Cancellation: Processing Church Cancellation Requests & Retention Workflow

Phase 1: Entry Points & Initialization

There are two ways a cancellation request begins. Regardless of how we learn about their request, always process the cancellation in Spiffy first so they do not accidentally get rebilled.

⚠️ Note: If they are Coaching or Starter members, please skip this section and proceed to the Coaching/Starter section.

First, Update the Subscription in Spiffy:

Push the Billing Date: Move the next billing date out by three months to give the retention team adequate time to reach out. Select the option to update/change the payment date.
Set to "Cancelling": Click Cancel, then select End of cycle. This ensures the account remains active during the 3-month retention runway and does not prematurely terminate.

Next, Identify the Entry Point:

Entry A: Email Request (The church emails or contacts us directly)
- Reply to the member acknowledging the request and ask them to complete the Membership Adjustment Form.
  - If in Help Scout, use the Saved Reply: !!Grow Cancel Reply IF No Form
Entry B: Direct Adjustment Form Submission
- This arrives automatically via email once the member fills out the form.

Phase 2: The Cancel Inspection

Open the Pre-Cancellation Form in an incognito/private browser window to avoid tracking issues.
- Note: Submitting this form automatically notifies Amy to pause active setup work so resources aren't wasted.
  
  Open three windows/tabs: the Contact Record, the Church Record, and the Church Sub-Account.
  
  Locate & Verify the Accounts:
- Contact: Search the customer's name in Smartlists. Verify it's the correct record.
- Church: Use the contact's Business Name to search in Churches.
- Sub-Account: Search for the Business Name in sub-accounts. Go to Settings > My Staff to verify the associated contacts and ensure it's the correct church.
  
  Format the Sub-Account: Update the sub-account name to the Church Name - City - State Abbr. format. (You will copy and paste this exact string into the "Church Name - City - State" field on the Pre-Cancellation Form).
  
  Gather Data for the Form:
- Customer Info: Use the name and email of the person who requested the cancellation. (You can add the primary billing contact's email in the final notes if different).
- True Start Date: Review billing history. Migrated accounts may display a "ghost transaction"—use your best judgment based on historical evidence in Chargedesk (which has the most accurate history).
- Pricing: Confirm the current monthly price point.
- Account Rep: Look for an assigned rep at both the contact and church level. If none, mark N/A.
- FB Ads: Log into business.facebook.com and use the Leadsie information from the church profile to locate their ad account. Provide a brief overview of campaign performance.
- Google Ads (GG): Check the sub-account dashboard for GG reporting. If missing, log into google@churchfuel.com at ads.google.com, locate their GG ID from the Church/Contact record, and verify actual leads vs. test leads in their Connections Pipeline.
Submit Form: Choose Retain Attempt (unless the church is actively closing down), leave "Failed Payment?" unchecked, and paste any email context (if entry A) into the Cancellation Notes.

Phase 3: Retention and Decision Making

We view cancellations as an opportunity for conversation; roughly 95% of members are considered "retainable."

Submitting the Pre-Cancellation form automatically places the member into the Retention Call Sequence, alerting Nathan to reach out.
- Scenario A: Member Retained
  - If Nathan saves the account, the workflow stops. Amy is notified to resume setup, and Cheri is notified to assign an account rep. There is a potential Cancel Rescue task assigned to success.
- Scenario B: Not Retainable
  - If the member still wishes to cancel, the opportunity is moved to "Not Retainable" in the pipeline, triggering final off-boarding.

Phase 4: Final Offboarding

Moving the card to the final cancellation stage automatically generates tasks for the respective teams:

Google Team: Begin the Google Ads offboarding workflow.
Facebook Team: [Insert link to FB Offboarding Guide here]
Success Team: Complete the cancellation of the church in spiffy (Cancel Immediately) and delete the sub-account following the Sub-Account Deletion Guide.

Processing Coaching/Starter Cancel Requests

Update the Subscription in Spiffy
- Set to "Cancelling": Locate the customer's subscription in Spiffy. Click Cancel, then select End of cycle so the account remains active until their paid period concludes.
  - Click Cancel Subscription

Determine Entry Point

If Entry A (Email Request): Reply to the member acknowledging the request and ask if they're willing to share any feedback
1. If in Help Scout, use the Saved Reply: !!Cancel Confirmation - Coaching or Starter
If Entry B (Direct Adjustment Form Submission):

Change the HelpScout Ticket Recipient: Update the customer's email address on the ticket to the actual member's email address. (Note: Adjustment forms arrive via success@ , so failing to change this will cause a reply loop).
Send the Confirmation Reply: Send the final acknowledgment reply to the member.
- If in Help Scout, use the Saved Reply: !!Cancel Confirmation - Coaching or Starter
  - If they already answered the questions about why they're cancelling in the form, please remove the paragraph asking for feedback.
Because the adjustment form automatically generates a card in GoHighLevel, you must manually update it to ensure clean tracking:

Navigate to Opportunities > Cancellations.
Locate the member's card under the second column.
Update the Deal Title: Edit the title to include their specific level of membership in ALL CAPS (e.g., Customer Name | COACHING or Customer Name | STARTER ).
Update the Status: Change the pipeline opportunity status to Abandoned. (This separates Grow cancellation data from standard Coaching/Starter requests).

c. If Entry C (Live Support sign up Form):

Open Help Scout, use the Saved Reply: !!Cancel Confirmation - Coaching or Starter