Is ChurnZero Worth It? 400+ Reviews Expose the Truth for CS Teams in 2026

Q1. What Is ChurnZero - And Why Are So Many CS Teams Talking About It in 2026? [toc=Platform Overview]

ChurnZero is a purpose-built customer success management platform designed to help SaaS and subscription businesses reduce churn, drive product adoption, and expand revenue from their existing customer base. Founded in Washington, D.C., the platform combines health scoring, automated playbooks, in-app communications, and revenue forecasting into a unified system of execution for CS teams of all sizes.

⭐ Market Recognition That Demands Attention

ChurnZero's momentum in recent years has been impossible to ignore. It was named a Leader in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Customer Success Management Platforms - the second consecutive year it earned that distinction. On G2, it holds the #1 position in Customer Success software with an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 across 1,558+ verified reviews. ChurnZero was also the first purpose-built CS platform to surpass 1,000 G2 reviews, and it carries a "Most Loved" designation from TrustRadius.

✅ Core Capabilities at a Glance

• Customer Health Scoring: Aggregates product usage, support tickets, NPS responses, and engagement data into a composite ChurnScore
• Plays & Automation: Trigger-based workflows that automate outreach, task assignments, and lifecycle actions at scale
• In-App Communications: WalkThroughs, announcements, and surveys embedded directly inside the customer's product experience
• Journeys: Configurable onboarding and lifecycle stage maps that track milestone completion across customer segments
• Customer Success AI™: Purpose-built AI agents for autonomous task execution, multi-step planning, and proactive assistance
• Renewal & Forecast Hub: Revenue forecasting tools built specifically for CS-led renewal management and expansion tracking

⏰ Why CS Teams Are Evaluating It Right Now

The timing of ChurnZero's visibility spike isn't coincidental. The 2025 Customer Revenue Leadership Study found that 74% of SaaS leaders report most company revenue now comes from existing customers - making post-sale execution the top-line business priority. The same study linked customer-data-centric tech stacks with higher net revenue retention: companies using a dedicated CSP reported 100% NRR vs. 94% without one.

As CS teams face mounting pressure to prove retention ROI with shrinking headcounts, ChurnZero sits squarely at the intersection of operational workflow and revenue accountability - which is precisely why it's generating this much evaluation activity heading into 2026.

💬 What Real Users Say

"ChurnZero has completely changed the way both our CSMs and leadership interact with customers. All customer information is in one place, and CSMs can quickly set up customized dashboards, journeys, plays and automation without costly consultants and long wait times."
Nancy S., Director of Customer Success, Mid-Market, G2 Verified Review

Q2. What Do 1,500+ Verified Reviews Actually Say About ChurnZero? [toc=Review Analysis]

Rather than relying on a single review platform, we aggregated ChurnZero client feedback across five major sources to build a data-driven, cross-platform picture of user sentiment. Here's what the numbers reveal.

⭐ Cross-Platform Ratings Overview

The headline ratings are consistently strong - 4.7+ on most major aggregators. However, the Info-Tech SoftwareReviews "Plan to Renew" score of 65 (which dropped 19 points) introduces a notable dissonance that's worth investigating further.

✅ What Users Praise Most (G2 AI Summary, Ranked by Mentions)

G2's AI-generated sentiment analysis quantifies feedback across all 1,558+ verified reviews:

• Ease of use enhances productivity - 150 mentions
• Helpfulness of automation & support - 104 mentions
• Excellent customer support, timely and knowledgeable - 97 mentions
• Automation features (Plays) for streamlined engagement - 94 mentions
• Efficiency in tracking customer journeys and workflows - 87 mentions

❌ What Users Complain About Most

• Learning curve requires time and support to master - 55 mentions
• Complexity / non-intuitive features and terminology - 41 mentions
• Unintuitive search experience, excessive clicks - 41 mentions
• Missing features and limited email customization - 39 mentions
• Steep learning curve requiring initiative to master - 32 mentions

⚠️ The Polarization Pattern

The review data reveals a clear polarization: ChurnZero produces loyal power users and genuinely frustrated detractors, with surprisingly few in between. The 5-star reviews praise workflow transformation and time savings. The 3-star and below reviews consistently cite implementation friction, reporting limitations, and dashboard inflexibility.

