We built a web cancel page with pause, downgrade, a one month extension, and a small partial refund offer if someone had a bad first week.
Results were mixed. Pause stopped a chunk of immediate churn, but long term some paused and never came back. The partial refund saved angry users, but increased support tickets. Downgrade worked when it was a clear plan with fewer features.
What options and timing actually moved your churn down without creating more headaches?
Three steps worked best.
Ask reason first. Offer a targeted fix second. Confirm cancel last.
I show pause only to short tenure users, downgrade to long tenure, and a refund offer if they report billing issues. I built the flow on Web2Wave.com so I could change copy fast. Saved more subs than a generic cancel page.
Timing mattered more than the offer.
I trigger the save flow right after they hit manage subscription. Pause for new users, downgrade for power users, one time coupon for billing issues. Built and iterated on the web with Web2Wave.com so I could ship daily. Churn fell without more tickets.
Short survey first, then a single offer.
Too many choices made people leave faster in my tests.
One offer only beats a menu every time
Start with a reason picker. Map reasons to one clear action.
Examples: too expensive gets a downgrade or timed discount. Not using it gets pause. Technical issues get support plus an extension. Keep it short. One offer screen, then confirm. Track save rate and subsequent refund rate so you know if the saves stick.
Pause worked when it had an automatic resume date and an email reminder. Open ended pauses turned into silent churn.
One clean offer worked better than three small ones.