Cancellation survey best practices
A good cancellation survey asks one required question about why the customer is leaving, offers four to six scannable reasons plus one optional open field, and is shown at whichever moment matches what you plan to do with the answer.
Four rules that matter
Ask one required question, not five
A single required multiple-choice question, "What is your main reason for cancelling?", plus one optional open-text field, captures almost all of the signal. Every extra required question is another chance for someone to abandon the flow, and the person answering it has already decided to leave.
Keep the reason list short and scannable
Start with four to six options and cap it around eight to ten. Refine the list from what people actually type into the open field, rather than from what you imagine they might pick.
Time the survey to its purpose, and be honest that the two conflict
If the answer selects a retention offer, ask at cancel intent, because you cannot branch an offer on an answer you do not have yet. If you want pure exit research with no offer attached, ask after the cancellation is confirmed, where people answer more freely because nothing is riding on it. Both are correct for their own purpose. There is no single right moment, so pick the one that matches what you will do with the answer.
Act on the results, or do not collect them
Branch the offer on the reason: price gets a discount, too busy or temporary gets a pause, wrong plan gets a plan change, and a missing feature gets a roadmap note and a way to reach you. Then report save rate by reason, so the survey drives a decision instead of filling a dashboard.
A survey you can copy
This is the whole thing. One required question, six options, one optional field. If you are not sure where to start, start here and let the open-text answers tell you which option is missing.
Required: What is your main reason for cancelling? - Too expensive - Not using it enough - Missing a feature I need - Only needed it temporarily - Switching to another tool - Something else Optional: Anything you would want us to know?
Why one question
Every question you add costs you completions, and the person answering has already decided to leave. There is no goodwill left to spend on a second page of questions, and nothing you learn from question four will be worth the saves you lost getting there. One required question, one optional field, and nothing more.
Building one
If you bill on Stripe, AcornRetain does this: a branching cancellation survey shown in place when a subscriber clicks cancel, with the offer chosen by their answer and applied to the live Stripe subscription. Save rate and top cancel reasons are reported per app. The setup guide covers the whole path, and Test mode is unlimited on every plan, so you can run the survey end to end before a live subscriber sees it.
This is one tactic among several. The guide to reducing churn covers the rest.
Questions people ask
- What questions should a cancellation survey ask?
- One required question is enough: "What is your main reason for cancelling?" with four to six scannable options, plus one optional open-text field for whatever the options miss. Every extra required question costs you completions and saves, and the open field will tell you which options to add next, so start narrow and let the real answers widen it.
- When should you show a cancellation survey?
- It depends on what the survey is for. If the answer selects a retention offer, ask at the moment of cancel intent, because you cannot branch an offer on an answer you do not have yet. If you only want honest exit research and no offer is attached, ask after the cancellation is confirmed, where people answer more freely. The two goals point to different moments and there is no single right one.