Churn Surveys: How to Use In-App Surveys to Reduce Churn
Discover what churn surveys are. Learn how to use churn surveys to improve retention.
There is an undeniable connection between growth and retention.
For one, it’s impossible to generate positive growth when users continue to churn. But it’s also equally impossible to improve retention without understanding what made them want to leave your app in the first place.
In other words, understanding why users churn is the most critical step in improving retention.
In this guide, we’ll show you exactly how to do it with a wonderful strategy called churn surveys.
We’ll cover what churn surveys are, look at some examples of churn surveys, and see how other SaaS brands use them to reduce churn. And finally, we’ll show you how to create a churn survey from scratch.
It’s a lot to cover so, let’s get right to it.
What is a Churn Survey, Exactly?
When we talk about churn surveys, we typically refer to a short questionnaire that you display when a customer cancels their subscription or account to uncover their reasoning for leaving.
Churn surveys typically use a multiple-choice question, and allow the person to answer by selecting the most appropriate answer from a predefined list.
Here’s an example of a simple churn survey listing the most common reasons for canceling a subscription.
(Churn survey example created with 1Flow)
As the above definition already explained, the churn survey triggers automatically when a person decides to cancel. In most cases, it is triggered once the person completes the steps in the cancellation process.
Commonly, pressing a button like this initiates the cancellation process.
The process might be simple or include several steps, including a one-time offer to prevent cancellation.
Nonetheless, there is the last element in which a person confirms their desire to leave and finishes the process. This is usually when a company presents them with a churn survey and asks for the reasons for the cancellation.
For that reason - the survey being the last step added at the end of the cancellation process - the survey uses a simple, multiple-choice format.
It’s hard to imagine a person wanting to write a lengthy explanation why they’re leaving.
It’s easier to assume that at least some will select a relevant reason from a list.
But what does running churn surveys get you, really?
Benefits of launching churn surveys
For one, thanks to churn surveys, you can understand why customers leave. In fact, there is no better way to uncover that main, big reason that made someone decide to cancel their subscription.
Churn surveys provide you with a first-hand account of product issues that triggered the decision to cancel. True, for some users, the reason might have been the cost. But for many, it could have been something to do with your product. By including those options in the survey question, you can uncover where your product might be falling short.
For example, here’s a churn survey featuring three product-related questions.
Granted, all three are generic and only help to highlight the product as the main issue for cancellation.
Tip: Use survey logic to trigger follow-up questions asking for more details from users who have selected any of the product-related questions as their reasons for churn.
(An example of survey logic that displays a follow-up question to anyone who answered “Missing functionality” to the original churn question.)
Subscription cancellation surveys also help you learn what you could have done differently to change their minds. For example, our churn survey template features a follow-up question that helps reveal just that.
Finally, churn surveys provide invaluable knowledge to help you proactively fix issues and make the product more enticing for customers to keep on using month after month after month.
Again, this happens because you get to discover why customers leave directly from them.
None of that knowledge is based on assumptions.
It’s not what you think is causing the problem either.
It’s your users telling you what you could have done differently to keep them onboard.
Churn Surveys: Structure and Real-life Examples
In principle, a churn survey focuses on asking canceling users a single question. You can structure or write it in many different ways, of course. That said, the overall aim of the question remains pretty much always the same - To uncover why someone decided to cancel their subscription.
In our churn survey template, we wrote the question this way:
“What is the main reason for canceling your subscription?”
But of course, any variation of such a question would work. So, you could easily say:
Why did you decide to cancel your account/subscription?
What’s the main reason for your cancellation?
Could you tell us why you’re leaving?
What made you decide to cancel your subscription?
The key here is to keep the question short, and as simple to understand as possible.
This is for several reasons:
You are triggering the survey to someone who has just completed the cancellation process. They are no longer interested in your product or even emotionally invested in it. It’s safe to assume that they won’t want to spend too much time processing complex survey questions or choosing from a long list of available reasons (more on this in just a moment.)
You are also displaying the survey at an emotionally charging time. You have to assume that either of the following statements is true about the person:
They might be irritated because something hasn’t worked as they hoped it would in your product.
They put a lot of hope into your product’s ability to solve their problem, and are naturally disappointed.
They found a better solution, and thus, want to move over to using that product as soon as possible.
They might also feel relief. As cruel as it sounds, your product might have been a reason for stress or financial strain. The act of cancellation may feel like a big step towards eliminating those challenges.
Your survey pops up at the exact moment when the person just wants to be gone from your app. They have completed the cancellation process, and consider their relationship with your product over.
For those reasons, and more, your churn survey has to be short, clear, and to the point.
Ideally, your survey should include only the most common or generic reasons for churning. This way, the person won’t have to spend too much time selecting the option that applies to them the most.
Here are some suggestions for the most common reasons to include in the churn survey:
High cost or financial constraints
Lack of features
Better alternatives available
Technical or product issues/bugs
Changing business/usage needs
Poor performance
Not using the product enough to justify the expense
Tip: It’s often difficult to write a clear and on-target list of potential reasons for cancellation. So, start with more generic reasons. Then, keep on refining the list based on the answers you receive, and what information churned users share in follow-up answers.
Speaking of follow-up questions…
What other information could you collect with churn surveys?
Follow-up survey questions are exactly that - Questions you ask after the person answered the primary survey question to dive deeper into their answers. They’re, usually, open-ended questions that allow a person to explain the reasoning behind their original reply or provide an explanation as to their choice (for rating or multiple-choice questions, for example.)
These follow-up questions can range from a simple “Anything else that you’d like to tell us?” to a detailed request for information.
(Note - We’ve included several examples of follow-up questions below.)
