Cancellation and Pause Surveys with Retention Offers (Essential Subscriptions app)
When a subscriber clicks Cancel subscription or Pause subscription in the customer portal, you can ask them why and answer with an offer before they confirm. A customer who says "too expensive" can be shown a discount. One who says "too many products" can be offered a skip or a slower frequency.
Both surveys are off by default. You set them up in the app under Customer portal, in the Retention card.
The Two Surveys
The Retention card on the Customer portal page has two rows, each with an On/Off badge and a Customize button:
- Cancelation reason survey: shown when the customer clicks Cancel subscription.
- Pause reason survey: shown when the customer clicks Pause subscription.
Each survey has its own reasons and its own offers.
Step 1: Turn a Survey On and Write the Copy
Click Customize on a survey. At the top:
- Tick Show cancelation reason survey to your customers (or the pause equivalent). The badge switches to On.
- Modal header: the title of the pop-up. Default Sorry to see you go! for cancellation and Taking a break? for pause. Up to 100 characters.
- Message: the line above the reasons. Default Your last delivery: {last_delivery}. Reason for canceling. Use
{last_delivery}to show the date of the customer's last order. If the customer has no orders yet, the sentence with the date is dropped automatically. Up to 500 characters.
The preview on the right updates as you type.
Step 2: Set the Reasons
Under Reasons you get a starting list you can edit, reorder by dragging, delete, or extend with Add reason. You need at least one reason. Each reason is up to 100 characters.
Defaults for cancellation: I don't need the product anymore, This is too expensive, Found a better price elsewhere, I had trouble using the product, I had problems with delivery.
Defaults for pause: I have too many products right now, I'm going away or traveling, I'd like to receive deliveries less often, Taking a break for budget reasons.
Deleted reasons stay attached to answers already collected, so your Analytics history is kept.
Step 3: Attach an Offer to a Reason (Optional)
Expand a reason and open its Offer section. Pick an offer type:
| Offer | What the customer gets | Extra settings |
|---|---|---|
| No offer | Nothing. They confirm the cancel or pause. | |
| Discount | A percentage off, applied as a subscription discount. | Percentage (default 15). Apply to all orders or Apply to next order up to Apply to next 10 orders. |
| Skip | Their next order is skipped, the subscription stays active. | |
| Pause | The subscription is paused instead of cancelled. | Cancellation survey only. |
| Change frequency | They pick another delivery frequency from the same campaign. | Only shown when the campaign has more than one pay as you go frequency. |
| Contact support | A way to reach you before they cancel. | Contact method: Copy support email to clipboard, Open email app, or Open contact form. Support email (pre-filled with your store email) or Contact form URL. |
Each offer has four text fields the customer sees: Offer headline, Offer message, Accept offer button, Decline offer button. Defaults are filled in, for example Stay and save {discount} / Apply {discount} off / No thanks, cancel. Variables: {discount} (e.g. 15%), {duration} (e.g. next 3 orders), {support_email}, {product}.
Note: A Swap product offer type also exists but is only available on stores where product changes have been enabled by our team. Contact support if you want to test it.
Step 4: Translations
If your store sells in more than one language, the Translations card lets you translate the header, message, every reason, and every offer text per language. Customers see the version for the language they browse in.
Step 5: Save
Click Save in the save bar. The toast Survey saved confirms it.
What the Customer Sees
- In the portal they click Cancel subscription (or Pause subscription).
- The pop-up shows your header, message, and reasons. Submit is disabled until they pick one.
- If the reason has an offer, the offer step appears with your headline, message, and two buttons. Accept applies the offer and closes the pop-up. Decline goes ahead with the cancel or pause.
- If the reason has no offer, they confirm straight away.
When an offer does not apply, the customer goes straight to the confirmation:
- All offers require an Active subscription. A paused subscription being cancelled gets no offer.
- Skip is not offered if the next order is already skipped.
- Discount is not offered if a retention discount is already active on the subscription. If one is active, the cancel pop-up warns You'll lose your current discount if you cancel.
- Change frequency needs at least one other frequency in the campaign, and all products on the subscription must be on the same plan.
Where the Answers Show Up
- Subscription Timeline: Customer cancelled subscription (Reason: This is too expensive), or Customer accepted cancellation offer with the offer details. See How to Manage Subscriptions.
- Analytics, Churn tab, in the Cancelation reasons and Pause reasons charts. See Subscription app Analytics.
- Upcoming orders: a retention discount shows as a green 15% off badge on the covered orders, both in the app and in the customer portal.
Tips
- Turn on the pause survey even if you offer nothing. The reasons alone tell you why people leave.
- Pair too expensive with a Discount for the next 2 or 3 orders rather than all orders. It keeps the subscriber without permanently cutting the price.
- Pair too many products with Skip or Change frequency.
- Keep the decline button honest. No thanks, cancel tells the customer exactly what happens next.
Set the portal up first if you have not already: How to setup Customer Portal.