Customer retention is the cornerstone of sustainable growth in B2B SaaS and fintech. In this episode of the AI & Data Driven Leadership Podcast, Dean Guida sits down with Yemi Oluseun, Retention-Led Growth Strategist at The Change Hive, to discuss actionable strategies for keeping customers engaged, leveraging AI and data for retention, and building systems that scale. Yemi shares her expertise on creating clear roadmaps, embedding products into daily workflows, and proactively preventing churn to help businesses grow efficiently.
Retention delivers higher ROI than acquisition by keeping existing customers engaged and satisfied. Yemi explains that retained customers provide recurring revenue, reduce churn, and strengthen community trust, while neglected retention can destabilize even fast-growing companies.
Creating clear customer roadmaps is critical. Mapping every stage of the customer journey, setting expectations, and communicating milestones ensures that clients understand the value they’ll receive, reducing post-sale anxiety and increasing engagement.
Embedding your product into daily workflows also drives stickiness. Yemi recommends usage nudges, tutorials, and gamification to make products habitual, while collecting feedback and monitoring engagement allows teams to proactively address potential churn before it becomes a problem.
Yemi Oluseun is a Retention-Led Growth Strategist at The Change Hive, where she helps fintech and SaaS companies systemize retention, enhance customer engagement, and leverage AI and data to fuel growth. Her expertise lies in turning complex retention challenges into actionable strategies that drive measurable results.
The Change Hive helps B2B companies implement retention-focused strategies that scale. They specialize in process systemization, AI-driven insights, and embedding customer-centric practices that reduce churn, increase engagement, and accelerate sustainable growth.
Retention is more cost-effective than acquiring new customers.
Yemi’s five-pillar framework for retention includes roadmaps, routines, feedback, expansion, and health checks.
Embedding products into daily workflows improves engagement and loyalty.
AI and data help predict churn and guide proactive outreach.
Retention strategies differ for VC-backed vs. PE-backed companies to drive growth and valuation.
Retention-led growth is a strategic imperative for any business looking to scale. By combining clear roadmaps, habitual engagement, proactive feedback, and AI-driven insights, companies can maximize customer value, reduce churn, and create long-term sustainability.
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Tech entrepreneur and CEO Dean Guida knows there’s a limit to what you can build with grit alone.
At sixteen, Dean bought the first IBM PC and fell in love with writing software. He went on to receive a Bachelor of Science degree in operation research from the University of Miami. After graduating, he was a freelance developer and wrote many systems for IBM and on Wall Street. At twenty-three, he started Infragistics to build UX/UI tools for professional software developers.
Seemingly overnight, Dean had to go from early internet coder to business operator—a feat that forced him to learn some of business’s biggest lessons on the job. He immediately began navigating the nuances of scaling a company, hiring and growing teams, and becoming a leader, a manager, and a mentor.
Fast-forward thirty-five years, and Dean’s tech company now has operations in six countries. More than two million developers use Infragistics software, and its client roster boasts 100 percent of the S&P 500, including Fidelity, Morgan Stanley, Exxon, Intuit, and Bank of America.
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