How to trigger follow-up questions in a churn survey?
An important thing to remember about follow-up questions is that you don’t trigger them for every user. Instead, your questions should flow naturally from the primary survey question, and a relevant reply.
This way, you’re ensuring that only the most relevant users will see a specific follow-up.
This will also make the survey shorter for users, ensuring a higher response rate.
You trigger those questions by using a survey skip logic.
Survey skip logic is a feature that allows you to specify what happens after a person has responded to the primary question. Survey logic uses a simple “if/then” format, in which you specify an action to occur after a particular response.
Let’s use our previous churn survey example to illustrate this. Here’s the primary question along with several answers.
With a survey skip logic, you could specify different follow-up questions based on each of those replies.
The logic format would look like this:
If a user replied with “ANSWER”, display a question “FOLLOW UP.”
For example, if the user selected “I found a different solution” as the answer, you could ask them which of your competitors they moved to.
The skip logic in this case would look like this:
What follow-up questions to ask in churn surveys?
Naturally, what questions you ask will largely depend on the options you’ve included in the primary churn survey question. That said, there are certain universal questions that you could include regardless of the options listed in the multiple-choice question. Here are just some of them:
What else could we have done to make you continue using the product?
Is there anything else that you would like to tell us?
What’s the one thing we could do to improve your experience?
If we addressed your concerns, how likely is it that you would consider resubscribing?
WANT TO LEARN MORE? Check out our list of 65+ best in-app survey questions.
How to Create a Churn Survey
Churn surveys work just like any other in-product surveys. They trigger the primary question based on a predefined set of triggers, and display follow-up questions based on the survey skip logic.
To create a new churn survey in 1Flow, our in-app survey platform for web and mobile apps, simply click “Create Survey” at the top of the screen.
From here on, you have two options.
You can create your churn survey manually from scratch.
Or you could use a predefined template. What’s more, 1Flow features not one but two ready-made templates for figuring out why your costumes are leaving.
By selecting either of the templates, you get instant access to a complete churn survey that you can customize to your specific needs.
Our ready-made templates are the easiest way to get you started running churn surveys. They include all relevant questions along with survey skip logic.
This means that your biggest challenge with creating churn surveys lies in triggering them exactly at a point of cancellation.
Below is an overview of how you can do it using our in-app survey software, 1Flow.
First, this tutorial assumes that you already have an option for users to cancel their subscriptions. Typically, this is a button in settings that allows users to initiate the churn process.
The goal with churn surveys is to trigger it when someone clicks on that button.
Here’s how to set it up in 1Flow:
Set up the app to track an event “tapped_cancel_subscription” (or basically, the event that triggers when someone clicks the cancellation button.)
When a user confirms they are canceling, 1Flow will use the "open URL" action of the data logic feature to open the URL to the churn survey conditionally.
How is open URL handled?
In web apps, you can redirect to an URL where you are handling the cancellation. SaaS apps, for example, often redirect cancellations to manage subscription portal or just handle the URL to cancel the plan.
For mobile apps, 1Flow handles "deep links" which can directly open the user's app store manage subscription setting menu to proceed with cancellation.
You can also redirect to open a help article showing user how to cancel this with the Apple / Google Play store.
Here’s video showing how one of 1Flow’s customers uses churn surveys in their app:
Best Practices for Running Churn Surveys
Churn surveys are amazing for understanding why customers leave, and identifying what to do to improve retention.
But they’re also quite challenging to run. A typical churn survey has quite a task to deliver, after all. It’s your way to uncover what aspects of the product to improve to ensure more customers continue using (and enjoying) it month after month.
So, to close off this guide, we decided to share with you some best practices to keep in mind as you set up and run churn surveys.
Possibly starting with the obvious but hugely important best practice to remember:
Keep your survey short. We’ve already discussed the emotions that your churning user might feel. Don’t add to it, if possible. Ask them about their reasons for leaving but don’t aggregate their feelings any further.
Trigger the survey exactly at the cancellation event. Sending it later may not generate many responses. Sending it too early, before the person has confirmed their desire to cancel might send a mixed message, too.
Always include the “Other” option in the list of choices. This will ensure that the person can provide custom feedback, if needed.
(“Other” option in the multiple-choice churn survey question.)
(The active state allows the person to provide feedback.)
Finally, have a way to segment responses by user personas or other attributes or app events history. This way, you can identify responses from the most valuable users that closely match your user personas, and avoid using the input from less ideal customers when improving retention.
After all, you want to retain the best users - People for whom you’ve built the product. People who experience the problem it solves. And people who could introduce it to others with similar needs.
By segmenting churn survey responses, you can uncover people whose words matter and spend your time wisely, fixing issues they brought up, and working towards retaining more similar users in the future.
TIP: 1Flow automatically links responses to user identity and provides you with a 360 profile of what customers have done and what they are saying about you, in one place.
1Flow also natively integrates with Mixpanel, Amplitude and Segment so that you have your survey data and analytics data together for further analysis.
How 1Flow Helps You Run Advanced Churn Surveys
We mentioned our product, 1Flow, several times throughout this guide, and we thought it’d be fitting to close off this guide with a short introduction of the product.
1Flow lets you create, run, and manage powerful in-app surveys and deliver in-app messaging to customers as they engage with your mobile apps, websites, and web apps.
1Flow seamlessly integrates with iOS, Android, React Native, Flutter, Google Tag Manager, JavaScript, and Shareable Link Surveys.
On top of that, we’ve enhanced 1Flow with the power of AI to help you quickly generate and analyze custom surveys based on goals and tone.
