Agency CRM That Detects Churn Before It Happens

Ascend Digital Agency (18 retainer clients, 6-person team) kept losing clients quietly — no complaints, no warning, just a cancellation email. At $1,800/month average retainer, losing 2 clients per quarter = $43,200/year in preventable churn.

No onboarding system. No health monitoring. No early warning when a client went silent.

8-Stage Client Lifecycle Pipeline via Playwright CLI:

Prospect → Proposal Sent → Onboarding → Active Month 1 → Active Ongoing → At-Risk → Paused → Churned

6 Custom Contact Fields via GHL API:

Contract Start/End Dates, Monthly Retainer Value, Account Manager, Last Check-In Date, Satisfaction Score

1. New Client Onboarding — fires on signing: welcome SMS, intake email, account manager task, owner notification. Every client gets the same professional experience from day one.

Trigger: No pipeline activity for 21+ days in Active Ongoing

Tag: at-risk added

Pipeline moved to At-Risk stage

URGENT task: "Check in with [Client] — 21 days silent. Call NOW."

Owner SMS: "⚠️ AT-RISK: [Client] — MRR: $[X]"

Proactive check-in email to client

This single workflow catches churn before it happens — when there's still time to act.

3. Monthly Report Reminder — last day of every month, tasks auto-created for all active clients.

4. Churned Client Reactivation — 14-day and 30-day re-engagement sequence for cancelled clients.

Week one: the system flagged 3 clients who had gone silent.

One had a billing issue she hadn't mentioned

One was frustrated but hadn't complained

One was considering a competitor

All three were saved with proactive outreach. $16,200/month in MRR preserved from a $2,800 build.

pipeline-builder.js (Playwright) → 8-stage lifecycle pipeline

GHL MCP create_location_custom_field × 6 → Contract and retention fields

GHL Workflow AI × 4 → All retention workflows

Deployment to a new agency client: under 3 hours.

Delivery: 5 days | Investment: $1,500 | Retainer option: $500/mo