By proactively guiding low-touch customers through key moments in their journey, Brightly turned disconnected users into engaged, renew-ready accounts.
21%
Increase in feature adoption
300
Churn opportunities interrupted and resolved
98%
Renewal rate across targeted accounts ($2.6M)
Low-touch customers felt disconnected and unsupported—and the in-app resources meant to help them were going unused.
Brightly segments its customers into high-touch and low-touch accounts. While that model works operationally, it created an unintended gap. Without a direct point of contact, low-touch users felt out of the loop on their own issues and on the company roadmap. Engagement dropped, risk increased, and in some cases, it led to churn. Meanwhile, helpful in-app resources already existed—the problem was that users who needed them most simply weren't finding or using them.
Without a dedicated point of contact, users lacked visibility into their own issues and the product roadmap—leading to a feeling of disconnection and growing dissatisfaction.
Brightly had helpful content available inside the product, but the users who needed it most didn't know how or when to engage with it.
As low-touch customers disengaged, churn risk quietly accumulated with no early-warning system to flag struggling accounts before it was too late.
The team needed to shift from waiting for users to seek help to proactively guiding them—before they even realized they needed it—without simply adding more headcount.
“We were hearing from our low-touch accounts that they were feeling out of the loop. They didn't have the visibility they wanted, both with their own issues or with the company roadmap.”
Hayley Russell, Program Manager at Brightly
Brightly introduced a more structured onboarding experience for all new users—not just new accounts. Using a task list within a Pendo guide, they highlighted not just what to do, but why it matters, helping users establish the right workflows early.
This shift from passive resource availability to active onboarding guidance set the foundation for everything that followed. New users now arrived with context, not confusion.
Brightly's
Approach
Don't wait for users to find your onboarding resources. Build a structured task list that surfaces the right actions at the right moment—and explains why each step matters, not just how to complete it.
Since not all users need the same message, Brightly segmented guidance based on role and behavior to ensure every interaction felt relevant and actionable.
Received messaging focused on why features matter—helping them understand the value and advocate for adoption within their organization.
Received messaging focused on how to use features—giving them the step-by-step guidance they needed to get up and running quickly.
Brightly's
Approach
Generic guidance is noise. Use behavioral and role-based segmentation to deliver messages that feel personal—because when users see content that speaks directly to their situation, they engage.
The team used Pendo Analytics, Core Events, and Workflow Journeys to pinpoint exactly where users struggled or dropped off. Then they deployed targeted guides as a "safety net" to re-engage users before it was too late.
This required a careful read of the data—not just knowing where users fell off, but understanding which moments were critical enough to warrant intervention.
“You don't really find out who needs that safety net until they've completely fallen off. So we had to use the data to fine-tune where to step in.”
Hayley Russell, Program Manager at Brightly
Brightly's
Approach
Map your critical user journeys and identify the drop-off points that correlate with churn. Those are your intervention moments. Build guides that catch users there—before they give up.
For accounts showing no engagement with key events for seven days, Brightly integrated ChurnZero to automatically flag at-risk accounts. This triggered automated tasks so customer success advisors could step in quickly to re-engage users before the window closed.
The result was a seamless handoff from in-app automation to human outreach—ensuring no at-risk account slipped through the cracks.
Brightly's
Approach
In-app guidance alone isn't enough for every user. Build an integration that turns product disengagement signals into actionable alerts for your CS team—so the right person can follow up at the right moment.
By combining proactive in-app engagement with data-driven targeting, Brightly transformed how it supports low-touch customers—without adding operational overhead.
Increase in feature adoption
Targeted onboarding guides and usage intervention messaging drove measurable adoption gains across the low-touch segment.
Churn risks identified and resolved
Automated detection and timely intervention interrupted 300 churn opportunities before they became lost accounts.
Core Event retention at month six
The pilot group grew by 10 percentage points to 64% by month six of the program
Renewal rate across targeted accounts
98% of targeted accounts renewed, representing $2.6M in retained revenue—proving that the right guidance unlocks value that already exists.
“Pendo's ease of use takes a lot of work off teams that are already taxed. If we didn't have Pendo, I would probably cry.”
Hayley Russell
Program Manager at Brightly
What started as a targeted retention initiative is now something the team can repeat easily across additional products and segments.
"This 'recipe' was created with scalability in mind," shared Russell. "We can essentially rinse and repeat."
Brightly is now exploring deeper journey orchestration with tools like Pendo Orchestrate and Replay—and it's no surprise these results earned them a well-deserved 2026 Customer Award.