Are you planning to run churn surveys and would like to see how 1Flow could help? Check out the interactive demo or book a demo and let us walk you through everything that 1Flow could do for you.
There is an undeniable connection between growth and retention.
For one, it’s impossible to generate positive growth when users continue to churn. But it’s also equally impossible to improve retention without understanding what made them want to leave your app in the first place.
In other words, understanding why users churn is the most critical step in improving retention.
In this guide, we’ll show you exactly how to do it with a wonderful strategy called churn surveys.
We’ll cover what churn surveys are, look at some examples of churn surveys, and see how other SaaS brands use them to reduce churn. And finally, we’ll show you how to create a churn survey from scratch.
It’s a lot to cover so, let’s get right to it.
What is a Churn Survey, Exactly?
When we talk about churn surveys, we typically refer to a short questionnaire that you display when a customer cancels their subscription or account to uncover their reasoning for leaving.
Churn surveys typically use a multiple-choice question, and allow the person to answer by selecting the most appropriate answer from a predefined list.
Here’s an example of a simple churn survey listing the most common reasons for canceling a subscription.
(Churn survey example created with 1Flow)
As the above definition already explained, the churn survey triggers automatically when a person decides to cancel. In most cases, it is triggered once the person completes the steps in the cancellation process.
Commonly, pressing a button like this initiates the cancellation process.
The process might be simple or include several steps, including a one-time offer to prevent cancellation.
Nonetheless, there is the last element in which a person confirms their desire to leave and finishes the process. This is usually when a company presents them with a churn survey and asks for the reasons for the cancellation.
For that reason - the survey being the last step added at the end of the cancellation process - the survey uses a simple, multiple-choice format.
It’s hard to imagine a person wanting to write a lengthy explanation why they’re leaving.
It’s easier to assume that at least some will select a relevant reason from a list.
But what does running churn surveys get you, really?
Benefits of launching churn surveys
For one, thanks to churn surveys, you can understand why customers leave. In fact, there is no better way to uncover that main, big reason that made someone decide to cancel their subscription.
Churn surveys provide you with a first-hand account of product issues that triggered the decision to cancel. True, for some users, the reason might have been the cost. But for many, it could have been something to do with your product. By including those options in the survey question, you can uncover where your product might be falling short.
For example, here’s a churn survey featuring three product-related questions.
Granted, all three are generic and only help to highlight the product as the main issue for cancellation.
Tip: Use survey logic to trigger follow-up questions asking for more details from users who have selected any of the product-related questions as their reasons for churn.
(An example of survey logic that displays a follow-up question to anyone who answered “Missing functionality” to the original churn question.)
Subscription cancellation surveys also help you learn what you could have done differently to change their minds. For example, our churn survey template features a follow-up question that helps reveal just that.
Finally, churn surveys provide invaluable knowledge to help you proactively fix issues and make the product more enticing for customers to keep on using month after month after month.
Again, this happens because you get to discover why customers leave directly from them.
None of that knowledge is based on assumptions.
It’s not what you think is causing the problem either.
It’s your users telling you what you could have done differently to keep them onboard.
Churn Surveys: Structure and Real-life Examples
In principle, a churn survey focuses on asking canceling users a single question. You can structure or write it in many different ways, of course. That said, the overall aim of the question remains pretty much always the same - To uncover why someone decided to cancel their subscription.
In our churn survey template, we wrote the question this way:
“What is the main reason for canceling your subscription?”
But of course, any variation of such a question would work. So, you could easily say:
Why did you decide to cancel your account/subscription?
What’s the main reason for your cancellation?
Could you tell us why you’re leaving?
What made you decide to cancel your subscription?
The key here is to keep the question short, and as simple to understand as possible.
This is for several reasons:
You are triggering the survey to someone who has just completed the cancellation process. They are no longer interested in your product or even emotionally invested in it. It’s safe to assume that they won’t want to spend too much time processing complex survey questions or choosing from a long list of available reasons (more on this in just a moment.)
You are also displaying the survey at an emotionally charging time. You have to assume that either of the following statements is true about the person:
They might be irritated because something hasn’t worked as they hoped it would in your product.
They put a lot of hope into your product’s ability to solve their problem, and are naturally disappointed.
They found a better solution, and thus, want to move over to using that product as soon as possible.
They might also feel relief. As cruel as it sounds, your product might have been a reason for stress or financial strain. The act of cancellation may feel like a big step towards eliminating those challenges.
Your survey pops up at the exact moment when the person just wants to be gone from your app. They have completed the cancellation process, and consider their relationship with your product over.
For those reasons, and more, your churn survey has to be short, clear, and to the point.
Ideally, your survey should include only the most common or generic reasons for churning. This way, the person won’t have to spend too much time selecting the option that applies to them the most.
Here are some suggestions for the most common reasons to include in the churn survey:
High cost or financial constraints
Lack of features
Better alternatives available
Technical or product issues/bugs
Changing business/usage needs
Poor performance
Not using the product enough to justify the expense
Tip: It’s often difficult to write a clear and on-target list of potential reasons for cancellation. So, start with more generic reasons. Then, keep on refining the list based on the answers you receive, and what information churned users share in follow-up answers.
Speaking of follow-up questions…
What other information could you collect with churn surveys?
Follow-up survey questions are exactly that - Questions you ask after the person answered the primary survey question to dive deeper into their answers. They’re, usually, open-ended questions that allow a person to explain the reasoning behind their original reply or provide an explanation as to their choice (for rating or multiple-choice questions, for example.)
These follow-up questions can range from a simple “Anything else that you’d like to tell us?” to a detailed request for information.
(Note - We’ve included several examples of follow-up questions below.)
