Involuntary churn

What is involuntary churn?

Involuntary churn refers to the loss of a customer due to payment failures or technical issues, not because they chose to cancel. It’s common in subscription businesses when a customer’s credit card expires, is declined, or encounters processing errors, leading to an unintended cancellation of their subscription.

Why does involuntary churn happen?

Involuntary churn typically occurs when payments can’t be processed successfully. This may be due to expired credit cards, insufficient funds, bank restrictions, or failed billing attempts. Since the customer didn’t intend to cancel, this type of churn is often preventable.

How is involuntary churn different from voluntary churn?

While voluntary churn happens when customers actively choose to cancel a service (because of price, experience, or lack of need), involuntary churn happens passively, without their decision. It’s a backend issue, not a customer sentiment issue.

Example: Unintentional subscription cancellation

A customer’s credit card on file expires, and the billing system fails to charge them for a subscription renewal. Since no action is taken, the system cancels their subscription, this is involuntary churn.

Driftcharge Tip

To reduce involuntary churn, set up automatic payment retries, use dunning tools to notify customers of failed payments, and remind them to update payment details before expiration.

Ganesh Pawar

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Ganesh Pawar is the founder of Driftcharge, a subscription management app designed to help Shopify merchants streamline and scale their subscription businesses. With a deep focus on solving real-world pain points—like legacy account page support, flexible subscription options, and advanced analytics—Ganesh is passionate about building tools that drive growth and retention.