## Introduction
In a subscription-based business model, understanding customer churn is critical to maintaining growth and profitability. Churn rate analysis broken down by pricing tier enables Data & Analytics teams to identify which segments are most vulnerable and adjust marketing, support, or product strategies accordingly. However, manually compiling churn metrics by tier often involves extracting data from multiple sources, cleaning it, performing computations, and distributing reports, which is both time-consuming and error-prone.
This article presents a step-by-step tutorial to automate the reporting of churn by pricing tier using *n8n*, an open-source workflow automation tool. The workflow integrates your customer subscription data from a database or CRM with billing information, calculates churn metrics per pricing tier, and sends automated reports to Slack or email.
## Tools and Services Integrated
– **n8n**: for building the automation workflow
– **PostgreSQL / MySQL / any SQL-compatible database**: source of customer subscription data
– **Google Sheets** (optional): to log or archive churn reports
– **Slack**: to deliver churn reports to Data & Analytics or leadership teams
– **Email (SMTP)**: alternative or additional report delivery
—
## Use Case & Benefits
– **Problem solved:** Automate repetitive, manual churn report generation providing accurate, timely insight into churn segmented by pricing tiers.
– **Who benefits:** Data analysts, marketing teams, product managers, and executives gain actionable insights without manual data wrangling.
– **Outcome:** Reliable, scheduled churn reports allow prompt decision-making to reduce churn.
—
## Step-by-Step Automation Tutorial with n8n
### Prerequisites
– Access to an n8n instance (self-hosted or cloud)
– Database credentials and query access
– Slack workspace and webhook URL or Email SMTP credentials
– Basic familiarity with n8n interface
### Step 1: Define the Data Requirements
Before building, clarify the definition of churn in your business context (e.g., customers who canceled subscription within last month). Identify schema elements:
– Customer ID
– Subscription status (active/canceled)
– Cancellation date
– Pricing tier
Prepare SQL queries to extract data accordingly.
### Step 2: Start Workflow with a Schedule Trigger
1. In n8n, create a new workflow.
2. Add the **Cron** node to schedule reports (e.g., run monthly on the 1st).
### Step 3: Fetch Subscription Data from the Database
1. Add a **PostgreSQL** or **MySQL** node (depending on your DB).
2. Configure connection with host, port, database, username, and password.
3. Use a SQL query to pull the list of customers and their subscription status for the desired period. Example PostgreSQL query:
“`sql
SELECT pricing_tier,
status,
COUNT(customer_id) AS customers_count
FROM subscriptions
WHERE cancellation_date BETWEEN {{ $json[“start_date”] }} AND {{ $json[“end_date”] }}
GROUP BY pricing_tier, status;
“`
Note: Use n8n expressions to dynamically calculate `start_date` and `end_date` based on the current date.
### Step 4: Process Data to Calculate Churn by Tier
1. Add a **Function** node to transform the raw data.
2. Goal: calculate churn rate per pricing tier = (Number of canceled customers) / (Total customers at the start of period).
3. Use JavaScript in the Function node to aggregate and calculate metrics.
“`javascript
// Input: array with rows containing pricing_tier, status, customers_count
const data = items.map(item => item.json);
// Build tier-based summary
const tiers = {};
data.forEach(row => {
const tier = row.pricing_tier;
if (!tiers[tier]) {
tiers[tier] = { canceled: 0, active: 0 };
}
if (row.status === ‘canceled’) {
tiers[tier].canceled += Number(row.customers_count);
} else if (row.status === ‘active’) {
tiers[tier].active += Number(row.customers_count);
}
});
const results = [];
for (const tier in tiers) {
const total = tiers[tier].active + tiers[tier].canceled;
const churnRate = total > 0 ? (tiers[tier].canceled / total) : 0;
results.push({
pricingTier: tier,
churnedCustomers: tiers[tier].canceled,
totalCustomers: total,
churnRate: churnRate.toFixed(4)
});
}
return results.map(r => ({ json: r }));
“`
### Step 5: Format the Report Message
1. Add a **Set** node.
2. Use expressions to format each tier’s data into readable text.
Example:
“`
Churn Report for {{ $now.toLocaleDateString() }}
{{ $json.pricingTier }}: {{ $json.churnedCustomers }} churned / {{ $json.totalCustomers }} total = {{ $json.churnRate }}
“`
3. Optionally aggregate all tiers into a single message or send per-tier messages.
### Step 6: Send Report via Slack or Email
– **Slack:**
1. Add a **Slack** node.
2. Configure Slack API credentials.
3. Set the message channel and text from the previous node.
– **Email:**
1. Add an **Email Send** node.
2. Configure SMTP settings.
3. Use the report message as the email body.
### Step 7 (Optional): Log Reports to Google Sheets
1. Add a **Google Sheets** node.
2. Append rows with churn data for historical tracking.
—
## Common Errors and Troubleshooting Tips
– **Database authentication failure:** Check credentials and IP whitelisting.
– **Date filter errors in SQL:** Make sure date variables are formatted correctly in ISO or your DB’s date format.
– **Empty or incorrect aggregation:** Validate input data structure in the Function node.
– **Slack API errors:** Confirm Slack webhook or bot token permissions and channel access.
– **Email delivery issues:** Verify SMTP credentials and spam filtering.
Tips to strengthen robustness:
– Add error-handling paths in n8n nodes.
– Use environment variables in n8n for sensitive data.
– Log n8n workflow executions for audit.
—
## Scaling and Adaptation
– **Multiple Regions or Products:** Expand SQL queries and transformation logic to segment churn by region, product, or other dimensions.
– **Real-time triggers:** Instead of scheduled runs, use event-driven triggers from the subscription system.
– **Dashboard integration:** Push final churn metrics to a BI dashboard using APIs.
– **Notification customization:** Tailor Slack/email recipients per tier or threshold.
—
## Summary
This tutorial guided you through building an automated churn reporting workflow segmented by pricing tier using n8n. By integrating your database, transforming and calculating churn metrics, and distributing reports automatically, your Data & Analytics team can monitor customer health with up-to-date insights—freeing up time for deeper analysis and strategic planning.
Automating this process not only reduces manual effort but also improves accuracy, enables quicker responses to churn trends, and supports data-driven decision making. Consider extending the workflow by adding alert thresholds or integrating with CRM systems for retention campaigns.
—
**Bonus Tip:**
To further improve your churn analysis, enrich your data with customer lifetime value (LTV) and engagement metrics in the same n8n workflow. This multi-dimensional data can help prioritize retention efforts with greater ROI.
—