Overview
A private equity–backed SaaS provider in the health care market faced a time-sensitive transition with direct implications for revenue retention, cost structure, and customer continuity. Business leaders provided a mandate to sunset an aging platform reducing infrastructure costs by end of fiscal year in 3 months’ time. Supporting both legacy and current product created duplicate costs, added complexity, and created operational drag.
This directive would affect 1,700 customers that required hands-on assistance to migrate from the deprecated scheduling product to a new scheduling platform, while minimizing disruption of embedded operational practices at the customer’s organization.
Internal resources were working at capacity and lacked the bandwidth to support an effort of this magnitude. The client was overwhelmed by the complexity of identifying, hiring, training, and deploying trained resources within the defined timeframe.
ESG partnered with the client to design and execute a structured transition program, combining proactive outreach, retention strategy, and hands-on migration resources, operating as an extension of the internal Customer Success team.
The Challenge
The transition concentrated risk across a large, time-bound customer cohort.
The client was navigating several interconnected pressures:
- Revenue and cost exposure across a legacy product
Approximately 1,700 customers were tied to a product scheduled for end-of-life, creating simultaneous churn risk and ongoing cost burden from maintaining the legacy platform.
- Compressed timeline for customer action
Customers were required to evaluate, decide, and migrate within a limited 3-month window, increasing the likelihood of delay, resistance, or disengagement.
- Capacity constraints within the internal team
Delivering consistent, high-touch engagement across the full customer base exceeded available Customer Success bandwidth.
- Customer uncertainty during product transition
Customers raised concerns around feature continuity, operational disruption, and the effort required to migrate.
- Active churn consideration during transition discussions
Many customers used the transition as a trigger to evaluate alternative vendors, increasing the risk of full customer loss.
- Execution risk driven by delay and indecision
Without structured engagement, customers risked falling into inaction, extending timelines and increasing operational strain.
The transition required coordinated action across every customer within a fixed timeline.
The Approach
ESG embedded directly within the Customer Success function and operated a structured program designed to move customers from awareness to completed migration while actively managing churn risk.
The work progressed across three phases, mobilization, structured outreach, and transition completion.
Phase 1: Rapid Mobilization and Program Design
ESG established the structure required to execute consistently across the customer base.
This included:
- Deploying a dedicated team of Customer Success Managers focused exclusively on the transition
- Aligning messaging to clearly explain the product deprecation and the long-term value of the new platform
- Building structured outreach sequences across calls, email, and digital channels
- Developing objection-handling frameworks focused on feature continuity, effort reduction, and long-term value
- Defining success criteria and implementing tracking to monitor customer progression
This phase created alignment, consistency, and visibility across all customer interactions.
Phase 2: Structured Outreach and Risk Management
ESG executed proactive, 1:1 outreach across the entire impacted customer base.
The model focused on driving action through structured engagement:
- Direct outreach across approximately 1,700 customer accounts
- Prioritization of high-risk and high-value customers for deeper engagement
- Consultative conversations focused on reinforcing the value of staying within the platform
- Real-time identification of customers actively evaluating alternative vendors
A consistent pattern emerged during outreach. Customers initially resistant to the transition often reconsidered once the full scope of switching vendors became clear. Conversations focused on effort, disruption, and long-term value shifted customer decisions toward staying and migrating.
Structured engagement reduced indecision. Customers moved from uncertainty to clear next steps.
Phase 3: Migration Support and Transition Completion
The focus shifted to execution, ensuring customers completed the transition and adopted the new system.
ESG supported final stages by:
- Delivering hands-on training to build confidence in the new scheduling platform
- Reinforcing continuity of core functionality and aligning expectations on new capabilities
- Re-engaging customers who delayed action or faced internal blockers
- Coordinating with internal teams to resolve technical dependencies
- Capturing customer sentiment, objections, and insights to inform internal strategy
These efforts restored confidence among hesitant customers and accelerated movement toward completed migrations.
The Outcome
The program was designed to convert approximately 70 percent of the impacted customer base, representing roughly 1,190 accounts.
The engagement met and exceeded program objectives, successfully moving a majority of customers off the legacy platform within a compressed timeframe while maintaining continuity across the broader customer base.
The program delivered:
- Full coverage across the impacted customer base through structured, proactive outreach
- Active identification and management of churn risk during a compressed transition window
- Consistent, value-driven engagement that improved customer alignment and reduced resistance
- Increased customer confidence through hands-on training and guided migration support
- Accelerated decision-making across customers who would otherwise delay or disengage
The result was a coordinated transition that maintained momentum, reduced customer uncertainty, and prevented the transition from becoming a source of avoidable churn.
Execution against an aggressive timeline, combined with the ability to adapt in real time, enabled the client to achieve stronger-than-anticipated outcomes despite customer delays and transition complexity.
The Takeaway
Product transitions concentrate risk across revenue, cost structure, and customer relationships. Execution determines whether that risk converts into churn or retained growth.
In this case, structured, coordinated execution prevented the transition from stalling. Customers moved forward because engagement was consistent, concerns were addressed directly, and next steps were clearly defined.
Without that structure, transitions slow. Customers delay decisions, evaluate alternatives, and churn risk increases.
For organizations facing similar moments, retention depends on the ability to operationalize Customer Success, drive consistent engagement at scale, and move every customer to a clear outcome within a defined timeframe.