Soft Churn, or Low Churn, is a concept used to measure customer retention in the software as a service (SaaS) and online services industry. It measures the number of customers who have reduced their usage (such as reduced consumption or deactivation of options) or switched to a lower-tier offering (downgrade) during a given period (typically on a monthly or annual basis), but have not completely canceled or terminated their subscription.
Soft Churn can be measured in different ways, depending on the analysis objective and available data. For example, it can be measured in terms of the number of customers who have reduced their usage of a service or application, or in terms of the number of changes in offerings compared to the previous period.
Soft Churn is generally considered a less severe phenomenon than Hard Churn (or High Churn), which corresponds to the cancellation or complete termination of a subscription. However, Soft Churn can be a precursor indicator of service quality issues or a lack of perceived value by customers, and it can result in long-term decline in company growth if the issues are not addressed.