What Is a Cancellation Flow?
A Cancellation Flow is the experience a customer sees when they try to cancel a subscription from their customer portal. Instead of cancelling immediately, the customer is shown the reasons you have configured. Based on which reason they pick, the flow can show a tailored retention offer (called a treatment) to encourage them to stay.
Benefits:
Retain customers with relevant, helpful offers right at the moment of cancellation
Collect data on why customers cancel
How It Works
The customer clicks Cancel Subscription in their portal.
Your cancellation message is shown (e.g. "We're sorry to see you go").
The customer selects one of the reasons you have configured.
If that reason is linked to a treatment, the matching retention offer is shown. If it is not linked to a treatment, the customer goes straight to the final confirmation step.
The customer either accepts the offer (cancellation is prevented) or continues to cancel.
Key Components
Cancellation Reasons
The list of reasons your customers can pick from. You can write any labels that match your business — for example:
Too expensive
Not using the product
Shipping delays
Taking a break
You can add, edit, or remove reasons at any time. A flow can have up to 20 reasons.
Any reason can also be configured as an Other reason — a free-text field the customer fills in themselves. Each flow supports one such free-text reason.
Treatments
A treatment is a retention offer shown after the customer picks a reason. If the customer accepts a treatment, the cancellation is prevented and the chosen action is applied to their subscription.
Available treatment types:
Skip next order — skip the customer's next 1, 2, or 3 upcoming orders.
Delay billing — push the next billing date out so the customer pauses without cancelling.
Treatments are grouped into a treatment box that you connect to a reason. A treatment box has its own title and description — this is the copy the customer reads on the offer card. Each box can contain up to 5 treatments; if you add more than one, the customer is shown them as alternative offers ("OR" branches).
A reason can be left without a treatment box — in that case, picking it goes straight to cancellation confirmation.
Why Use a Cancellation Flow?
1. Reduce churn
Show helpful offers right when customers are considering cancelling. Many cancellations are temporary problems — too many items this month, a tight budget — that a skip or a delay can solve.
Result: more subscribers retained.
2. Gain insights
Track which reasons are picked most often to:
Improve your product or service
Adjust pricing, logistics, or shipping cadence
Tailor future offers and reasons
Result: smarter business decisions.
How to Set Up a Cancellation Flow
The cancellation flow is configured from the Retention page in your Subi dashboard, using a visual flow builder.
Step 1: Open the flow builder
Open Retention from the left side menu in your Subi dashboard.
On the Cancellation flow card, click Edit flow (or Set up, if you have not built a flow yet).
The flow builder opens with three areas on screen: an Add to flow palette on the left (with Reason and Treatment cards you can drag onto the canvas), the visual canvas in the middle, and a details panel on the right that appears when you click Edit on any step.
Step 2: Edit the initial cancellation message
Click Edit on the first step in the canvas. In the right-side panel, set the title and description that customers see at the top of the cancellation flow. Examples:
"We're sorry to see you go — can you tell us why?"
"Before you cancel, let us try to help."
Step 3: Add cancellation reasons
From the left palette, drag Reason onto the canvas. Repeat for each reason you want to offer.
Click Edit on a Reason node. In the right-side panel, type the Label the customer will see (e.g. "Too expensive").
To make a free-text "Other" reason, turn on the Let customer type toggle on that Reason. Only one Reason per flow can have this turned on.
A flow can have up to 20 reasons.
Step 4: Add treatments (recommended)
From the left palette, drag Treatment onto the canvas to add a treatment box.
Connect a Reason to the Treatment box by dragging from the Reason's right-side handle to the Treatment box.
Click Edit on the Treatment box. In the right-side panel, enter the Description customers will read on the offer card, then choose the Treatment type — Skip next order or Delay billing — and configure its details.
To offer more than one option on the same card, click + Add Alternative Option and configure the next treatment. Each box can contain up to 5 alternatives.
A reason without a connected treatment box goes straight to the cancellation confirmation.
Step 5: Turn on the flow
Review your reasons and treatments on the canvas.
Click Turn on flow at the top right of the builder.
The flow will then appear automatically the next time a customer tries to cancel a subscription from their portal. You can turn the flow off at any time from More actions at the top right.
Best Practices
Keep reasons short and easy to scan.
Match treatments closely to reasons:
"Taking a break" → Skip next order
"I have too much product" → Delay billing
Offer more than one treatment per reason when it makes sense, so customers can pick the option that works best for them.
Use friendly, non-pushy messaging in the treatment box description — you are trying to help, not guilt the customer into staying.
Summary
A cancellation flow:
Asks customers why they are cancelling (Reasons)
Offers personalised alternatives such as skipping the next order or delaying billing (Treatments)
Collects churn insights so you can improve your service
Set up properly, it is a powerful tool to grow and retain your subscriber base.