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Reduce churn by asking customers why they're leaving

Never let a customer go without asking why they're leaving. This simple and oft-overlooked action reduces churn rates — big time.

While most users won't take the time to tell you why they're leaving, the insights you do gain will be worth their weight in gold. Alex Turnbull of Groove ($500,000/mo) reduced churn by a whopping 71% by sending an email to customers when they canceled or didn't upgrade their subscriptions. The ask was simple: "What could we have done better to keep you as a customer?" Patterns regarding why people left soon emerged and Alex was able to identify what needed to be immediately addressed, thus dramatically reducing churn.

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  1. 4

    We've seen the same with SendView.io, and you don't even have to ask why they're leaving. We just reach out to canceled trials to say "thanks" or to ask for "any feedback or advice". Just starting that conversation leads to folks saying things like "hey, sorry i had to cancel, i just needed some data so could pitch to my boss" or "i wasn't getting any data" which are things we can solve or help with or follow up on. In both those examples, they came back as paying users.

  2. 3

    We have a super simple Typeform on our cancellation flow. It’s been very helpful, and even ensures we can iterate on our product as people leave feedback.

    1. 2

      Can you share that? Thanks :)

  3. 2

    100% this is fantastic advice and can make all the difference.

    I've seen four main ways of doing this:

    1. Trigger a simple email to go out after they cancel
    2. Include a Typeform that asks a few questions and then manually process cancellations
    3. Trigger an Intercom/chat bot that asks why and then creates a ticket for someone to cancel their account
    4. Use Cancellation Insights (baremetrics.com/features/cancellation-insights) to survey customers in the cancellation process and then trigger an email if they don't leave a reason (sorry to toot our own horn... toot toot!)
  4. 2

    Seems like common sense to me...

    Does anyone not do this at all?

    I'd be very concerned whenever anyone churns.

  5. 2

    Really interesting. I have some people who recently canceled, I'll reach out to them and then post again here with my findings.

  6. 1

    This comment was deleted 4 years ago.

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