> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://developer.paddle.com/llms.txt).

# Cancellation Flows

Reduce churn through customer cancellations by integrating an offboarding journey that presents customers with dynamic salvage attempts, as well as capturing cancellation insights for your team.

---

It costs five times more to acquire new customers than to retain existing ones. Cancellation Flows, part of [Paddle Retain](https://developer.paddle.com/concepts/retain/overview.md), presents customers with a dynamic offboarding experience that's designed to save customers and capture valuable insights for your team.

Cancellation Flows is fully customizable, so you can choose the kind of ways you want to rescue customers. Once configured, Cancellation Flows gets to work automatically — no intervention required on your behalf. You can [integrate with Paddle Billing](https://developer.paddle.com/build/retain/set-up-retain-profitwell.md) in a couple of clicks, with no additional scripts required.

{% card-group cols=3 %}
{% card title="salvage rate" stat="25-30%" statColor="blue" %}

Cancellation Flows save over one quarter of customers at risk of churning.

<!-- https://www.paddle.com/blog/reduce-churn -->
{% /card %}

{% card title="cut in ARR churn" stat="5%" statColor="green" %}

Cancellation surveys and offers reduce churn without any intervention.

<!-- https://www.paddle.com/blog/reduce-churn -->
{% /card %}

{% card title="salvage offers" stat="5" statColor="purple" %}

Rescue customers by offering the right salvage option for the right customer.

{% /card %}

{% card title="Salvage customers" %}

Rescue potentially lost revenue by offering to pause, discount, switch plans, or contact your support team.

{% /card %}
{% card title="Get unique insights" %}

Learn why customers want to cancel, so you can make tactical and product changes in the future.

{% /card %}
{% card title="Global compliance" %}

Automatically present compliant cancellation workflows based on customer jurisdiction.

{% /card %}

{% /card-group %}

## How it works

Voluntary churn happens when customers cancel their subscription in your app. Unlike [involuntary churn](https://developer.paddle.com/concepts/retain/payment-recovery-dunning.md), like a problem with a payment method, voluntary churn is active — customers are actively choosing to cancel.

Cancellation Flows, part of Paddle Retain, lets you build custom workflows that are designed to save customers from churning at the point of cancellation. Instead of canceling a subscription immediately, Cancellation Flows presents customers with a simple survey that restates your value proposition and makes customers a dynamic offer to stay.

As well as helping to retain customers in the moment, Cancellation Flows also captures valuable feedback into why customers want to cancel. You can use these insights to diagnose the root causes of churn and make tactical changes to prevent it.

### Dynamic salvage attempts

Cancellation Flows asks customers what they liked about your app and suggests a salvage attempt based on their answer. Depending on the options that a customer chooses, they can:

{% card-group cols=3 %}
{% card variant="ghost" title="Contact support" icon="carbon:chat" %}
Let customers schedule a meeting with your team using [Calendly](https://calendly.com/), or email your support team.
{% /card %}

{% card variant="ghost" title="Switch plan" icon="carbon:repeat" %}
Let customers switch to a different plan, retaining them at a price point that's more affordable.
{% /card %}

{% card variant="ghost" title="Pause subscription" icon="carbon:pause" %}
Let customers pause their subscription, so they can come back in the future.
{% /card %}
{% /card-group %}

If customers don't accept a salvage attempt, you can make a salvage offer — **a temporary discount** to incentivize them to stick around. You can choose what kind of discount you offer, or turn this off if you don't want to offer a discount.

### Automated actions

If you use Paddle Billing, you can plug Cancellation Flows into your frontend to handle the entire cancellation workflow. It automatically takes actions on the related subscription in Paddle Billing for you — including scheduling subscriptions to cancel. There's no need to build logic to handle this yourself.

{% collapsible title="What actions does Retain take in Paddle Billing?" %}

| Salvage attempt        | Action in Paddle Billing                                                                                                                                                                                                                               |
|-----------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| **Switch plan**       | The Price IDs you specified as part of configuration are replaced on the subscription. Changes are prorated and billed immediately—customers are downgraded and receive a credit for any unused time.                                                  |
| **Pause subscription**| Subscription is scheduled to pause at the start of the next billing period.                                                                                                                                                                            |
| **Offer discount**    | A discount is created in Paddle Billing and automatically applied to the subscription.                                                                                                                           |
| **Cancel subscription** | If the subscription is `active`, it's scheduled to cancel at the next billing period. If it's `paused`, it is canceled immediately.                                                                            |

{% /collapsible %}

## Customer experience

Retain uses data from thousands of subscription companies to target the right salvage attempt based on the product and user. In general, a cancellation flow has five steps:

{% journey %}

{% journey-step title="Cancellation reason" %}

We ask a customer why they're canceling. This is useful information for your team, helping you diagnose the root cause of churn through cancellations.

{% /journey-step %}

{% journey-step title="Satisfaction insight" %}

We ask customers what they liked about your product. By honing in on the psychological phenomenon of the nostalgia effect, we tee up each customer to be more willing to stick around and accept a salvage attempt.

{% /journey-step %}

{% journey-step title="Salvage attempt" %}

Based on a customer's responses, we offer them a salvage attempt. We direct them to pause their subscription, switch to a lower cost plan, or contact your team to chat.

If you use [Calendly](https://calendly.com/), Retain can show a meeting scheduler as part of the flow so customers can schedule a call in a couple of clicks.

{% /journey-step %}

{% journey-step title="Salvage offer" %}

If customers don't accept a salvage attempt, we offer them a temporary discount.

You can choose which discount you offer, or turn this off if you don't want to offer a discount.

{% /journey-step %}

{% journey-step title="Feedback and cancel subscription" %}

If customers don't accept a salvage offer, we give them a way to provide feedback and cancel their subscription.

For Paddle Billing platform users, subscriptions are automatically scheduled to cancel. There's no need to handle this yourself.

{% /journey-step %}

{% /journey %}

{% callout type="info" %}
In regions that require one-click cancellation, Cancellation Flows automatically includes a link to cancel the subscription on each page of the flow, making sure you're compliant while also gathering insights and helping to reduce churn.
{% /callout %}