[Un]Churned · 27 Feb 2026 · From the week of 23 February
How We Turn Churn Into Comebacks (The Revenue Hiding Inside Your Churn) ft. Eleanora White (Supermetrics)
These are notes on the conversation, checked against its transcript. The episode itself has the full discussion.
In brief
Eleanora White, Global Head of Customer Success and Solutions Architects at Supermetrics, spoke with host Jenny Calvert live from Pulse Europe in Dublin. She described how her team is building an agentic AI roadmap for customer success in three phases, starting with internal agents, then customer-facing agents, then autonomous agents. The conversation also covered how CSM roles and hiring profiles are changing, and how Supermetrics handles churn through a 'stay-alive' contract, a time-bound win-back window, and counting win-backs as net retention in CSM metrics.
For founders
- Supermetrics is running its AI plan in three phases: internal agents that help CSMs work smarter, then customer-facing agents, then autonomous agents that find opportunities and pressure-test other agents.
- Eleanora White expects the real impact of AI on the CS team structure to show up in 2027, not 2026.
- Eleanora White said that a customer tends to see that implementation takes longer, and the product over-promised and under-delivered, nine times out of ten when she offers a stay-alive contract.
- Supermetrics uses a time-bound window after a churned customer leaves, during which a return does not count against GRR but does count toward retention.
- Eleanora White said the stay-alive approach had a fairly high success rate in a small North American sample, with at least four customers later moving into another enterprise package, and said churn reporting should show the long game of lifetime value rather than only the immediate book value.
For revenue leaders
- Eleanora White said Supermetrics segments its agent use: digital and scaled customers can be served largely through agent-facilitated interactions, while strategic global accounts still need specialist CSMs.
- Supermetrics now counts a CSM's win-back of a churned customer as net retention rather than GRR in individual metrics, and Eleanora White said this gives CSMs a lever when their pipeline is thin in a quarter.
- Eleanora White advised that, at an individual level, hitting GRR targets comes down to on-time renewals: getting ahead of customers by asking about customer and leadership vacations, procurement timelines, and what could go wrong.
- Eleanora White said the win-back window is time-bound because an open-ended one would mean no one does renewals on time, and that Q4 is the best time to reach out to customers who left one or three months earlier as a genuine check-in, not a resell.
- Eleanora White said the job of a CSM is mostly discovery, and that junior CSMs often file discovery under sales and do not realise it is central to the role.
What was said 17, most useful first
Supermetrics runs a time-bound win-back window in which a returning churned customer does not hit GRR but does count toward retention. Listen
Eleanora White said that when a customer is turned, the company sets a time period in which a return to the business does not affect team GRR but does affect retention. She said the window has to be time-bound, because otherwise CSMs might stop doing renewals on time.
“we have a set time period that if that customer comes back to the business, it doesn't impact GRR numbers for the team, but it does impact that retention”
Listen to the episode Retention & customer success Link to this Report a problem
Supermetrics changed its CSM metrics so that a win-back counts as net retention, not GRR. Listen
Eleanora White said a win-back previously counted toward GRR and that the company changed this during the year, so it now counts as net retention. She said a thin pipeline in a quarter makes this a useful lever to return to customer relationships, and that this is a way to reward CSMs for building relationships.
“We did change that this year where it comes back as a net retention”
Listen to the episode Sales team, hiring & comp Link to this Report a problem
Eleanora White described a stay-alive contract for customers who plan to leave for a competitor, and said it often keeps the system live at a lower spend. Listen
She said that when a customer says it is going to a competitor, Supermetrics offers an offboarding plan. She said that nine times out of ten, once the customer is on a stay-alive contract, it sees that implementation takes longer than expected and that the product over-promised and under-delivered, so it cannot switch off and keeps the system live at a lower spend. She described this as managing the relationship to the end.
“nine times out of 10, when we have a stay alive contract is what we kind of call them, they'll see that they actually can't”
Listen to the episode Retention & customer success Link to this Report a problem
Stay-alive customers sometimes return later at a higher tier, and that GRR can dip before that happens. Listen
She said that stay-alive contracts can lower normalised GRR in the short term, but that customers came back to expand. She said the sample was small and that at least four customers moved into another enterprise package from this approach. She said reporting should show the long game of lifetime value, not only the end-of-year figure.
“I want to say at least like 4 out of time customers actually ended up going into another enterprise package”
Listen to the episode Metrics & finance Link to this Report a problem
Supermetrics is building its customer success AI plan in three phases, starting with internal agents. Listen
Eleanora White said phase one focuses on internal agents that help CSMs work smarter, with testing in safer environments before customer-facing agents. Phase two is customer-facing agents. Phase three is autonomous agents that find or correct opportunities and pressure-test the agents that were built earlier.