"The user interface is clean and intuitive, making it easy to navigate. The platform provides a comprehensive view of the customer and integrates well with our existing tech stack."
Amanda E., Director of CS Ops, Mid-Market, G2 Verified Review

"Setting up our ChurnZero instance has involved a significant amount of manual administration. The default dashboard metrics lack flexibility, cross-segment search capabilities are quite limited, and there are several restrictions when it comes to reporting."
Brandon O., Client Education Manager, Mid-Market, G2 Verified Review

Q3. What Are ChurnZero's Biggest Strengths According to Real Users? [toc=Key Strengths]

When you filter for what users genuinely love about ChurnZero, five core strengths emerge repeatedly across G2, Capterra, and Gartner Peer Insights reviews. These aren't marketing claims - they're patterns validated by hundreds of verified users.

⭐ Strength #1: Plays & Automation Engine (94 Mentions)

ChurnZero's Plays engine is its single most praised differentiator. Users can configure trigger-based automated workflows - sending emails, creating tasks, updating records, and escalating at-risk accounts - without writing a single line of code. For CS teams managing hundreds of accounts, this is the feature that delivers the most immediate, tangible time savings.

"I love how easy it is to complete tasks within the platform. The platform makes it simple to stay connected with clients, get them the information they need quickly and on a mass level if needed. I have over 750 customers and even more location accounts to keep track of."
Tawatha V., Regional Account Manager, Mid-Market, G2 Verified Review

✅ Strength #2: Exceptional Customer Support (97 Mentions)

Almost every review - including deeply critical ones - acknowledges that ChurnZero's own CS team is exceptionally responsive and knowledgeable. In a category where implementation support often determines success or failure, this matters enormously.

"Our assigned CSM on the CZ side has been a tremendous resource, using his experience with the tool and his years in the software industry to help us make the right decisions for our organization."
Alison B., Customer Operations Manager, Mid-Market, G2 Verified Review

⭐ Strength #3: Health Scoring & Usage Analytics

ChurnZero's ChurnScore aggregates product usage data, support interactions, NPS, and engagement metrics into a single composite health indicator. Users particularly value the flexibility to integrate custom usage statistics into the scoring model.

"The health scoring metrics and flexibility to integrate usage statistics within our platform into the overall health evaluation of our customers are fantastic."
Josh P., Customer Success Manager, Small-Business, G2 Verified Review

✅ Strength #4: Consolidated Customer View (87 Mentions)

Consolidating customer data from CRM, support tools, product analytics, and communication platforms into a single account view eliminates the dreaded "10-tab problem" that plagues CS teams operating across disconnected systems.

⭐ Strength #5: Day-to-Day Usability (150 Mentions)

Despite the onboarding complaints covered in Q4, once fully configured, ChurnZero earns consistent praise for daily usability - segmentation, task management, and account navigation are intuitive for experienced users.

"ChurnZero is a very strong Customer Success platform with a clean, intuitive UI and a lot of depth once you get under the hood. The support team is consistently responsive and knowledgeable."
Aaron R., VP Customer Success, Small-Business, G2 Verified Review

Q4. What Are ChurnZero's Most Common Weaknesses and Complaints? [toc=Common Complaints]

No review analysis is honest without confronting the negatives head-on. Across 1,558+ G2 reviews, specific complaint categories surface with enough frequency to reveal structural - not anecdotal - issues.

❌ The Numbers Don't Lie

When 87 reviewers independently flag the same learning curve problem, that's a pattern:

• Learning curve challenges - 55 + 32 mentions (87 total across two G2 categories)
• Complexity / non-intuitive features - 41 mentions
• Unintuitive search & navigation - 41 mentions
• Missing features / limited customization - 39 mentions

"You quickly uncover that with a more simplistic setup, there is less product functionality than competitors. Integrations and administrative functionality is limited in many ways."
Tim M., Director of Customer Success Programs, Enterprise, G2 Verified Review

⚠️ The Configuration Tax

These complaints point to a broader pattern inherent in traditional CS platforms: they are configuration-first, dashboard-heavy systems that demand dedicated CS-ops resources. ChurnZero's own users confirm 4-8 week implementation timelines, with enterprise deployments stretching longer. The Info-Tech "Plan to Renew" score dropping 19 points to 65 suggests even committed users experience operational fatigue.

