The survey is the first thing a customer sees when they try to cancel. It asks them why they're leaving and lets them pick a reason from a short list. Those answers tell you what's driving churn, and they let you respond differently depending on the reason chosen. This article walks you through adding cancel reasons, asking follow-up questions, randomizing the order, and tailoring offers to specific reasons.
Where to find it
Open Flows, then Configure, and select the flow you want to edit (or create a new one). Inside the flow builder, open the Steps area and expand the Survey step. Every flow includes a survey step by default.
Step 1: Set the headline and subtext
At the top of the survey step you can edit two pieces of text:
Headline — the main question your customer reads, for example "Before you go…". Up to 60 characters.
Subtext — an optional supporting line beneath the headline. Up to 120 characters.
A live character counter sits next to each field so you can keep your wording tight.
Step 2: Add your cancel reasons
Under Cancel reasons you build the list of options your customer chooses from. Each reason has a Reason label — the text the customer sees, such as "It's too expensive" or "Missing a feature I need".
Click Add reason to insert a new row.
Type the label into the row's text field.
To remove a reason, click the × button at the end of its row.
A counter shows how many reasons you've added out of the maximum. You can have between 1 and 6 reasons. Once you reach six, the Add reason control is disabled and shows "Maximum 6 reasons reached". You can't delete the last remaining reason, so the survey always has at least one option.
Step 3: Ask a follow-up question (optional)
Each reason can have its own follow-up question — a second prompt shown only to customers who pick that reason. To turn it on, click the Follow-up button next to the reason.
When you enable a follow-up, churn.io suggests a relevant question based on the reason's wording (for example, picking a price-related reason suggests "What price point would feel right for you?"). You can keep the suggestion or replace it with your own text in the Ask a follow-up question… field.
You then choose a Response type for how the customer answers:
Freeform — the customer types an open-ended answer in their own words.
Structured — the customer picks from a fixed set of answer options you define.
Freeform + Structured — the customer can pick an option and add their own comment.
When you choose Structured or Freeform + Structured, churn.io pre-fills a starter set of answer options that match the reason. Click Configure responses to open the editor, where you can:
Edit the text of each option.
Click Add option to add another (up to 8 options).
Remove an option with the × button (a minimum of 2 options is kept).
Click Save to apply your options. Empty options are dropped automatically.
Step 4: Randomize the order (optional)
Turn on Randomize order to shuffle the reason order for each customer. This reduces bias from people simply picking the first option they see, giving you more reliable data on the true reasons behind cancellations. Leave it off if you want the reasons to always appear in the order you arranged them.
Tailor offers to a specific reason
By default, every customer who continues past the survey sees the same set of retention offers (configured under the Default offers tab of the Offer step). You can also attach offers to individual reasons so that what a customer is offered depends on why they're leaving.
Open the Offer step and switch to the Survey offers tab. There you can expand any reason and add offers that apply only to customers who selected that reason — for example, a discount for "It's too expensive" or a pause option for "I'm not using it enough". A badge shows how many reasons have their own custom offers.
⚠️ Save your changes
Survey edits aren't applied to your live experience until you save the flow. Use the preview panel to check the wording, then save before closing the builder. If the flow is live, your updated survey takes effect for new cancellation attempts.
What your customers see
When a cancellation begins, your customer is shown the headline, optional subtext, and the list of reasons. They select the reason that fits best. If that reason has a follow-up question, it appears next so they can give more detail. Their reason and any follow-up answer are recorded, so you can review them in your analytics and understand exactly what's driving cancellations.