable)
2. Stated reason vs. likely real reason — what they told us when they left, and whether the evidence actually supports that or points somewhere else. If the stated reason looks like the real one, say so; don't manufacture a hidden cause for drama
3. Was this savable, and at what point — pick the single latest moment where a different action might have changed the outcome, or say "not savable by point X" if the evidence says so
4. One thing our team did that should be a repeatable playbook step (if anything genuinely went right)
5. One thing to change in how we operate — not "communicate better," something specific and checkable (e.g. "flag accounts with zero logins for 21+ days")

Be willing to conclude "this one wasn't really preventable." Manufacturing a lesson from every loss teaches the wrong things.

Account history / notes:

[paste account history, tickets, notes, exit interview here]

Copy it, paste it, run it. Nothing here is gated.

Pairs with: Churn Post-Mortem Log (recurring template)

The prompt does the thinking; this gives it somewhere to land. Not built yet — it ships with this prompt when it is.

Written for Claude as of August 2026. Models change — if this stops working the way it should, that is worth telling us about.