Glossary
Churn and retention glossary
Plain-English definitions of the terms behind subscription churn and recovery, from dunning and decline codes to cancel flows and retention offers.
- Dunning
- The process of recovering a failed subscription payment by retrying the charge and prompting the customer to update their card.
- Involuntary churn
- Customers lost not because they decided to leave, but because a payment failed and was never recovered.
- Voluntary churn
- Customers who actively cancel or choose not to renew, usually because of price, missing features, or a change in their needs.
- Cancel flow
- The screens shown when a customer clicks cancel, designed to understand why they are leaving and offer a relevant alternative.
- Card updater
- A service that automatically refreshes stored card details when a card is replaced or reissued.
- Smart retries
- Automatically retrying a failed charge at times and intervals chosen to maximise the chance it succeeds.
- Decline code
- The reason a card issuer gives when a charge is declined, such as insufficient funds, expired card, or stolen card.
- Dunning email
- A message sent after a payment fails, prompting the customer to update their payment method.
- Retention offer
- An incentive shown during a cancel flow to keep a customer, such as a discount, a pause, or a downgrade.
- Recovery rate
- The share of failed payments that are eventually recovered, usually within a set window such as 30 days.
- Churn rate
- The percentage of customers or revenue lost over a period, split into voluntary and involuntary churn.
- Monthly recurring revenue (MRR)
- The predictable monthly revenue from active subscriptions, and the base that churn erodes.
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