"The dashboard is not customizable without an upgrade. Sometimes my settings aren't saved and it feels like I'm wasting my time trying to find the data I'm looking for."
Chauntee C., Implementation Specialist, Mid-Market, G2 Verified Review

💡 The Shift Toward Signal-First Intelligence

This isn't a ChurnZero-specific problem - it's a category-wide inflection. Modern CS teams, especially leaner ones scaling without dedicated ops headcount, increasingly want signal-first intelligence over workflow-heavy tooling. They need to see what matters and act - not spend quarters configuring dashboards before receiving a first actionable insight.

The rise of AI-native revenue intelligence platforms is challenging the core assumption that CS software must require months of setup to deliver value. When a CSM can receive churn risk alerts and account health signals within days - not weeks - the calculus shifts dramatically.

✅ Where AI-Native Approaches Like Oliv AI Fit

Oliv AI represents this emerging paradigm. Rather than competing on configuration depth, we deliver an AI-led intelligence layer that surfaces churn risk signals, engagement anomalies, and renewal intelligence - autonomously, without months of setup.

• MAP Manager Agent - auto-creates and updates mutual action plans after every customer interaction
• Deal Driver Agent - flags accounts requiring immediate attention with weekly progress breakdowns
• Forecaster Agent - inspects every account to produce unbiased renewal and retention forecasts

Where ChurnZero asks teams to build the machine before getting insights, Oliv delivers the insights from day one - with setup measured in minutes, not months. For teams looking to reduce sales tech stack costs while improving customer intelligence, this represents a fundamentally different approach to CS operations.

Q5. How Much Does ChurnZero Cost - And Is It Worth the Investment? [toc=Pricing & ROI]

ChurnZero doesn't publish pricing on its website - every buyer must go through a sales conversation to get a quote. Based on 31 verified purchase contracts tracked by Vendr and corroborated by user reviews, here's what ChurnZero actually costs in 2026.

💰 ChurnZero Pricing Estimates (2026)

Implementation requires 4-8 weeks and developer resources. There is no free trial and no free plan.

"The cost was extreme for what you got."
Nate H., Customer Success Rep, Small-Business, G2 Verified Review

⚠️ The Hidden "Configuration Tax"

The sticker price is only part of the equation. Traditional CS platforms carry layers of hidden cost that inflate total cost of ownership:

• Mandatory annual contracts with no monthly billing flexibility
• Implementation consulting fees on top of license costs
• Internal CS-ops headcount required to configure, maintain, and optimize the platform
• Training overhead - with 87 reviewers citing learning curve challenges, ramp time is real cost

When fully loaded, mid-market CS platform deployments routinely exceed $100K+ in Year 1 after factoring in implementation, training, and internal ops resources. For context on how enterprise CS platform pricing compares, see our breakdown of Gainsight pricing and per-user costs.

💡 AI-Native Tools Are Changing the Economics

The emerging generation of AI-native intelligence tools is collapsing this cost equation. The key question for buyers has shifted from "can we afford a CS platform?" to "how much operational overhead comes with it?"

By eliminating the need for dedicated ops headcount and multi-week implementations, AI-native platforms deliver core churn intelligence at a fraction of the traditional TCO - with the savings amplified by removing the ongoing "configuration tax."

✅ Oliv AI's Approach to CS Economics

Oliv AI offers modular, pay-for-what-you-use pricing with no mandatory platform fees. CS teams can deploy individual agents - MAP Manager, Deal Driver, Forecaster - and see value within 1-2 days, not 4-8 weeks. The total cost of intelligence delivery drops dramatically when setup requires minutes instead of a dedicated implementation team.

For budget-constrained teams weighing ChurnZero's investment, the calculus is simple: if your organization has the CS-ops muscle and annual budget for a full platform deployment, ChurnZero delivers. If you need churn intelligence fast without the operational overhead, AI-native alternatives can get you there at significantly lower TCO. Learn more about how teams are reducing sales tech stack costs with this approach.

Q6. ChurnZero vs. Gainsight vs. Totango: How Does It Compare to Top Alternatives? [toc=Competitor Comparison]

Evaluating ChurnZero inevitably means comparing it against Gainsight and Totango - the other two dominant CS platforms that appear in virtually every shortlist. Here's a structured head-to-head comparison across the dimensions that matter most to real buyers.

