Churn prevention: cancellation and pause flows

Intercept subscription cancellations and pauses with a guided flow that captures why customers are leaving and offers a pause instead — so you keep more subscribers.

Churn Prevention turns a one-click cancellation into a short, guided flow.

Instead of a plain "are you sure?" confirmation, a customer who tries to cancel is asked why they're leaving and then offered the chance to pause instead. You keep more subscribers, and you learn why the rest are going.

What this setting does

There are two independent flows:

• Cancellation flow — runs when a customer clicks Cancel subscription. It captures a reason, optionally offers a pause, then confirms.

• Pause flow — runs when a customer clicks Pause subscription directly. It shows a short retention prompt, then asks how long to pause for.

Before you start

• Both flows are off by default.

• While a flow is off, the customer sees the same simple confirmation dialog as before.

• If you plan to offer a pause during cancelling, set up the Pause flow first.

Where to find it

In Roadmap, open Subscriptions → Churn Prevention.

The Churn Prevention page has four tabs:

• Overview — performance metrics and a map of each active flow.

• Cancellation flow — the reason survey, pause offer, and tagging settings.

• Pause flow — pause duration options and the Pause indefinitely choice.

• Activity — a log of every cancel, pause, and resume event.

Read your churn at a glance

The Overview tab summarizes the last 30 days. It shows total Cancellations, total Pauses, your Save rate, the Top cancellation reason, and Average pause duration.

Below the metrics, each flow is shown as a step-by-step diagram with an Active or Inactive status. You can confirm at a glance what your customers are currently being shown.

Save rate answers one question: of the customers who started cancelling, how many chose to pause instead? A customer who clicks Pause subscription directly was never trying to cancel, so they don't count toward your save rate.

Set up the cancellation flow

Open the Cancellation flow tab. The How it works panel summarizes the customer experience. The settings below control it.

1

Enable the cancellation flow

Turn on Enable cancellation flow to show the reason survey and pause offer when a customer tries to cancel.

2

Decide whether to offer a pause

Turn on Offer pause instead of cancel to add a pause step after the reason survey.

The pause uses the duration options you set on the Pause flow tab.

The duration options offered here come from the Pause flow tab. If that flow isn't set up, customers won't see duration choices.

3

Set the tag prefix

When a customer cancels with a reason, Roadmap tags their Shopify customer record so you can segment churned customers.

The Tag prefix is the start of that tag — cancelled: by default — and produces tags like cancelled:too-expensive.

Customise the cancellation reasons

The Cancellation Reasons card controls the dropdown a customer picks from.

Each reason has a display label, which is what the customer reads, and a slug, which is what is used in the tag.

• Click Add reason to add a new option.

• Drag the handle to reorder reasons. Customers see the same order.

• Include an Other reason so customers can enter free text.

Roadmap ships with a set of default reasons. If you clear the list entirely, the defaults are used so customers always have something to choose from.

Set up the pause flow

Open the Pause flow tab. These settings control what happens when a customer pauses, both from the direct Pause subscription button and from the pause offer in the cancellation flow.

1

Enable the pause flow

Turn on Enable pause flow to ask customers to choose a pause duration instead of pausing indefinitely.

Subscriptions automatically resume after the selected period.

2

Configure the duration options

Under Pause Duration Options, add the lengths customers can choose from.

The defaults are 2, 4, 6, and 8 weeks. For each option you set a label, a number, and a time unit.

• Click Add duration to add an option.

• Use the checkbox to enable or disable an option without deleting it.

• Drag the handle to reorder options. Customers see the same order.

3

Decide whether to allow an indefinite pause

Turn on Include "Pause indefinitely" option to let customers pause with no end date.

An indefinitely paused subscription won't resume on its own. The customer has to reactivate it.

What the customer sees

Cancelling

When the cancellation flow is on, clicking Cancel subscription opens a multi-step dialog instead of a simple confirmation.

First, the customer picks a reason. Continue stays disabled until they choose one. Selecting Other reveals a free-text box.

If you've enabled the pause offer, they're then asked whether they'd like to pause instead of canceling.

If they choose to pause and you've configured duration options, they pick how long. The dialog shows the exact date the subscription will resume.

If they decline the pause, a final confirmation completes the cancellation.

Pausing directly

When the pause flow is on, clicking Pause subscription asks the customer to choose a duration before the pause is applied.

The options are the ones you configured, plus Pause indefinitely if you enabled it.

After a pause

Once paused with a duration, the customer's subscription card shows a Paused until [date] badge and tells them when the subscription will be processed next.

The badge updates immediately. No page refresh is needed.

How timed pauses resume

When a customer pauses for a set duration, Roadmap automatically reactivates the subscription at the end of that period.

A few things worth knowing:

• The resume date is the next billing date. When the subscription resumes, the first charge happens on that date.

• Resumes are processed once a day. A subscription resumes on, or within about a day of, its scheduled date.

• If a customer chose a timed pause, they also enter the upcoming subscription flow 3 days before that resume date.

