The pattern was clear: 70% of churn came from retired business owners.
But knowing who’s leaving isn’t enough.
The next piece of the puzzle is understanding why they left.
That requires talking to the right clients and listening carefully.
This is where things get difficult.
High-net-worth clients ignore interview requests. Their time is scarce. Their schedules are guarded. Gift cards and vouchers don’t cut it. A $50 incentive won’t sway someone with millions in net worth.
They engage only if they believe the conversation will lead to real change.
So how do you reach them and get them to show up?
This article shows how to do that in three practical steps:
Step 1: Determine who to interview and in what order
Step 2: How to reach them
Step 3: How many to contact and how to schedule
Step 1: Determine who to interview (and in what order)
You can’t just interview churned retired business owners and stop there.
You also need to talk to retired business owners who haven’t churned yet. If they’re experiencing the same issues, you still have a chance to fix the problem before they leave.
The next highest churn comes from passive heirs.
Together, retired business owners and passive heirs make up 70% of the client base.
Any solution you build for retired business owners must not break the experience for passive heirs. That’s why you need to include both groups in your interviews.
Start with churned clients. They reveal what broke.
Then talk to current clients. They show you what’s starting to fray before it turns into churn.
Step 2: How to reach them
Reach out to churned clients as someone from the client satisfaction team.
Don’t pitch. Don’t sell. Don’t pretend you’re trying to win them back.
Say this explicitly:
“I’m trying to understand why you left. I’m not trying to win you back or sell you anything. I want to understand where confidence in the relationship broke down, so we can improve how we serve clients in similar situations going forward.”
The ideal place to meet these clients, especially those currently churning, is during exit interviews. Join those meetings as churning clients are already in feedback mode.
For current clients, reach out through their relationship managers. Ask them to make the introduction. A referral from a trusted advisor dramatically increases response rates.
Make it easy for them to introduce you. Give them an email template and talking points. Follow up regularly. Relationship managers are busy, and without reminders, your request drops off their list.
Step 3: How many to contact and how to schedule
Aim for about six interviews per segment. Beyond that, you start hearing the same things over and over.
In this case, four segments mean 24 interviews.
Assuming a 20% response rate, reach out to 120–150 people.
Avoid over-recruiting. Contacting 200 people and interviewing only a fraction creates a poor experience for those who agree but never hear back.
A few simple scheduling principles make these interviews far more effective:
- Don’t pack interviews back-to-back. Context switching drains energy. Leave time to capture insights before the next call.
- Group similar audiences. Interview churned clients on one day and current clients on another. This makes it easier to compare perspectives.
- Block 15–30 minutes after each call to document insights while they’re fresh.
Being thoughtful about spacing and sequencing improves the quality of every conversation.
Remember the problem?
High-net-worth clients ignore interview requests. Their time is scarce. Their schedules are guarded.
So how do you get them to show up?
Start with churned clients. They reveal what broke.
Then talk to current clients. They show what’s starting to fray.
Reach out with clarity and intent. Don’t sell. Don’t pitch.
Six interviews per segment is enough. Be thoughtful about outreach and scheduling.
For customer interviews, especially with hard-to-reach audiences, a clear outreach process makes all the difference.
Without one, responses are rare.
With one, even busy clients respond.
Identifying the right clients is only the first step.
In the next article, we’ll look at how to interview clients like a therapist and uncover why they really left.