Cancellation: Downgrade a Customer to New Starter Plan

Overview & Purpose

This SOP walks through moving an existing customer down to the New Starter plan without breaking their billing cycle, then flags the account for paid ad removal. Owned by billing/account management. Use it any time a customer requests a downgrade to New Starter.

Prerequisites & Requirements

Before starting, confirm you have:

  • Admin access to the billing/subscription panel (based on the terminology in the source recording, this looks like GoHighLevel's subscriptions and payments module, but confirm the exact system name and login before publishing this doc more broadly).
  • The customer's account pulled up, with their current plan and next billing date visible.
  • Knowledge of the customer's original billing date, so it can be restored after the new order is created.

Step-by-Step Procedure

  1. Cancel the current subscription immediately.

    Open the customer's current subscription and choose Cancel. Select Immediate cancellation, not end-of-cycle. Add a note in the cancellation reason field such as "Downgrading to New Starter." Skip any automations that aren't needed for this workflow.

  2. Confirm the cancellation processed.

    Submit the cancellation and wait for the system to finish processing before moving on. Once it's done, return to the customer's record to start the replacement order.

  3. Create the new order for New Starter.

    Open New Order on the customer's account and select the correct product, Starter New. Search for the customer by name again so their profile repopulates automatically, and double-check their info is correct before continuing.

  4. Apply the existing payment method and the free first month.

    Choose the customer's existing payment method. Confirm the order includes the intended promo (typically one free month) and that the first billing cycle shows as $0. Send the order confirmation so the customer gets an email.

  5. Reset the billing date to match the old subscription.

    Check the new next-billing date. If it doesn't match the customer's original cycle, update it manually so they're not charged early or late. Add a note such as "Updating billing to match previous subscription," and enable the change-payment-date option if the system requires it.

  6. Verify the discount and next charge date.

    Confirm the Starter discount carried over correctly and that the customer's next charge date lines up with the intended billing schedule before closing out the ticket.

  7. Notify the ads team to pull paid ads.

    Send a follow-up to whoever manages that customer's Facebook and Google ads, asking them to shut both off. Track this as a separate to-do if it can't be closed out in the same sitting as the billing update. Flagging this one: the source recording says "notify the Churchfield team," which reads as the name of the specific customer used in the demo, not a standing internal team. Confirm who the actual escalation contact is for ad removal (internal ad ops? the church's own marketing contact?) before this becomes a repeatable step.

Edge Cases & Troubleshooting

  • Customer's next billing date is very close to today: decide whether to charge now or push the date, per current company policy, before finalizing.
  • New order doesn't show the promo applied: don't send the confirmation yet, fix the discount first, an unearned "confirmed" email to the customer is worse than a short delay.
  • Cancellation doesn't fully process before you try to open the new order: wait it out. Starting the new order too early is the most common way this goes sideways.

Customer Communication / Scripting

Order confirmation email is auto-sent by the system in Step 4, no manual copy needed. If a customer reaches out asking why their plan or billing date changed, keep it simple: their subscription has been updated to New Starter, their promo is applied, and their next charge date is unchanged from before.

Escalation Path

If the cancellation or new order fails to process, or the discount doesn't move over correctly, escalate to [confirm: Tier 2 / billing lead] rather than manually adjusting charges.

Internal Tags & Related Docs

Tags: billing, downgrade, subscriptions, New Starter, ad removal. Related: link this to whatever SOP already covers plan upgrades, so reps can find both directions of a plan change from one search.

Original Loom for reference: https://loom.com/share/03958d5f710846d5ac918c5c545f23e8

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