“really the phase one is focused on those internal agents that can serve up and how far CSMS today work smarter, not harder”
Agent use should differ by customer segment: digital and scaled customers can be served mostly through agents, while strategic accounts need specialists. Listen
She said that for digital or scaled segments, a lot more can be done with agents facilitating interactions. For global strategic accounts she said specialisation will still be needed. For longer-tail customers on entry-level packages she said agents can provide much of the experience.
“you can do a lot more with agents facilitating the interactions”
Listen to the episode Retention & customer success Link to this Report a problem
She expects the CSM role to stay a generalist role, with specialist insight coming from agents. Listen
She said she does not think the company will get away from the generalist CSM, while strategic accounts will still need specialists. She argued the specialist information will come through the agents the team designs, which lets CSMs work at scale and still deliver.
“I don't think we're going to get away from that”
Listen to the episode Hiring & team building Link to this Report a problem
The entire CSM job is discovery, which junior CSMs often misfile under sales. Listen
She said that because the activity is labelled discovery, some junior CSMs associate it with sales and do not realise that discovery is the core of their role. She argued that the quality of insight from recorded calls depends on the questions asked, so asking good questions is a core skill.
“you don't really realize that like the entire job of a CSM is doing discovery”
Listen to the episode Retention & customer success Link to this Report a problem
The quality of call insights from AI recording tools depends on the questions CSMs ask. Listen
She said Supermetrics used a product to record calls earlier this year and found the insights were only as good as the questions asked. She said CSMs need to know how to ask leading questions for AI to do its job. She also said AI now logs the notes, so the CSM's focus should be on being present on the call.
“sometimes the quality that you get in the insights only as good as the questions being asked on those calls”
Hitting Q4 GRR targets comes down to getting renewals done on time, which means getting ahead of the customer. Listen
She said that for individual CSMs the main factor is on-time renewals, and that this means being ahead of the customer. She gave examples such as checking the customer's leave and procurement timing, for instance whether procurement takes three weeks off at year end, and asking what could go wrong.
“it's honestly coming down to on time renewals and this is when you need to be ahead of your customers”
Listen to the episode Retention & customer success Link to this Report a problem
Churn reporting should show the long game of lifetime value, not only the end-of-period numbers. Listen
She said that when reporting financials, the immediate book value may not show the value of retained or returning customers. She said that presenting the long game instead of the end game shows value captured over time.
“if you show the long game instead of the end game”
Listen to the episode Metrics & finance Link to this Report a problem
Relationships are not lost when customers churn, and returning customers come back for the relationship. Listen
She said churned customers are still out there and the relationship is not lost. She said returning customers often come back to the service level and relationship they had, even when they left for product or build-in-house reasons, and that their objections can still be present.
“we know that relationships are lost. The ones that we turn, they're still there.”
Listen to the episode Retention & customer success Link to this Report a problem
Customers who try to build in-house often learn quickly that the effort is larger than expected. Listen
She said the classic buy-or-build question often comes up with customers who leave. She said that when they try to build in-house, they quickly learn the effort required, which can bring them back.
“sometimes we quickly learn the grass isn't always greener on the other side”
Listen to the episode Retention & customer success Link to this Report a problem
Eleanora White expects the real impact of AI on CS team structure to start in 2027. Listen
She said the team is still in the building stage on team structure and that the larger changes to how teams are organised will start to show in 2027. This is tied to the three-phase AI plan that she said is underway.
“I think the real impacts we'll start to see in this team structure is going to be in 2027”
Light AI touches on Supermetrics' internal tools that carry friction could make them much better. Listen
She said the most useful ideas for internal agents often come from niche, friction-heavy in-house tools that are hard to change because of infrastructure. She said light AI additions to those tools could be much better and would improve the daily quality of work for CSMs.
“So that like some light like touches with AI could be 10X better.”
The best CSM hires are fast learners with genuine curiosity about their customers' businesses. Listen
She said Supermetrics has historically looked for people with a hunger to learn and understand their customers' business. She said the ability to learn fast and a natural authenticity in wanting to go deeper are what she has seen set CSMs up to succeed as the team grows.
“that ability to learn fast and that natural authenticity for wanting to go deeper and understand”
Listen to the episode Hiring & team building Link to this Report a problem
Supermetrics wants to carry the digital backbone built for its large self-service base through to enterprise segments. Listen
She said that the bulk of Supermetrics customers are in its self-service business and that the team wants to carry the digital backbone it has through to enterprise segments. She said this lets human-led engagements add more value.
“how do we make sure that that digital backbone that we have, if you will, is a journey we're carrying through even to the enterprise segments”
Listen to the episode Retention & customer success Link to this Report a problem