Article · ~15 min read

How to Run a Customer Exit Survey to Improve Retention

Etienne Garbugli · Lean B2B Free Intermediate

The people who cancel are telling you exactly what is broken, and most founders never ask. This Lean B2B guide shows how to catch that signal at the moment of cancellation with a short, low friction survey, then go deeper with a switch interview to hear the real reason someone left. It comes with a usable template, so it is a starting point you can ship this week rather than just theory.

• Trigger the survey inside the cancellation flow itself, when the reason is fresh, and lead with one blunt question: the single biggest reason for canceling
• Segment the answers by plan, persona, and tenure, since a churn reason from a trial user rarely means the same thing as one from a two year customer
• A short survey tells you what happened, but a jobs to be done switch interview tells you why they moved, which is the part you can actually act on