How to trigger follow-up questions in a churn survey?
An important thing to remember about follow-up questions is that you don’t trigger them for every user. Instead, your questions should flow naturally from the primary survey question, and a relevant reply.
This way, you’re ensuring that only the most relevant users will see a specific follow-up.
This will also make the survey shorter for users, ensuring a higher response rate.
You trigger those questions by using a survey skip logic.
Survey skip logic is a feature that allows you to specify what happens after a person has responded to the primary question. Survey logic uses a simple “if/then” format, in which you specify an action to occur after a particular response.
Let’s use our previous churn survey example to illustrate this. Here’s the primary question along with several answers.
With a survey skip logic, you could specify different follow-up questions based on each of those replies.
The logic format would look like this:
If a user replied with “ANSWER”, display a question “FOLLOW UP.”
For example, if the user selected “I found a different solution” as the answer, you could ask them which of your competitors they moved to.
The skip logic in this case would look like this:
What follow-up questions to ask in churn surveys?
Naturally, what questions you ask will largely depend on the options you’ve included in the primary churn survey question. That said, there are certain universal questions that you could include regardless of the options listed in the multiple-choice question. Here are just some of them:
What else could we have done to make you continue using the product?
Is there anything else that you would like to tell us?
What’s the one thing we could do to improve your experience?
If we addressed your concerns, how likely is it that you would consider resubscribing?
WANT TO LEARN MORE? Check out our list of 65+ best in-app survey questions.
How to Create a Churn Survey
Churn surveys work just like any other in-product surveys. They trigger the primary question based on a predefined set of triggers, and display follow-up questions based on the survey skip logic.
To create a new churn survey in 1Flow, our in-app survey platform for web and mobile apps, simply click “Create Survey” at the top of the screen.
From here on, you have two options.
You can create your churn survey manually from scratch.
Or you could use a predefined template. What’s more, 1Flow features not one but two ready-made templates for figuring out why your costumes are leaving.
By selecting either of the templates, you get instant access to a complete churn survey that you can customize to your specific needs.
Our ready-made templates are the easiest way to get you started running churn surveys. They include all relevant questions along with survey skip logic.
This means that your biggest challenge with creating churn surveys lies in triggering them exactly at a point of cancellation.
Below is an overview of how you can do it using our in-app survey software, 1Flow.
First, this tutorial assumes that you already have an option for users to cancel their subscriptions. Typically, this is a button in settings that allows users to initiate the churn process.
The goal with churn surveys is to trigger it when someone clicks on that button.
Here’s how to set it up in 1Flow:
Set up the app to track an event “tapped_cancel_subscription” (or basically, the event that triggers when someone clicks the cancellation button.)
When a user confirms they are canceling, 1Flow will use the "open URL" action of the data logic feature to open the URL to the churn survey conditionally.
How is open URL handled?
In web apps, you can redirect to an URL where you are handling the cancellation. SaaS apps, for example, often redirect cancellations to manage subscription portal or just handle the URL to cancel the plan.
For mobile apps, 1Flow handles "deep links" which can directly open the user's app store manage subscription setting menu to proceed with cancellation.
You can also redirect to open a help article showing user how to cancel this with the Apple / Google Play store.
Here’s video showing how one of 1Flow’s customers uses churn surveys in their app:
Best Practices for Running Churn Surveys
Churn surveys are amazing for understanding why customers leave, and identifying what to do to improve retention.
But they’re also quite challenging to run. A typical churn survey has quite a task to deliver, after all. It’s your way to uncover what aspects of the product to improve to ensure more customers continue using (and enjoying) it month after month.
So, to close off this guide, we decided to share with you some best practices to keep in mind as you set up and run churn surveys.
Possibly starting with the obvious but hugely important best practice to remember:
Keep your survey short. We’ve already discussed the emotions that your churning user might feel. Don’t add to it, if possible. Ask them about their reasons for leaving but don’t aggregate their feelings any further.
Trigger the survey exactly at the cancellation event. Sending it later may not generate many responses. Sending it too early, before the person has confirmed their desire to cancel might send a mixed message, too.
Always include the “Other” option in the list of choices. This will ensure that the person can provide custom feedback, if needed.
(“Other” option in the multiple-choice churn survey question.)
(The active state allows the person to provide feedback.)
Finally, have a way to segment responses by user personas or other attributes or app events history. This way, you can identify responses from the most valuable users that closely match your user personas, and avoid using the input from less ideal customers when improving retention.
After all, you want to retain the best users - People for whom you’ve built the product. People who experience the problem it solves. And people who could introduce it to others with similar needs.
By segmenting churn survey responses, you can uncover people whose words matter and spend your time wisely, fixing issues they brought up, and working towards retaining more similar users in the future.
TIP: 1Flow automatically links responses to user identity and provides you with a 360 profile of what customers have done and what they are saying about you, in one place.
1Flow also natively integrates with Mixpanel, Amplitude and Segment so that you have your survey data and analytics data together for further analysis.
How 1Flow Helps You Run Advanced Churn Surveys
We mentioned our product, 1Flow, several times throughout this guide, and we thought it’d be fitting to close off this guide with a short introduction of the product.
1Flow lets you create, run, and manage powerful in-app surveys and deliver in-app messaging to customers as they engage with your mobile apps, websites, and web apps.
1Flow seamlessly integrates with iOS, Android, React Native, Flutter, Google Tag Manager, JavaScript, and Shareable Link Surveys.
On top of that, we’ve enhanced 1Flow with the power of AI to help you quickly generate and analyze custom surveys based on goals and tone.
Are you planning to run churn surveys and would like to see how 1Flow could help? Check out the interactive demo or book a demo and let us walk you through everything that 1Flow could do for you.
