What to ask in a user offboarding flow

User offboarding is the cancellation flow of a subscription product: the screens and emails a customer sees when they leave, designed to learn why they are going and, where it fits, to offer something that keeps them. It is cheap to build and only pays off if someone reads the answers.

How to do it

1. Add one required question to the cancel flow, with a short list of reasons and an "Other" box. A common starting set is: too expensive, not working for me, switching to another product, no longer need it, other. Churnkey's guide on cancellation flows lists these same options.
2. Keep it to one screen. The goal is a count by reason, not an essay. Add a free-text field so people can say more if they want.
3. Store the answer on the customer record in your database or CRM, with the date and plan. If you bill through Stripe, the customer portal can capture a cancellation reason when someone cancels there, and it is on by default.
4. Match an offer to the reason, but only where it is honest. Churnkey suggests a longer-term discount for price, a free month plus a call with support for "not working", and a pause for "no longer need". Stripe's portal supports retention coupons shown before cancelling, which is off until you enable it.
5. Let people leave. The final step must be a clear confirm button, with the cancellation effective as stated (see below).
6. Read the answers monthly. Tag each reason, count them, and pick the biggest one to act on. If "not working" is first, look at onboarding. If "too expensive" is first, look at who is cancelling and on which plan.
7. Follow up with leavers by email a week later with a single question: "What would have made you stay?" Even a few replies can explain more than the survey.

Examples

Stripe customer portal. Stripe's docs list "Cancellation reason" as a setting that captures a reason when a customer cancels in the portal (on by default), and "Retention coupons" that offer a coupon before they cancel (off by default). It is the fastest way to start if you already bill with Stripe.

Churnkey's suggested flow. Churnkey, a company that sells cancellation-flow software, published a guide that pairs each reason with an offer. "Doesn't fit my budget" gets a long-term discount code. "The product wasn't working for me" gets a free month and a connection to customer support. "Switching to another product" gets a discount code by email. "No longer have a need" gets a multi-month pause. It is a vendor's guide, so treat it as a template to adapt.

When it backfires

• Making cancelling hard. In the US, the Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act requires online sellers with recurring charges to provide "simple mechanisms for a consumer to stop recurring charges". Hiding the cancel button, forcing a phone call or looping people through offers can be treated as a violation. The FTC opened comment in March 2026 on whether to amend its Negative Option Rule, so the details are moving. This is not legal advice.
• Survey fatigue. Five required questions get nonsense answers. One question is enough.
• Discounts as a habit. If every cancel click gets 50% off, customers learn to click cancel. Offer only what the reason calls for.
• Reading the wrong signal. What people say and what they did can differ. Cross-check the stated reason against usage data.
• Collecting and ignoring. If no one reads the answers, the flow is a cost with no benefit.

Questions people ask

What is user offboarding? The process a customer goes through when they stop using or paying for your product, including the survey, any retention offer, data export and a confirmation.

What is customer offboarding in SaaS? The same flow from the account side: cancelling billing, exporting data, closing access, and keeping the door open to return. For B2B tools it also covers removing team members.

How do I reduce churn once I know the reasons? Pick the largest reason and fix its cause. Offers can save some customers, but they do not change why people leave.

Sources

• Churnkey: what a proper offboarding cancellation flow looks like, read Oct 8, 2026
• Stripe docs: configure the customer portal, read Oct 8, 2026
• 15 U.S. Code 8403 (ROSCA), read Oct 8, 2026
• FTC: Negative Option Rule page, read Oct 8, 2026