How to manage membership cancellation reasons

Summary

You can now create and manage your own membership cancellation reasons in Flow, with separate lists for members cancelling online and staff cancelling at the desk.

✍️ Write reasons in your own words, without asking OpenPlay.

🔀 Choose whether each reason is offered online, offline or both.

📊 Give each reason a reporting category, so cancellations can be grouped in reports.

💬 Ask for, or require, a comment when a reason is chosen.

🗄️ Delete a reason that has never been used, or archive one that has. Cancellations already recorded keep their reason.

Your existing reasons have been moved across, so your current lists are unchanged.

Before you start

Staff need the Manage cancellation reasons permission in the Memberships module of their user role. It is off by default. See How to create a User Role.

Step-by-Step Guide

1. Open the cancellation reasons

1. From the Home page, go to Memberships.
2. Under Freezes & cancellations, click Membership cancellation reasons.

The page has three tabs:

• Online: reasons shown to members cancelling on your website.
• Offline: reasons shown to your staff cancelling at the desk, including bulk cancellations.
• Archived: reasons no longer offered.

Each reason shows where it is offered, for example, offered online and offline. Reasons are listed alphabetically, 20 per page, and appear in the same order to members and staff.

2. Create a reason

1. Click Create a new reason.
2. Under Reason shown, enter the wording members and staff will see, for example, Moving away.
3. Under Where should it be offered?, tick Online, Offline or both.
4. Choose a Reporting category. Members and staff only see the reason name; the category groups cancellations in reports.
5. Optionally, tick Ask for a comment to show a comment box when this reason is chosen. To make the comment compulsory, also tick Require a comment.
6. Under Check the spelling, check the wording shown back to you and confirm it.
7. Click Create reason. It is offered straight away.

Important: the wording cannot be changed once the reason has been used. To correct it later, archive the reason and create a new one.

The reporting categories are: Cost & affordability, Usage & goals, Schedule & access, Facility & programming, Service & experience, Personal & life, Alternatives, Membership change, Operational and Other.

3. Edit a reason

1. Click the Edit (pencil) icon on the reason.
2. Change the Reporting category, Ask for a comment or Require a comment, and click Save changes.

The wording cannot be edited. The reporting category cannot be changed once a cancellation has used the reason.

4. Delete a reason that has never been used

1. Click the Delete permanently (bin) icon on the reason.
2. Confirm by clicking Delete permanently.

The reason is removed from every list straight away. Deleting cannot be undone. The delete icon only appears on reasons no cancellation has used.

5. Archive a reason that has been used

1. Click the Archive icon on the reason.
2. Under Where should it stop being offered?, tick Online, Offline or both.
3. Click Archive reason.

• If you stop offering it on one channel only, it stays in your list on the other.
• If you stop offering it everywhere, it moves to the Archived tab.
• Cancellations already recorded keep the reason, so your reporting does not change.

6. Restore an archived reason

1. On the Archived tab, click the Restore icon on the reason.
2. Choose where it should be offered again and click Restore reason.

What members and staff see

• Online: a member cancelling on your website chooses a reason from your Online list.
• Offline: staff cancelling a membership, or bulk cancelling memberships, choose from your Offline list.
• If the reason asks for a comment, a comment box appears. If it requires one, the cancellation cannot be completed until a comment is entered.

A member cancelling in My Account:

Choosing a reason	Optional comment	Required comment

Troubleshooting

I can't see Membership cancellation reasons.
Your user role needs the Manage cancellation reasons permission in Memberships.

There is no delete icon on a reason.
The reason has been used on a cancellation, so it can only be archived.

I can't delete or archive a reason.
At least one reason must always be offered, so the last one cannot be removed.

I made a typo in a reason.
If it hasn't been used, delete it and create it again. If it has been used, archive it and create a new one with the right wording.

I can't create a reason with the same name as another.
Each reason name must be unique, including archived reasons. Restore the archived reason instead.

Related articles

• How to Cancel a Customer's Membership online and at the Front of House (FOH)
• How to Bulk Cancel Memberships?