There is an undeniable connection between growth and retention.
For one, it’s impossible to generate positive growth when users continue to churn. But it’s also equally impossible to improve retention without understanding what made them want to leave your app in the first place.
In other words, understanding why users churn is the most critical step in improving retention.
In this guide, we’ll show you exactly how to do it with a wonderful strategy called churn surveys.
We’ll cover what churn surveys are, look at some examples of churn surveys, and see how other SaaS brands use them to reduce churn. And finally, we’ll show you how to create a churn survey from scratch.
It’s a lot to cover so, let’s get right to it.
What is a Churn Survey, Exactly?
When we talk about churn surveys, we typically refer to a short questionnaire that you display when a customer cancels their subscription or account to uncover their reasoning for leaving.
Churn surveys typically use a multiple-choice question, and allow the person to answer by selecting the most appropriate answer from a predefined list.
Here’s an example of a simple churn survey listing the most common reasons for canceling a subscription.
(Churn survey example created with 1Flow)
As the above definition already explained, the churn survey triggers automatically when a person decides to cancel. In most cases, it is triggered once the person completes the steps in the cancellation process.
Commonly, pressing a button like this initiates the cancellation process.
The process might be simple or include several steps, including a one-time offer to prevent cancellation.
Nonetheless, there is the last element in which a person confirms their desire to leave and finishes the process. This is usually when a company presents them with a churn survey and asks for the reasons for the cancellation.
For that reason - the survey being the last step added at the end of the cancellation process - the survey uses a simple, multiple-choice format.
It’s hard to imagine a person wanting to write a lengthy explanation why they’re leaving.
It’s easier to assume that at least some will select a relevant reason from a list.
But what does running churn surveys get you, really?
Benefits of launching churn surveys
For one, thanks to churn surveys, you can understand why customers leave. In fact, there is no better way to uncover that main, big reason that made someone decide to cancel their subscription.
Churn surveys provide you with a first-hand account of product issues that triggered the decision to cancel. True, for some users, the reason might have been the cost. But for many, it could have been something to do with your product. By including those options in the survey question, you can uncover where your product might be falling short.
For example, here’s a churn survey featuring three product-related questions.
Granted, all three are generic and only help to highlight the product as the main issue for cancellation.
Tip: Use survey logic to trigger follow-up questions asking for more details from users who have selected any of the product-related questions as their reasons for churn.
(An example of survey logic that displays a follow-up question to anyone who answered “Missing functionality” to the original churn question.)
Subscription cancellation surveys also help you learn what you could have done differently to change their minds. For example, our churn survey template features a follow-up question that helps reveal just that.
Finally, churn surveys provide invaluable knowledge to help you proactively fix issues and make the product more enticing for customers to keep on using month after month after month.
Again, this happens because you get to discover why customers leave directly from them.
None of that knowledge is based on assumptions.
It’s not what you think is causing the problem either.
It’s your users telling you what you could have done differently to keep them onboard.
Churn Surveys: Structure and Real-life Examples
In principle, a churn survey focuses on asking canceling users a single question. You can structure or write it in many different ways, of course. That said, the overall aim of the question remains pretty much always the same - To uncover why someone decided to cancel their subscription.
In our churn survey template, we wrote the question this way:
“What is the main reason for canceling your subscription?”
But of course, any variation of such a question would work. So, you could easily say:
Why did you decide to cancel your account/subscription?
What’s the main reason for your cancellation?
Could you tell us why you’re leaving?
What made you decide to cancel your subscription?
The key here is to keep the question short, and as simple to understand as possible.
This is for several reasons:
You are triggering the survey to someone who has just completed the cancellation process. They are no longer interested in your product or even emotionally invested in it. It’s safe to assume that they won’t want to spend too much time processing complex survey questions or choosing from a long list of available reasons (more on this in just a moment.)
You are also displaying the survey at an emotionally charging time. You have to assume that either of the following statements is true about the person:
They might be irritated because something hasn’t worked as they hoped it would in your product.
They put a lot of hope into your product’s ability to solve their problem, and are naturally disappointed.
They found a better solution, and thus, want to move over to using that product as soon as possible.
They might also feel relief. As cruel as it sounds, your product might have been a reason for stress or financial strain. The act of cancellation may feel like a big step towards eliminating those challenges.
Your survey pops up at the exact moment when the person just wants to be gone from your app. They have completed the cancellation process, and consider their relationship with your product over.
For those reasons, and more, your churn survey has to be short, clear, and to the point.
Ideally, your survey should include only the most common or generic reasons for churning. This way, the person won’t have to spend too much time selecting the option that applies to them the most.
Here are some suggestions for the most common reasons to include in the churn survey:
High cost or financial constraints
Lack of features
Better alternatives available
Technical or product issues/bugs
Changing business/usage needs
Poor performance
Not using the product enough to justify the expense
Tip: It’s often difficult to write a clear and on-target list of potential reasons for cancellation. So, start with more generic reasons. Then, keep on refining the list based on the answers you receive, and what information churned users share in follow-up answers.
Speaking of follow-up questions…
What other information could you collect with churn surveys?
Follow-up survey questions are exactly that - Questions you ask after the person answered the primary survey question to dive deeper into their answers. They’re, usually, open-ended questions that allow a person to explain the reasoning behind their original reply or provide an explanation as to their choice (for rating or multiple-choice questions, for example.)
These follow-up questions can range from a simple “Anything else that you’d like to tell us?” to a detailed request for information.
(Note - We’ve included several examples of follow-up questions below.)
How to trigger follow-up questions in a churn survey?
