GLOSSARY · CANCELLATIONS AND WIN-BACK
Retention offer
A retention offer is an incentive shown to a subscriber who is cancelling, such as a discount, a pause or a cheaper plan, chosen to match their reason.
Also called Save offer · Cancellation offer · Deflection offer
Retention offers appear inside a cancel flow, usually after the customer says why they are leaving. The usual options are a temporary discount, a pause, a downgrade to a smaller plan, an extended trial or help from the team.
The offer works best when it answers the reason: a pause for someone who is not using the product this month, a cheaper plan for a budget issue, help for a setup problem. A discount offered to everyone teaches customers to threaten to cancel. Stripe’s retention rules, for example, can target offers by cancellation reason, tenure and lifetime value.
An offer must never block cancellation. The customer should be able to decline it in one click and finish cancelling, which several consumer protection laws require. Track saves over time: a customer kept for one month by a discount who then leaves was not really retained.
Related terms
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Sources
- Stripe Docs: Retention rules docs.stripe.com
- Stripe Docs: Pause payment collection docs.stripe.com