(SaaS Companies) Tracking multiple signups+cancels from the same person

[cpeppas]

It is common that a customer will sign up -> stay for a period of time -> cancel... and then come back later -> cancel... repeating the process (again).

How are you guys differentiating these repeat signups/cancels from the "normal" customers who sign up and cancel one time?

The reason I care to distinguish these at all: we are using a Ticket-based pipeline/workflow to manage users who have activated/onboarded vs those who have not. There is automated outreach that happens for those who need help with onboarding.

Tricky part is, a returning customer (who previously cancelled in the past) will already have an 'Activation ticket 'that may or may not have data from before. This data is now irrelevant as they need to 'onboard' all over again.

Wanted to check here for best practices or suggestions. 

My thoughts so far:

• Perhaps I should "archive" the old Activation ticket and creating a new one with naming convention like "2nd signup: Activation" (3rd signup, 4th signup, etc)
• Maybe there is something already within the context of Contact LifeCycle-Stage that can handle this easier? i.e. add/use the life-cycle stages 'Cancelled'  + 'Returning Customer' and flip-flop back and forth?
• Add a custom property to Contact i.e. "# of times canceled" that iterates +1 every time the user cancels?

[kirstenmhb]

Following this topic as it's also something that affects my company 🙂 

[danmoyle · Accepted solution]

@cpeppas in thinking through this, your idea on the custom property that adds each time they cancel seems like the best solution. 

I don't see lifecycle stage working, as it's a linear path and going back isn't part of its functionality. While contacts can go back and forth, no automation or reporting happens in that back and forth. 

You could also look at number of form submissions on your free trial form, and if it's more than three for example, you know they've signed up and canceled more than once or twice. 

That's my two cents. 🙂

[kvlschaefer]

Hi @cpeppas,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community and for sharing your thoughts with us! 

This is a great discussion starter.

Let's invite our subject matter experts to this conversation.

Hi @MandyDROS, @Jnix284, @jolle - Hope you had a great weekend! 🙂 Do you have any thoughts or suggestions for @cpeppas?

Thank you! 

Best,

Kristen

[cpeppas]

Kristen, did I complicate things with this question?