An important thing to remember about follow-up questions is that you don’t trigger them for every user. Instead, your questions should flow naturally from the primary survey question, and a relevant reply.
This way, you’re ensuring that only the most relevant users will see a specific follow-up.
This will also make the survey shorter for users, ensuring a higher response rate.
You trigger those questions by using a survey skip logic.
Survey skip logic is a feature that allows you to specify what happens after a person has responded to the primary question. Survey logic uses a simple “if/then” format, in which you specify an action to occur after a particular response.
Let’s use our previous churn survey example to illustrate this. Here’s the primary question along with several answers.
With a survey skip logic, you could specify different follow-up questions based on each of those replies.
The logic format would look like this:
If a user replied with “ANSWER”, display a question “FOLLOW UP.”
For example, if the user selected “I found a different solution” as the answer, you could ask them which of your competitors they moved to.
The skip logic in this case would look like this:
What follow-up questions to ask in churn surveys?
Naturally, what questions you ask will largely depend on the options you’ve included in the primary churn survey question. That said, there are certain universal questions that you could include regardless of the options listed in the multiple-choice question. Here are just some of them:
What else could we have done to make you continue using the product?
Is there anything else that you would like to tell us?
What’s the one thing we could do to improve your experience?
If we addressed your concerns, how likely is it that you would consider resubscribing?
WANT TO LEARN MORE? Check out our list of 65+ best in-app survey questions.
How to Create a Churn Survey
Churn surveys work just like any other in-product surveys. They trigger the primary question based on a predefined set of triggers, and display follow-up questions based on the survey skip logic.
To create a new churn survey in 1Flow, our in-app survey platform for web and mobile apps, simply click “Create Survey” at the top of the screen.
From here on, you have two options.
You can create your churn survey manually from scratch.
Or you could use a predefined template. What’s more, 1Flow features not one but two ready-made templates for figuring out why your costumes are leaving.
By selecting either of the templates, you get instant access to a complete churn survey that you can customize to your specific needs.
Our ready-made templates are the easiest way to get you started running churn surveys. They include all relevant questions along with survey skip logic.
This means that your biggest challenge with creating churn surveys lies in triggering them exactly at a point of cancellation.
Below is an overview of how you can do it using our in-app survey software, 1Flow.
First, this tutorial assumes that you already have an option for users to cancel their subscriptions. Typically, this is a button in settings that allows users to initiate the churn process.
The goal with churn surveys is to trigger it when someone clicks on that button.
Here’s how to set it up in 1Flow:
Set up the app to track an event “tapped_cancel_subscription” (or basically, the event that triggers when someone clicks the cancellation button.)
When a user confirms they are canceling, 1Flow will use the "open URL" action of the data logic feature to open the URL to the churn survey conditionally.
How is open URL handled?
In web apps, you can redirect to an URL where you are handling the cancellation. SaaS apps, for example, often redirect cancellations to manage subscription portal or just handle the URL to cancel the plan.
For mobile apps, 1Flow handles "deep links" which can directly open the user's app store manage subscription setting menu to proceed with cancellation.
You can also redirect to open a help article showing user how to cancel this with the Apple / Google Play store.
Here’s video showing how one of 1Flow’s customers uses churn surveys in their app:
Best Practices for Running Churn Surveys
Churn surveys are amazing for understanding why customers leave, and identifying what to do to improve retention.
But they’re also quite challenging to run. A typical churn survey has quite a task to deliver, after all. It’s your way to uncover what aspects of the product to improve to ensure more customers continue using (and enjoying) it month after month.
So, to close off this guide, we decided to share with you some best practices to keep in mind as you set up and run churn surveys.
Possibly starting with the obvious but hugely important best practice to remember:
Keep your survey short. We’ve already discussed the emotions that your churning user might feel. Don’t add to it, if possible. Ask them about their reasons for leaving but don’t aggregate their feelings any further.
Trigger the survey exactly at the cancellation event. Sending it later may not generate many responses. Sending it too early, before the person has confirmed their desire to cancel might send a mixed message, too.
Always include the “Other” option in the list of choices. This will ensure that the person can provide custom feedback, if needed.
(“Other” option in the multiple-choice churn survey question.)
(The active state allows the person to provide feedback.)
Finally, have a way to segment responses by user personas or other attributes or app events history. This way, you can identify responses from the most valuable users that closely match your user personas, and avoid using the input from less ideal customers when improving retention.
After all, you want to retain the best users - People for whom you’ve built the product. People who experience the problem it solves. And people who could introduce it to others with similar needs.
By segmenting churn survey responses, you can uncover people whose words matter and spend your time wisely, fixing issues they brought up, and working towards retaining more similar users in the future.
TIP: 1Flow automatically links responses to user identity and provides you with a 360 profile of what customers have done and what they are saying about you, in one place.
1Flow also natively integrates with Mixpanel, Amplitude and Segment so that you have your survey data and analytics data together for further analysis.
How 1Flow Helps You Run Advanced Churn Surveys
We mentioned our product, 1Flow, several times throughout this guide, and we thought it’d be fitting to close off this guide with a short introduction of the product.
1Flow lets you create, run, and manage powerful in-app surveys and deliver in-app messaging to customers as they engage with your mobile apps, websites, and web apps.
1Flow seamlessly integrates with iOS, Android, React Native, Flutter, Google Tag Manager, JavaScript, and Shareable Link Surveys.
On top of that, we’ve enhanced 1Flow with the power of AI to help you quickly generate and analyze custom surveys based on goals and tone.
Are you planning to run churn surveys and would like to see how 1Flow could help? Check out the interactive demo or book a demo and let us walk you through everything that 1Flow could do for you.