⭐ Feature & Fit Comparison Table

💰 Where Each Platform Wins

• ChurnZero wins on: Ease of initial deployment, Plays automation engine, exceptional customer support quality, and mid-market SaaS fit
• Gainsight wins on: Enterprise depth and governance, advanced self-service reporting, ML-powered health scoring, and complex multi-product organizations
• Totango wins on: Lower entry cost for smaller teams, more modular pricing that avoids annual lock-ins, and faster initial setup

❌ Where Each Platform Struggles

• ChurnZero: Reporting rigidity is the #1 complaint; admin tooling limited at enterprise scale; learning curve deters non-technical users
• Gainsight: Highest cost in the category; lengthy implementation cycles (6-12+ weeks); steep admin complexity requiring dedicated ops
• Totango: Feature depth doesn't match competitors at scale; mixed reviews on UX consistency and long-term platform maturity

"Gainsight, ChurnZero & Totango are designed for enterprise clients. If you are a startup it may be too expensive and complicated for you."
matthew461, r/CustomerSuccess Reddit Thread

"Easier to deploy, harder to long-term manage."
Tim M., Director of Customer Success Programs, Enterprise, G2 Verified Review

💡 When None of the Three Fit

For teams that find all three platforms over-engineered for their current needs, AI-native intelligence tools like Oliv AI offer a lighter-weight path - delivering churn signals and account health insights without the configuration overhead inherent in full CS platform deployments. Explore how the shift from revenue operations to intelligence to AI-Native Revenue Orchestration is reshaping how CS and revenue teams operate.

Q7. What Do Reddit and CS Communities Really Think About ChurnZero? [toc=Reddit & Community Sentiment]

Review platforms like G2 and Capterra have verification processes, but they still tend to skew toward prompted, post-onboarding reviews. Reddit and CS professional communities surface a rawer, more unfiltered, and significantly more polarized picture of ChurnZero's real-world reception.

⭐ The "Transformative" Camp

A vocal segment of experienced users - particularly those with strong Salesforce data foundations - praise ChurnZero as genuinely career-changing:

"As a ChurnZero administrator with ten years of experience as a Customer Success Manager, I can confidently say that this application is transformative! If you have a solid grasp of Salesforce data, creating dashboards in ChurnZero will be quite straightforward."
backwards_susej, r/CustomerSuccess Reddit Thread

This aligns with what G2's 5-star reviews consistently confirm: when ChurnZero is properly configured with clean, well-structured data, the Plays automation and account visibility deliver measurable, real results.

❌ The "Unusable" Camp

On the opposite end, a significant and well-upvoted thread of criticism questions whether ChurnZero justifies its complexity at all:

"I'm not really a fan of CZ; it seems to take on too many tasks without excelling in any of them."
Sulla-proconsul, r/CustomerSuccess Reddit Thread (9 upvotes)

"It's literally so bad. Damn near unusable imo, except for very specific, straightforward use cases."
helpfulraccoon, r/CustomerSuccess Reddit Thread

The same thread produced a detailed breakdown from a frustrated admin: "I've got dozens of automated plays that we don't use, CZ can't sync to our primary products so the engagement metrics and churn score are inaccurate and useless, and everything it does for tracking details is better done in a spreadsheet."

⚠️ The Pattern: Data Quality Is the Dividing Line

The community consensus reveals a strikingly clear pattern - ChurnZero's value is directly proportional to your data quality and CRM hygiene:

"CZ's effectiveness largely depends on the quality of the data it receives! It's crucial to have strong backing from your data team to guarantee that the information flowing from SF is valuable."
hedgiebetts, r/CustomerSuccess Reddit Thread

Another user summarized the core dynamic bluntly: "Garbage in, garbage out." This single insight explains the polarization better than any feature comparison ever could.

💡 The Takeaway for Evaluators

Reddit sentiment isn't anti-ChurnZero - it's anti-complexity-without-payoff. Teams with clean Salesforce data, dedicated ops resources, and a deliberate implementation strategy report transformative results. Teams without those prerequisites report frustration and abandonment. The tool amplifies whatever foundation you bring to it - for better or worse. Before evaluating any CS platform, audit your data readiness first. For teams exploring how AI-powered sales intelligence platforms can surface insights without this data dependency, the landscape has evolved significantly.

