Lab · Hands-on Exercise

Telco Customer Churn Analytics

A hands-on training dataset for building Power BI dashboards — explore customer demographics, subscribed services, contracts, and billing to model, calculate DAX metrics, and visualize customer churn risks.

You are employed as a Data Analyst with a Telecommunications Provider. You have detailed customer behavior records covering 7,043 subscribers across demographics, subscribed services, contract terms, and monthly billing. Your objective is to build an interactive dashboard in Power BI Desktop to calculate Churn Rate & Lost Revenue, pinpoint high-risk contract types, and evaluate service friction points.

Customer-Churn.csv Lab Instructions (PDF)

Dataset Overview & Column Definitions

The dataset contains 7,043 unique subscriber records structured across three interconnected operational domains: Demographics, Subscribed Services, and Contract & Billing.

Column Name	Explanation & Values	Category
customerID	Unique identifier assigned to each subscriber.	Demographics
gender	Customer gender (Male / Female).	Demographics
SeniorCitizen	Indicates if customer is a senior citizen (1 = Yes, 0 = No).	Demographics
Partner	Indicates if the customer has a partner or spouse (Yes / No).	Demographics
Dependents	Indicates if customer lives with dependents (Yes / No).	Demographics
tenure	Total number of months subscribed with the company.	Lifecycle / Billing
PhoneService	Indicates if subscribed to home phone service (Yes / No).	Services
MultipleLines	Multiple telephone lines (Yes / No / No phone service).	Services
InternetService	Internet connection provider (DSL, Fiber optic, No).	Services
OnlineSecurity	Online security add-on package (Yes / No / No internet).	Services
OnlineBackup	Online cloud backup add-on (Yes / No / No internet).	Services
DeviceProtection	Device insurance coverage (Yes / No / No internet).	Services
TechSupport	Technical support add-on service (Yes / No / No internet).	Services
StreamingTV	IPTV streaming subscription (Yes / No / No internet).	Services
StreamingMovies	Movie streaming subscription (Yes / No / No internet).	Services
Contract	Contract terms (Month-to-month, One year, Two year).	Contract & Billing
PaperlessBilling	Customer opted for digital invoicing (Yes / No).	Contract & Billing
PaymentMethod	Payment mode (Electronic check, Mailed check, Bank transfer, Credit card).	Contract & Billing
MonthlyCharges	The amount billed to the customer on a monthly basis.	Contract & Billing
TotalCharges	Total cumulative expenditure over the customer tenure.	Contract & Billing
Churn TARGET	Primary outcome: whether customer left (Yes / No).	Outcome Target

Setup — Load the Data

Connect Power BI Desktop to the CSV data file before building DAX measures and visuals.

In Power BI Desktop, select Home → Get Data → Text/CSV. Navigate to datafiles/Customer-Churn.csv and click Open.

In the preview window, confirm that column headers are loaded properly and click Load (or Transform Data to inspect field data types). Rename the table to churn for clean DAX referencing.

Task #1: Churn & Revenue KPI Cards

Calculate headline metrics: Total Customers, Churned Customers, Churn %, and Lost Monthly Revenue

Create DAX Measure [churnyes]: Write an explicit measure to count the total number of churned subscribers (where Churn = "Yes"):

churnyes = CALCULATE(COUNT(churn[Churn]), churn[Churn] = "Yes")

Create DAX Measure [lostrevenue]: Calculate the total lost monthly recurring revenue from churned customers:

lostrevenue = CALCULATE(SUM(churn[MonthlyCharges]), churn[Churn] = "Yes")

Create DAX Measure [churn percentage]: Divide churned customers by total subscribers to get the overall churn rate:

churn percentage = DIVIDE(churn[churnyes], COUNT(churn[Churn]), 0)

Build Card Visuals / KPI Cards: Place 4 Card visuals at the top of the canvas displaying Total Customers (7,043), Churn (1,869), % Churn (26.54%), and Lost Revenue (139.13K).

KPI Cards: Top banner showing Total Customers, Churned Customers, Churn %, and Lost Monthly Revenue.

Task #2: Churn by Contract Type

Expose how contract commitment terms (Month-to-month vs 1-Year vs 2-Year) drive attrition

Add Stacked Bar / Clustered Bar Visual: Select 100% Stacked Bar Chart or Clustered Bar Chart from the Visualizations pane.

Configure field mapping: Place Contract on the Y-axis, customerID (Count) on the X-axis, and Churn on the Legend.

Analytical Insight: Comparing contract shares side by side demonstrates that Month-to-month contracts account for the overwhelming majority of lost subscribers compared to long-term 1-year and 2-year plans.

100% Stacked Bar Chart: Comparing churned vs retained customer proportions by Contract type.

Task #3: Churn by Internet Service

Analyze which technology provider type (DSL, Fiber Optic, No Internet) experiences the highest churn rate

Add Stacked Bar Chart: Add a Bar Chart visual to show churn rate by internet technology.

Set InternetService on the Y-axis and churn percentage on the X-axis.

Observation: Fiber optic subscribers display a significantly higher churn rate (~41.89%) compared to DSL (18.96%) and No Internet (7.40%), highlighting service quality or pricing friction.

Bar Chart: Churn percentage breakdown by Internet Service provider type.

Task #4: Churn by Customer Tenure

Group tenure into 6-month bins to plot churn risk decay over customer lifecycle

Create Tenure Bins: Right-click the tenure field in the Data pane and select New Group. Set Group type to Bins and Bin size to 6 months.

Create Line Chart: Add a Line Chart visual with tenure (bins) on the X-axis and churn percentage on the Y-axis.

Analytical Insight: The continuous line chart reveals that churn risk is highest during the first 0–6 months (>50%) and steadily declines as tenure increases, proving that early customer onboarding is critical.

Line Chart: Churn rate decline plotted across 6-month customer tenure bins.

Task #5: Churn by Payment Method & Final Dashboard

Analyze billing option attrition and assemble the complete executive dashboard

Add Payment Method Visual: Add a Bar Chart displaying PaymentMethod on the Y-axis and churn percentage on the X-axis. Electronic check shows the highest attrition rate among payment options.

Assemble Final Dashboard: Arrange the 4 KPI cards at top left, Contract breakdown stacked bar chart at middle left, Tenure line chart at bottom left, and Payment Method & Internet Service bar charts on the right column.

Final Report Page: Executive Telco Customer Churn Analytics dashboard featuring KPI cards, contract shares, tenure risk curve, and billing breakdowns.