There is an undeniable connection between growth and retention.
For one, it’s impossible to generate positive growth when users continue to churn. But it’s also equally impossible to improve retention without understanding what made them want to leave your app in the first place.
In other words, understanding why users churn is the most critical step in improving retention.
In this guide, we’ll show you exactly how to do it with a wonderful strategy called churn surveys.
We’ll cover what churn surveys are, look at some examples of churn surveys, and see how other SaaS brands use them to reduce churn. And finally, we’ll show you how to create a churn survey from scratch.
It’s a lot to cover so, let’s get right to it.
What is a Churn Survey, Exactly?
When we talk about churn surveys, we typically refer to a short questionnaire that you display when a customer cancels their subscription or account to uncover their reasoning for leaving.
Churn surveys typically use a multiple-choice question, and allow the person to answer by selecting the most appropriate answer from a predefined list.
Here’s an example of a simple churn survey listing the most common reasons for canceling a subscription.
(Churn survey example created with 1Flow)
As the above definition already explained, the churn survey triggers automatically when a person decides to cancel. In most cases, it is triggered once the person completes the steps in the cancellation process.
Commonly, pressing a button like this initiates the cancellation process.
The process might be simple or include several steps, including a one-time offer to prevent cancellation.
Nonetheless, there is the last element in which a person confirms their desire to leave and finishes the process. This is usually when a company presents them with a churn survey and asks for the reasons for the cancellation.
For that reason - the survey being the last step added at the end of the cancellation process - the survey uses a simple, multiple-choice format.
It’s hard to imagine a person wanting to write a lengthy explanation why they’re leaving.
It’s easier to assume that at least some will select a relevant reason from a list.
But what does running churn surveys get you, really?
Benefits of launching churn surveys
For one, thanks to churn surveys, you can understand why customers leave. In fact, there is no better way to uncover that main, big reason that made someone decide to cancel their subscription.
Churn surveys provide you with a first-hand account of product issues that triggered the decision to cancel. True, for some users, the reason might have been the cost. But for many, it could have been something to do with your product. By including those options in the survey question, you can uncover where your product might be falling short.
For example, here’s a churn survey featuring three product-related questions.
Granted, all three are generic and only help to highlight the product as the main issue for cancellation.
Tip: Use survey logic to trigger follow-up questions asking for more details from users who have selected any of the product-related questions as their reasons for churn.
(An example of survey logic that displays a follow-up question to anyone who answered “Missing functionality” to the original churn question.)
Subscription cancellation surveys also help you learn what you could have done differently to change their minds. For example, our churn survey template features a follow-up question that helps reveal just that.
Finally, churn surveys provide invaluable knowledge to help you proactively fix issues and make the product more enticing for customers to keep on using month after month after month.
Again, this happens because you get to discover why customers leave directly from them.
None of that knowledge is based on assumptions.
It’s not what you think is causing the problem either.
It’s your users telling you what you could have done differently to keep them onboard.
Churn Surveys: Structure and Real-life Examples
In principle, a churn survey focuses on asking canceling users a single question. You can structure or write it in many different ways, of course. That said, the overall aim of the question remains pretty much always the same - To uncover why someone decided to cancel their subscription.
In our churn survey template, we wrote the question this way:
“What is the main reason for canceling your subscription?”
But of course, any variation of such a question would work. So, you could easily say:
Why did you decide to cancel your account/subscription?
What’s the main reason for your cancellation?
Could you tell us why you’re leaving?
What made you decide to cancel your subscription?
The key here is to keep the question short, and as simple to understand as possible.
This is for several reasons:
You are triggering the survey to someone who has just completed the cancellation process. They are no longer interested in your product or even emotionally invested in it. It’s safe to assume that they won’t want to spend too much time processing complex survey questions or choosing from a long list of available reasons (more on this in just a moment.)
You are also displaying the survey at an emotionally charging time. You have to assume that either of the following statements is true about the person:
They might be irritated because something hasn’t worked as they hoped it would in your product.
They put a lot of hope into your product’s ability to solve their problem, and are naturally disappointed.
They found a better solution, and thus, want to move over to using that product as soon as possible.
They might also feel relief. As cruel as it sounds, your product might have been a reason for stress or financial strain. The act of cancellation may feel like a big step towards eliminating those challenges.
Your survey pops up at the exact moment when the person just wants to be gone from your app. They have completed the cancellation process, and consider their relationship with your product over.
For those reasons, and more, your churn survey has to be short, clear, and to the point.
Ideally, your survey should include only the most common or generic reasons for churning. This way, the person won’t have to spend too much time selecting the option that applies to them the most.
Here are some suggestions for the most common reasons to include in the churn survey:
High cost or financial constraints
Lack of features
Better alternatives available
Technical or product issues/bugs
Changing business/usage needs
Poor performance
Not using the product enough to justify the expense
Tip: It’s often difficult to write a clear and on-target list of potential reasons for cancellation. So, start with more generic reasons. Then, keep on refining the list based on the answers you receive, and what information churned users share in follow-up answers.
Speaking of follow-up questions…
What other information could you collect with churn surveys?
Follow-up survey questions are exactly that - Questions you ask after the person answered the primary survey question to dive deeper into their answers. They’re, usually, open-ended questions that allow a person to explain the reasoning behind their original reply or provide an explanation as to their choice (for rating or multiple-choice questions, for example.)
These follow-up questions can range from a simple “Anything else that you’d like to tell us?” to a detailed request for information.
(Note - We’ve included several examples of follow-up questions below.)
How to trigger follow-up questions in a churn survey?
