Article · About a 10 minute read

How to build cancellation and exit surveys that reduce churn

Paddle · paddle.com Free Beginner

For the users who will never reply to an email or take a call, you need to catch a reason at the exact moment they cancel, and this piece gives you the actual questions to ask instead of guessing. It walks through open-ended cancellation prompts (what made you cancel, what could we have done differently) and why open text beats a tidy multiple-choice list. Treat it as a starting point for your first exit survey, then tighten it once real answers come in.

• Ask the cancel reason as an open text field, not fixed options, so you capture the reason you never thought to list.
• Rewording the same question a second way (what could we have done differently) pulls out detail people skip the first time.
• Keep it short and empathetic at the point of cancellation, since a long survey at an angry moment just gets abandoned.