Customer cancellation and retention strategies

When a customer chooses to cancel, you can present a list of customized cancellation options. To reduce churn, you can also provide incentives to encourage customers to remain subscribed. This guide provides an overview of the Customer Retention Strategy feature, how to create and manage cancellation reasons, and how to create incentive options for your customers.

Watch a video

Enable Customer Retention Strategies for your customers

1. In the Recharge Dashboard, click the wrench icon and select Customer portal.
2. Within the Subscription Cancellation section, select Storeowner and Customer from the Cancel Subscription dropdown menu.
3. In the form below, indicate the contact email for your store. You can also specify how many charges must process before a customer is given the ability to cancel.
4. Under Cancellation and Customer Retention, you can add cancellation reasons using the Add reason for cancellation and modify existing cancellation reasons by clicking into any of them.

Manage Customer Retention Strategies

Once you have enabled the feature, you can begin creating cancellation reasons and incentives. Start by clicking the Add reason for cancellation.

You can then enter in your cancellation reason on the next page. In addition, you can add a customized description for the cancellation reason or incentive you are offering. You can also choose whether customers will receive an incentive or not.

Once your cancellation reason is created, you can modify cancellation reasons at any time by clicking on them. To delete a cancellation reason, click the trash bin icon.

Offer incentives

When setting up a cancellation reason, you can select the Offer an incentive for customer to continue subscription radio button to create a call-to-action. 

Customers will then be presented with an incentive option anytime they attempt to cancel their subscription.

Apply discount

If a customer selects a cancellation with a discount option, a discount code will be offered to the customer. If they choose to apply the discount code, it will be applied to their next order.

To set up an Apply discount call-to-action.

1. Create a discount code in Recharge.
2. Once the discount code has been created, select the Apply discount radio button and enter the discount code in the Discount code field.
   
3. Click Save.

Once the customer has accepted the discount and it’s applied to their account, the discount code will override any discount currently applied to the subscription. Additionally, the incentive discount code applied will be visible to the customer in the Customer Portal. You can create a specific incentive discount code and configure this code to only apply to the next charge.

Skip Next Charge

The Skip Next Charge incentive is useful when customers are cancelling because they have too much product. This incentive works like the skip option on the Delivery Schedule page by allowing customers to skip their next order date.

To create a Skip next charge call-to-action:

1. Select the Skip next charge radio button.
2. Click Save.

Delay subscription

Another option for when a customer has too much product or will be away is to set up a subscription delay. This incentive uses the frequency from the product's ruleset to offer delay options to the customer.

To create a Delay subscription call-to-action:

1. Select the Delay subscription radio button.
2. Click Save.

Swap product

The Swap product incentive works the same as the Swap link accessible in the Customer Portal. It allows customers to choose a new product and stay subscribed instead of canceling.

To set up a Swap product call-to-action:

1. Select the Swap product radio button.
2. Click Save.

No incentive

If no retention incentive is offered, a comment box will be displayed along with a custom message.

View the cancellation reasons

Within the Customer Portal, customers will be presented cancellation reasons after selecting Cancel.

Analyze your data

You can download the Subscription - Cancelled report to view customer cancellation reasons.

1. In the Recharge Dashboard, click the wrench icon.
2. Select Create exports.
3. Choose Subscription - Cancelled from the dropdown menu.
4. Add a name to your report, and the email address where the report should be sent to.
5. Select Create export.

The export will be emailed to you when created. You can also go back to the Export page to download a copy of the export you created. Select the download icon under Actions to complete the download.

FAQ

Can I reorder my cancellation reasons?

At the moment, cancellation reasons cannot be reordered. You will need to delete and recreate the cancellation reasons in the desired order.

Can I limit customers from cancelling before a certain number of charges?

Yes. Under the Subscription cancellation section in the Customer Portal settings, you can set the number of charges that will need to occur before a customer is given the link to cancel.