4.8%3.3%
−31%
Roughly 32 fewer cancellations every month.
Case file 014 · unlocked
Case study: how Quillstack cut churn 31% in 90 days
Everything is below — the before/after numbers, the month-by-month chart and the three-phase playbook. Grab the full PDF and the working files first, so you have them for later.
Download the 18-page case study (PDF) 4.2 MB · PDFResults · day 0 vs day 90
The before and after.
Four numbers we agreed on at kickoff and reported every Friday. Each one is measured the same way before and after — definitions are on page 16 of the PDF.
92%104%
+12 pts
Expansion now outpaces downgrades and churn.
38%61%
+23 pts
New accounts sending a first invoice in week one.
11 days4 days
−64%
Median days from signup to first paid invoice.
Monthly logo churn, Jul 2025 – Jun 2026
Percent of accounts cancelling each month
Churn held at 3.2–3.3% for the three months after the engagement ended — the plays kept running without us in the room.
The playbook
Three phases. Ninety days. No new headcount.
Every play below is detailed in the PDF with the owner, the tooling and the exact message copy we used.
Phase 01Days 1–21
Diagnose
Find out who actually leaves, and what they did in the 60 days before they did.
- Coded 214 cancellations by root cause
- Ran 22 exit interviews in two weeks
- Mapped product events to cancel dates
Found: 3 silent-churn signals present in 81% of cancels
Phase 02Days 22–60
Intervene
Fix the moment accounts get stuck, and catch the at-risk ones before they decide.
- Rebuilt onboarding around “first invoice sent”
- Launched a 6-signal health score
- Gave CSMs a 3-touch save sequence
Result: 7-day activation 38% → 61%
Phase 03Days 61–90
Compound
Turn rescued accounts into growing ones, and make the system run without us.
- Annual-plan offer at the day-45 milestone
- Expansion triggers on seat & client growth
- A 20-minute weekly retention stand-up
Result: NRR 92% → 104%
We'd spent a year blaming pricing. In three weeks Halden showed us it was onboarding — and the fix paid for the whole engagement before the quarter closed.
Dana WhitfieldCOO, Quillstack
Watch next · 8:15
How we'd run this playbook on your numbers.
Callum walks through what the first 10 days of a Churn Audit look like — the data we pull, the interviews we run and how you'll know within two weeks where your churn is coming from.
Inside the Churn Audit · what happens in the first 10 days
Callum Reyes · Founder
A note from Callum
Your churn is telling you something.
I spent eight years running customer success at two SaaS companies, and both times we treated churn like weather — something that happened to us. It isn't. In almost every company we audit, the reasons are sitting in the product data weeks before the cancel button gets clicked.
Quillstack isn't special. Their fix was boring: one onboarding milestone, one health score, one weekly meeting. What made it work was knowing exactly which accounts to save, and when.
If anything in this case study felt familiar, read pages 6–8 first. And if you'd like a second pair of eyes on your own numbers, book a call — I take the first ones myself.
Callum ReyesFounder, Halden Growth Partners · callum@haldengrowth.com
Your next step
Get your own churn diagnosis in 10 days.
Start with a free call, or book the fixed-scope Churn Audit — the same Phase 1 that found Quillstack's three signals.
Strategy call
Retention Review
A 30-minute call to sanity-check your churn numbers.
$030 min · video
- Walk through your churn & NRR
- Spot your likeliest leak
- Honest fit check — no pitch deck
Fixed scope · 10 days
Churn Audit
Our Phase 1 diagnostic, run on your data.
$4,800one-time
- Churn autopsy on 12 months of cancels
- Up to 15 exit interviews, coded
- Your silent-churn signals, ranked
- Prioritized 90-day plan & readout
Done with you · 90 days
Retention Sprint
The full Quillstack engagement, end to end.
$18,000from
- Everything in the Churn Audit
- Onboarding rebuild & health score
- Weekly working sessions with your CS team
Audit fee is credited in full if you continue to a Retention Sprint within 30 days. Questions? hello@haldengrowth.com