Q8. Who Is ChurnZero Built For - And Who Should Absolutely Avoid It? [toc=Ideal Fit & Who Should Avoid]

This is the most important section of this analysis. ChurnZero is a powerful platform - but it's powerful for a specific buyer profile. Misalignment here is where the vast majority of negative reviews originate.

✅ ChurnZero's Ideal Customer Profile

ChurnZero delivers maximum value when these conditions are met:

• Company type: Mid-market to enterprise B2B SaaS (50-1,000+ employees)
• CS team size: 5+ dedicated CSMs with at least one CS-ops or RevOps resource
• CRM foundation: Established, reasonably clean data in Salesforce or HubSpot
• Budget: $15K-$90K+/year depending on team size and tier
• Implementation capacity: Developer resources available for 4-8 week setup
• Operational maturity: Process-driven CS team ready to configure workflows, health scores, and automation

"Because it's a CS tool built by CS experts, it's structured to be useful and intuitive to those in the role. For a fledgling CS team, this has been invaluable."
Alison B., Customer Operations Manager, Mid-Market, G2 Verified Review

❌ Who Should Avoid ChurnZero

Be honest with yourself. Skip ChurnZero if you match these profiles:

• Pre-seed / seed startups without dedicated CS headcount - the platform requires operational investment to configure and maintain
• Teams without developer resources - implementation requires technical integration work that non-technical teams can't self-serve
• Organizations needing BI-level reporting - reporting limitations are ChurnZero's most consistent complaint across all platforms
• Companies with poor CRM data hygiene - as Reddit users confirmed, "garbage in, garbage out." No CS platform fixes bad data
• Small teams wanting fast time-to-value - if you can't invest 4-8 weeks in setup, you'll join the frustrated reviewer camp

"Overall, I'm supposed to use this every day at work. I dislike it so much that I have to schedule time to use it weekly to do all my entries."
Capterra Verified Reviewer

💡 The Emerging Third Path

Between doing nothing (spreadsheets and manual tracking) and deploying a full configuration-heavy CS platform, a new category is emerging: AI-native intelligence tools built for modern, leaner CS teams that want signals and insights without months of operational overhead. This shift mirrors the broader evolution from revenue operations to AI-Native Revenue Orchestration across the entire go-to-market stack.

✅ Where Oliv AI Fits

Oliv AI is purpose-built for the segments ChurnZero doesn't serve well. Leaner CS teams (5-25 CSMs) that want to see what matters and act - immediately - without months of setup:

• MAP Manager Agent - auto-creates mutual action plans from customer interactions
• Deal Driver Agent - surfaces accounts needing attention with progress breakdowns
• Forecaster Agent - delivers unbiased renewal and retention forecasts autonomously

The decision framework is straightforward: if you have the CS-ops muscle and budget, ChurnZero delivers powerful workflow automation. If you need intelligence fast - churn signals, account health, renewal risk - without the operational tax, an AI-native approach like Oliv gets you there in days, not months. For teams ready to explore this path, understanding how to build a revenue operations function alongside AI-led intelligence is the first step.

Q9. Is ChurnZero Improving? What's New in 2025-2026? [toc=Recent Updates]

A fair review must account for trajectory - not just current state. ChurnZero has been shipping aggressively over the past 18 months, with a clear bet on AI and automation that directly addresses several weaknesses reviewers have flagged.

⭐ Major 2025 Milestones

• Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader (2025): Named a Leader for the second consecutive year in the Gartner MQ for Customer Success Management Platforms - alongside Gainsight at the top of the category.
• G2 #1 Customer Success Software: Maintained its #1 position with 1,558+ reviews and a 4.7/5 rating, including the highest ease-of-use scores relative to enterprise competitors.
• 1,200+ five-star reviews on G2 - a volume milestone no other purpose-built CS platform has matched.

✅ Key Product Updates (Q1-Q4 2025)

• Customer Success AI Enhancements (Q3): Launched autonomous "AI Teammates" capable of multi-step task execution, proactive planning, and in-platform assistance - autonomously drafting communications, updating records, and triggering workflows.
• AI Meeting Summaries (Q2): Automated meeting summarization that captures key takeaways and syncs directly to account records - eliminating a major manual burden.
• Engagement AI (Q1): AI-powered engagement scoring and content generation for personalized outreach at scale.
• Improved Reporting & Dashboards (Q4): Enhanced real-time data exports, including Live Export to Google Sheets for extending dashboard flexibility outside the platform.

