Churn interview questions: why customers really leave
When to use this
Within a few weeks of cancellation, while the memory is fresh. People who left are the most honest source you have, and the least likely to book a call. A short text interview they can do on their phone gets answers a survey never will.
The questions
- What was going on when you first signed up? Anchors the story at the start, not the end.
- What did you hope it would do for you? The gap between this and reality is the churn reason.
- Walk me through the last week you used it. What they did tells you what they valued.
- What changed? Budget, team, priorities, a competitor. Let them say it.
- Was there a specific moment you decided to stop? Often there is one, and it is rarely the feature you expect.
- What are you doing instead now? Sometimes the answer is nothing, which is its own finding.
- What did we do well? Keeps the conversation honest and tells you what to protect.
- If one thing had been different, would you have stayed? Listen for whether the answer is a fix or a fit problem.
- Would you come back, and under what conditions? Separates the winnable from the gone.
- Anything I should have asked?
What not to ask
- "Was it the price?" You have named the answer for them.
- Anything that sounds like a win-back offer. This is research, not retention.
Run this interview
Ten Interviews can run these conversations for you. Send one link to everyone who cancelled this quarter; each gets a ten-minute interview with an AI that follows up; you get the transcripts and the themes across them. The first three are free.