An important thing to remember about follow-up questions is that you don’t trigger them for every user. Instead, your questions should flow naturally from the primary survey question, and a relevant reply.
This way, you’re ensuring that only the most relevant users will see a specific follow-up.
This will also make the survey shorter for users, ensuring a higher response rate.
You trigger those questions by using a survey skip logic.
Survey skip logic is a feature that allows you to specify what happens after a person has responded to the primary question. Survey logic uses a simple “if/then” format, in which you specify an action to occur after a particular response.
Let’s use our previous churn survey example to illustrate this. Here’s the primary question along with several answers.
With a survey skip logic, you could specify different follow-up questions based on each of those replies.
The logic format would look like this:
If a user replied with “ANSWER”, display a question “FOLLOW UP.”
For example, if the user selected “I found a different solution” as the answer, you could ask them which of your competitors they moved to.
The skip logic in this case would look like this:
What follow-up questions to ask in churn surveys?
Naturally, what questions you ask will largely depend on the options you’ve included in the primary churn survey question. That said, there are certain universal questions that you could include regardless of the options listed in the multiple-choice question. Here are just some of them:
What else could we have done to make you continue using the product?
Is there anything else that you would like to tell us?
What’s the one thing we could do to improve your experience?
If we addressed your concerns, how likely is it that you would consider resubscribing?
WANT TO LEARN MORE? Check out our list of 65+ best in-app survey questions.
How to Create a Churn Survey
Churn surveys work just like any other in-product surveys. They trigger the primary question based on a predefined set of triggers, and display follow-up questions based on the survey skip logic.
To create a new churn survey in 1Flow, our in-app survey platform for web and mobile apps, simply click “Create Survey” at the top of the screen.
From here on, you have two options.
You can create your churn survey manually from scratch.
Or you could use a predefined template. What’s more, 1Flow features not one but two ready-made templates for figuring out why your costumes are leaving.
By selecting either of the templates, you get instant access to a complete churn survey that you can customize to your specific needs.
Our ready-made templates are the easiest way to get you started running churn surveys. They include all relevant questions along with survey skip logic.
This means that your biggest challenge with creating churn surveys lies in triggering them exactly at a point of cancellation.
Below is an overview of how you can do it using our in-app survey software, 1Flow.
First, this tutorial assumes that you already have an option for users to cancel their subscriptions. Typically, this is a button in settings that allows users to initiate the churn process.
The goal with churn surveys is to trigger it when someone clicks on that button.
Here’s how to set it up in 1Flow:
Set up the app to track an event “tapped_cancel_subscription” (or basically, the event that triggers when someone clicks the cancellation button.)
When a user confirms they are canceling, 1Flow will use the "open URL" action of the data logic feature to open the URL to the churn survey conditionally.
How is open URL handled?
In web apps, you can redirect to an URL where you are handling the cancellation. SaaS apps, for example, often redirect cancellations to manage subscription portal or just handle the URL to cancel the plan.
For mobile apps, 1Flow handles "deep links" which can directly open the user's app store manage subscription setting menu to proceed with cancellation.
You can also redirect to open a help article showing user how to cancel this with the Apple / Google Play store.
Here’s video showing how one of 1Flow’s customers uses churn surveys in their app:
Best Practices for Running Churn Surveys
Churn surveys are amazing for understanding why customers leave, and identifying what to do to improve retention.
But they’re also quite challenging to run. A typical churn survey has quite a task to deliver, after all. It’s your way to uncover what aspects of the product to improve to ensure more customers continue using (and enjoying) it month after month.
So, to close off this guide, we decided to share with you some best practices to keep in mind as you set up and run churn surveys.
Possibly starting with the obvious but hugely important best practice to remember:
Keep your survey short. We’ve already discussed the emotions that your churning user might feel. Don’t add to it, if possible. Ask them about their reasons for leaving but don’t aggregate their feelings any further.
Trigger the survey exactly at the cancellation event. Sending it later may not generate many responses. Sending it too early, before the person has confirmed their desire to cancel might send a mixed message, too.
Always include the “Other” option in the list of choices. This will ensure that the person can provide custom feedback, if needed.
(“Other” option in the multiple-choice churn survey question.)
(The active state allows the person to provide feedback.)
Finally, have a way to segment responses by user personas or other attributes or app events history. This way, you can identify responses from the most valuable users that closely match your user personas, and avoid using the input from less ideal customers when improving retention.
After all, you want to retain the best users - People for whom you’ve built the product. People who experience the problem it solves. And people who could introduce it to others with similar needs.
By segmenting churn survey responses, you can uncover people whose words matter and spend your time wisely, fixing issues they brought up, and working towards retaining more similar users in the future.
TIP: 1Flow automatically links responses to user identity and provides you with a 360 profile of what customers have done and what they are saying about you, in one place.
1Flow also natively integrates with Mixpanel, Amplitude and Segment so that you have your survey data and analytics data together for further analysis.
How 1Flow Helps You Run Advanced Churn Surveys
We mentioned our product, 1Flow, several times throughout this guide, and we thought it’d be fitting to close off this guide with a short introduction of the product.
1Flow lets you create, run, and manage powerful in-app surveys and deliver in-app messaging to customers as they engage with your mobile apps, websites, and web apps.
1Flow seamlessly integrates with iOS, Android, React Native, Flutter, Google Tag Manager, JavaScript, and Shareable Link Surveys.
On top of that, we’ve enhanced 1Flow with the power of AI to help you quickly generate and analyze custom surveys based on goals and tone.
Are you planning to run churn surveys and would like to see how 1Flow could help? Check out the interactive demo or book a demo and let us walk you through everything that 1Flow could do for you.
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