Cancel Save — also known as voluntary churn mitigation — intercepts a customer's cancellation attempt and presents a tailored offer or survey to keep them subscribed. This guide walks you through building a Cancel/Save flow from setup to launch.

Available on all Recurly plans

ImportantConversions are significantly lower when using a redirect URL instead of 1-Click Actions.

1Definition 2Key benefits 3Key details 4Example 5Estimate your savings

Prerequisites

You must have Company, App Administrator, or App Member permissions in Recurly Engage.

Definition

Cancel Save — also known as voluntary churn mitigation — is a highly effective strategy for reducing cancellations. You can save up to 40% of your cancelling users with just this one flow. The idea is simple: intercept a customer's attempt to cancel their subscription, then present a tailored offer or resolution designed to keep them subscribed. That can range from a single offer to a full exit survey that serves different solutions based on the customer's stated reason for cancelling.

Key benefits

Reduced churn Present targeted offers at the exact moment a customer intends to cancel.

Improved satisfaction Give customers alternatives — a different plan, a temporary discount — instead of just letting them cancel.

Data-driven insights Capture feedback on why customers are leaving, and use it to sharpen your retention strategy.

Key details

Follow these steps to build a simple, effective Cancel/Save prompt.

NoteCombine this with 1-Click Actions for a significant reduction in cancellations and better customer satisfaction.

Step-by-step guide

Confirm your access

Make sure you're an active Recurly Engage user with Company, App Administrator, or App Member permissions.

Book a demo →

Log in to Recurly Engage

Access the Recurly Engage management console — known as Pulse — via Login. Pulse is your central interface for configuring applications, user traits, segments, prompts, guides, and integrations.

Activate 1-Click Actions

To use features like auto-applying a coupon, enable the connector for your billing platform (Recurly, Stripe, and others), then activate 1-Click Actions.

If you'd rather redirect users to an existing cancellation page on your site, specify that URL instead.
If your billing platform isn't one of the out-of-the-box options, you can still integrate it with API actions — see platform integration for details.

Create a Cancel Survey with Offers

This guide is a multi-step journey to re-engage customers who are trying to cancel.

Go to Guides in the main navigation.
Select the pre-configured Cancel Survey with Offers.

Review the guide data

The pre-configured guide opens to a dashboard showing its Segments, Limits, Status, Schedule, and any Daypart settings, plus a chart of Users, Clicks, and Conversion Rate. Edit these to fit your customized guide.

Set up your prompt

Select the Cancellation Reasons Survey from the guide.

Add your trigger

In the Details section, set your trigger — the CSS selector on your site that fires the prompt when clicked. Since the Cancel Survey flow follows the user's interactions, you only need a trigger on the first prompt.

For example: the cancellation survey prompt fires when the user clicks the "Cancel Subscription" button.

Set your actions

In the Actions section, set your action and values to trigger customized flows based on the user's input.

For example:

Too expensive → CTA to a save offer
Not enough content → CTA to the latest content or a save offer
Technical issues → CTA to support

Edit your design

From the Details section, click Edit prompt design to open the prompt customization window.

Customize the title, message, size, and styling to fit your messaging — make sure the message is clear and compelling, and configure the prompt for both Desktop & Mobile.

If you'd like, adjust the prompt's visibility settings in the User Interaction section to show it again after specific button clicks within your guide.

In the Form section, configure the form to show and hide your survey options — make sure each value matches the corresponding action on the Details screen.

Repeat steps 6, 8, and 9 for additional prompts

Additional prompts might present the actions tied to a user's survey answer — for example, selecting "Too expensive" could surface a follow-up "Price - Save offer" prompt that needs its own design and configuration. Be sure to set criteria for when the guide should continue or exit, if needed.

Preview, test, and launch

After customizing your prompt, click Live Preview to see how the design appears on your site. Live Preview doesn't test the actual flows.

Test the flow on Live: add your own user ID to the Test Users segment under Settings > Users > Test Users.

Add Test Users to the guide: in the Cancel Survey guide, add Test Users as the segment so only test users see the prompt.

Reset clicks during testing: if you need to relaunch the guide while testing, reset the user's clicks under Settings > Users > Test Users > Reset Clicks.

Use the built-in preview tool: alternatively, use the Preview Tool in the Live Preview section and set the user ID to the one you want to test.

Once you're satisfied with your flow, remember to update your segments to target live users instead of test users, then set your guide's status to Live.

Example

Estimate your savings

Every churn is lost revenue — and this flow can help you get it back.

Losing users isn't just a number, it's a direct hit to your bottom line. If you're losing 1,000 users a month at $10 each, that's $10,000 in lost revenue every month.

Recovering even a fraction of that can make a real difference to your business. By proactively re-engaging users, you can recover meaningful revenue and build a more sustainable subscriber base.

Want to see how you could turn churned users into recovered revenue?

Book a quick demo →

Cancel save