• Indefinite pauses don't resume on their own.

• Manual changes win. If a customer reactivates early, or pauses again before the first pause ends, only the latest action applies.

For the difference between pausing, canceling, and reactivating in general, see Pausing, canceling, and reactivating subscriptions.

Tags and tracking when a customer cancels

Every completed cancellation that includes a reason does three things:

1. Tags the customer. A Shopify customer tag in the form {prefix}{reason-slug} is added — for example cancelled:too-expensive.

2. Sends the reason to Klaviyo. The cancellation reason, its label, and any free text entered under Other are sent to Klaviyo.

3. Logs the cancellation. The reason, its label, and any free text are recorded on the Churn Prevention Activity tab.

You can review every event — cancellations, pauses, and resumes — on the Activity tab, filtered by type.

Cancellation rows show the reason the customer gave. The contract's own Subscription Activity Timeline separately logs the paused, resumed, or cancelled status change.

Tagging and the Klaviyo event are skipped for imported subscriptions that have no linked customer or email. If Shopify or Klaviyo returns an error, the cancellation still goes through. These steps never block a customer from canceling.

Recommended setup

Churn Prevention works best when both flows are on and your reasons map to actions you can actually take.

A good starting configuration:

• Turn on both flows. The pause offer is your strongest save lever.

• Keep reasons short and specific. Three to six reasons gives you cleaner data than a long list.

• Match pause durations to your billing cadence.

• Decide on indefinite pause deliberately.

• Choose a tag prefix that fits your naming.

• Connect Klaviyo before you launch.

Then watch the Overview tab. Your top cancellation reason usually tells you what to fix next.

Put the churn data to work: tags and Klaviyo flows

Every cancellation and pause produces two things you can act on:

• A Shopify customer tag — who the customer is, for example cancelled:too-expensive.

• A Klaviyo event — what just happened, such as a cancellation or a pause.

Tags answer "who". Events answer "when".

The subscription Klaviyo metrics

Roadmap syncs a set of subscription events to Klaviyo, listed under Klaviyo Flows → Subscriptions.

The two that matter most for churn are Roadmap: Subscription canceled and Roadmap: Subscription paused.

The sync needs your Klaviyo API key saved on this page. After install, run Sync Metrics once so the events appear in Klaviyo before any have fired.

Use the tags for segments and offers

A cancelled:<reason> tag is a standard Shopify customer tag, so anywhere Roadmap reads customer tags can use it:

• Win-back discounts — gate a discount to customers tagged with cancelled:too-expensive. See Use tags for discount eligibility.

• Segmentation — build a Klaviyo segment of customers carrying a cancelled: tag to target them with a win-back campaign.

Build the flows

A few flows pair the events with the reason:

• Win-back on cancel. Trigger a flow on Roadmap: Subscription canceled and branch on the cancellation reason.

• Pre-resume nudge on pause. Trigger on Roadmap: Subscription paused and use it for early pause messaging. For timed pauses, account for the upcoming subscription flow that triggers 3 days before the next billing date.

• Reason-led product fixes. Use the Top cancellation reason on the Overview tab to decide what to improve.

For connecting Klaviyo, see How to integrate Roadmap with Klaviyo. For branching a flow on event properties, the same pattern used in Creating conditional split using loyalty & review properties applies here too.

Things to keep in mind

• Customers can still cancel. Churn prevention is a retention nudge, not a lock.

• Reasons are validated on the server. If an unrecognized reason comes through, it's recorded as Other.

• Free text only sticks to Other.

• Save rate counts cancel-flow pauses only.

• Average pause duration ignores indefinite pauses.

Troubleshooting

Customers do not see pause duration choices

• Turn on Enable pause flow.

• Add at least one enabled duration option.

• If you offer pause during cancelling, configure the Pause flow tab first.

Save rate looks lower than expected

• Save rate only counts customers who started cancelling and then chose to pause.

• Customers who click Pause subscription directly do not count.

• Indefinite pauses do not count toward average pause duration.

A cancellation completes but no tag or Klaviyo data appears

• Imported subscriptions with no linked customer or email skip tagging and Klaviyo events.

• Shopify or Klaviyo errors do not block the cancellation itself.

• Check the Activity tab to confirm the reason was captured.

Frequently asked questions

Can customers still cancel if I turn this on?

Yes. The flow always ends with a way to complete the cancellation.

What happens if a customer types free text for a reason other than Other?

Roadmap keeps free text only when the selected reason is **Other**. Otherwise it is discarded.

What happens if a customer reactivates early or pauses again before the first pause ends?

The latest action wins. The earlier scheduled resume is dropped.

Related guides

• Pausing, canceling, and reactivating subscriptions

• The Subscription Activity Timeline

• Klaviyo win-back flow for cancelled subscriptions

• Klaviyo pre-resume flow for paused subscriptions

• Subscription auto-tagging

• Use tags for discount eligibility

• How to integrate Roadmap with Klaviyo