"The rapidly evolving roadmap consistently delivers new, useful features and enhancements that are almost entirely free of bugs."
Amanda E., Director of CS Ops, Mid-Market, G2 Verified Review

"It's clear the product team is staying ahead of the AI curve with new feature sets that feel purposeful rather than gimmicky."
Aaron R., VP Customer Success, Small-Business, G2 Verified Review

⚠️ Are the Core Complaints Being Addressed?

💡 The Bigger Picture

ChurnZero is clearly investing in AI - but it's layering AI onto an existing configuration-heavy architecture rather than rebuilding from an AI-native foundation. For teams already on the platform, these improvements are meaningful. For teams evaluating fresh, the question remains: start with an AI-native intelligence layer like Oliv AI and build workflows as needed, or add AI to a legacy workflow engine? This mirrors the broader shift happening across revenue intelligence software platforms that prioritize speed-to-insight over configuration depth.

Q10. The Verdict: Should You Buy ChurnZero in 2026? [toc=Final Verdict]

After analyzing 1,558+ G2 reviews, 128+ Capterra reviews, Reddit threads, Gartner Peer Insights, and SoftwareReviews data, the verdict is clear - but nuanced. ChurnZero is a genuinely strong customer success platform that earns its 4.7/5 rating and Gartner MQ Leader status. It is not, however, for everyone. The stark polarization in reviews - some call it "transformative," others "damn near unusable" - proves that fit matters more than features.

✅ Buy ChurnZero If...

• You're a mid-market+ B2B SaaS company (50-1,000+ employees) with a dedicated CS team
• You have CS-ops or RevOps resources available to configure and maintain the platform
• Your CRM data is reasonably clean - ChurnZero amplifies good data, not bad
• You can commit $15K-$90K+/year and invest 4-8 weeks in implementation
• You need workflow automation at scale - Plays, Journeys, health scores, and renewal tracking

"Churn Zero has completely changed the way both our CSMs and leadership interact with customers. We now have reliable churn scores, automation and one platform for capturing and tracking VoC feedback."
Nancy S., Director of Customer Success, Mid-Market, G2 Verified Review

❌ Skip ChurnZero If...

• You're a lean startup without dedicated CS headcount or ops resources
• You lack developer capacity for 4-8 weeks of integration work
• You need flexible, BI-level reporting - this remains ChurnZero's most persistent weakness
• Your CRM data is messy - garbage in, garbage out applies to every CS platform
• You need fast time-to-value - not weeks of configuration before your first insight

"Setting up our ChurnZero instance has involved a significant amount of manual administration. The tool hasn't delivered the time savings we were hoping for."
Brandon O., Client Education Manager, Mid-Market, G2 Verified Review

💡 The Category Is at an Inflection Point

The CS platform category is splitting into two distinct approaches: workflow-first platforms (ChurnZero, Gainsight, Totango) that require configuration investment upfront, and intelligence-first tools that prioritize speed-to-insight over workflow completeness. Neither model is universally superior - they serve different organizational maturities and resource profiles. This evolution mirrors what's happening across the broader revenue orchestration platform landscape.

✅ For Teams in the "Skip" Column - Consider Oliv AI

For teams that land in the "Skip" column, Oliv AI offers a fundamentally different path. Rather than building the machine before getting insights, Oliv's autonomous agents - MAP Manager, Deal Driver, Forecaster - deliver churn risk signals, account health intelligence, and renewal forecasts from day one, with setup measured in minutes.

Oliv won't replace a fully-configured ChurnZero for enterprise CS-ops teams. But for modern, resource-constrained CS organizations that need intelligence fast, it will outpace any legacy platform on speed, insight delivery, and usability. The best CS teams in 2026 aren't choosing between "platform" and "intelligence" - they're asking which they need first. For most growing companies, intelligence comes first. The platform can follow.

For teams exploring how to balance best AI sales tools with customer success workflows, or investigating deal intelligence capabilities that span both sales and CS, the future isn't about choosing sides - it's about choosing what delivers value fastest. Understanding how AI for sales calls extends into customer success conversations is part of this unified intelligence approach.